Sermons of Maximus of Turin (Bruni's collection) 99.1–106.1

I had often wished, dearly beloved brothers, to preach the parable of this gospel chapter and to run through the grace of rich Zacchaeus in a speech of plainer eloquence; and also to be more abundant in his praise, since he showed himself generous toward his own salvation. For who would not praise a man who was able to give his riches to himself, and by his lordship over a temporal fortune to acquire everlasting lordship for himself? To give his riches, I say, to himself: for what we have is another's if we do not use it fittingly for salvation; for even what seems yours will not be yours if, when I depart from the world, it is kept in the world without profit to me. I had wished, then, to preach the riches and grace of Zacchaeus, a rich man indeed, and always rich, because he earned to be richer to Christ than to the world, and was wealthier in the substance of faith than in temporal treasure. Zacchaeus, then, is praiseworthy, because the rich are shut out from the glory of the heavenly kingdom, as the Lord says: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." This man hastened to enter the kingdom through his very riches, and to pass with the crooked mass of his limbs along that narrow way and through the eye of the needle; and what was set as an obstacle to ruin for others profited him for salvation. And let it not be thought strange that I have described the misshapen limbs of a camel in a man; for the deformity of the camel in a man is not in foulness of body but of mind, not in sluggishness of bearing but in cowardice of heart. For as the camel is faulty by the unevenness of its limbs, so man is deformed by the roughness of his sins. This is what the Lord means by saying, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven"; that is, it is hard for the sinner to pass along that steep and narrow way of heavenly life unless he is stripped and slimmed of the depravity of his sins. For there will be great need to chasten one's ways and bring them to loftiness, for one who wishes to pass over from a faulty and sluggish mass to the heavenly substance of that purity; and unless he does so, the animal, so loaded and so small, will stick at the narrow gate of heaven. Zacchaeus is to be praised, then, whom his riches could not keep from the royal threshold. Rather, he is to be praised because his riches brought him to the threshold of the kingdom. From this we understand that for obtaining Christ's glory riches are not a hindrance but a help, provided that he who possesses them does not pour them out on wantonness but spends them for salvation. For the crime is not in one's means; for to the foolish riches are the pattern of wickedness, to the wise the aids of virtue; to the latter an occasion of salvation is given, the former will acquire a stumbling block of perdition.

I believe that after last Sunday's discourse all the rich are glad and give thanks, because Zacchaeus opened to them the heavenly door that had been closed because of their inheritance. For he opened the heavenly door when he taught them to reach the kingdom by the very thing by which they were kept from the kingdom; namely, so that the substance which was reproached to them for their ruin might profit them for salvation. Zacchaeus, then, bestowed much on the rich, in making them possess their riches for ever, so that those who were never poor here might not be beggars in the future, but by a profitable exchange receive great things for small, heavenly for earthly, everlasting for temporal. It is plainly a profitable exchange not to wish to have what you possess, so that you may obtain what you do not have; and to accept a kind of loss in leaving money so as to take the gain of grace to be possessed for ever. Zacchaeus, then, since he was a tax collector and had sought great riches by lending money through the fraud of usury, on suddenly seeing Christ was so converted that he sought spiritual grace with greater desire than he had sought worldly money: so converted, I say, that looking back on his past deeds he himself condemned his frauds, and in cleansing his desire he first cleansed his conscience as well. For he says: "Behold, half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone, I restore it fourfold." Someone will perhaps say: why did the holy man, seeing the Saviour present, give not the whole to the poor but half, since it is written: "If you wish to be perfect, sell all you have and give to the poor, and come, follow me"? But if you attend carefully, he did follow, because he gave not half but the whole. For take away what belonged to others, and nothing remains to Zacchaeus. Indeed, the just man, so that his generosity might be acceptable, knew how to arrange it justly, namely by restoring what belonged to others. For this is the alms pleasing to the Lord which is given from one's own native substance, not that which is bestowed from fraudulent plunder. For in generosity to the poor, not spoils but gifts are sought. Otherwise, what sort of gift is it which one receives with joy and another loses with tears, over which the one rejoices and the other sighs? From it I do not know how much the gratitude of those who receive helps you, but the complaint of those who groan weighs heavily on you. For though you give the whole, you give a better alms if you give back what is another's. For holy Zacchaeus, foreseeing this, gave back what he had taken, so that what he gave might be acceptable. For he says: "If I have taken anything from anyone, I restore it fourfold." See how far he amended what he had once sinned! For the good money-lender, knowing what divine profit he would have, restored with manifold interest the money which he had received with interest: to be imitated by all of us, and to be imitated by the money-lenders of this time. But what is worse, there are many who do not imitate his grace but imitate his usury: they know how to plunder, they are wholly ignorant of how to restore. And whereas he of his own accord restored fourfold what he had taken, these, even when compelled, do not restore even once what they seized; they prefer to lose their own by going to law rather than to restore what is another's by settlement.

Some days ago I had admonished your love, brothers, that as devout and holy people you should remove all pollution of idols from your estates and root out all the error of the Gentiles from your fields. For it is not right that you who have Christ in your hearts should have Antichrist in your dwellings; that while you worship God in the church, your people should venerate the devil in shrines. And let no one think himself excused by saying, 'I did not order it to be done, I did not command it.' For whoever knows that sacrileges are practised on his property and does not forbid them to be done in a way commands them himself; for by keeping silent and not reproving he has given consent to the one who sacrifices. For the blessed Apostle says that not only those who do such things are guilty, but also those who consent to those who do them. You, then, brother, when you see your peasant sacrificing and do not forbid him to offer, sin; if not by providing the means, yet by permitting the licence; if your command is not in the crime, yet your will is at fault. For while you keep silent, what your peasant did pleases you; which, if he did not do it, would perhaps displease you. For the dependant does not sin only for himself when he sacrifices, but also for the landlord who does not forbid him; for if he forbade him, he certainly would not sin. Idolatry, then, is a great evil: it pollutes those who practise it, pollutes those who live there, pollutes those who look on; it reaches to the servants, reaches to those who know, reaches to those who keep silent. For when the peasant sacrifices, the landlord is defiled. He cannot fail to be polluted when he takes food which the sacrilegious cultivator produced, the bloody earth brought forth, the foul granary kept: for everything there is defiled, everything abominable, where the devil dwells in the buildings, in the fields, in the peasants. Nothing there is free from wickedness where everything is engaged in wickedness. When you go into the storeroom, you will find in it withered turfs and dead coals, a sacrifice worthy of a demon, since a dead deity is entreated with dead things. And if you go out to the field, you see wooden altars and stone images, a fitting service, where insensible gods are served on rotting altars. When you wake rather early and see the peasant wounded with wine, you ought to know that, as they say, he is either a devotee of Diana or a soothsayer; for a mad deity usually has a crazed priest. For such a priest prepares himself with wine for the wounds of his goddess, so that while he is drunk he may not himself feel his pain. They do this not only out of intemperance but also by art, so that they may feel their wounds less while they are tossed by drunkenness. A vain prophet he is plainly, who thinks to build piety on cruelty. How merciful toward others is the god who is so bloody toward his own priests! For to describe a little the appearance of this prophet: his head is shaggy with false locks, his chest bare, his legs half girded with a cloak, and like a gladiator ready for the fight he carries iron in his hands; except that he is worse than a gladiator, because the latter is compelled to fight against another, the former is forced to fight against himself; the latter seeks another's vitals, the former tears his own limbs; and, if it can be said, the trainer urges the one to cruelty, the deity the other. Clothed in this attire, bloody with this slaughter, judge whether he is a gladiator or a priest. So, as the public crime of gladiators has been removed by the devout piety of the emperors, so let these mad gladiators be removed from your own homes by Christian observance.

We believe that you profited not a little from last Sunday's discourse, since by our preaching we cleansed your hearts from all defilement of idols. For our hearts are cleansed when our conscience is not held polluted by the filth of the devil. And he does not have a polluted conscience who does not allow sacrileges to be practised on his property. But whoever knows that sacrifices are offered to idols on his land and does not forbid it, though he himself lives far away in the city, the pollution will nevertheless touch him. And though it is the peasant who stands at the altars, the accursed contamination returns to the landlord. For he becomes his partner, if not by conscience, certainly by knowledge. We believe, then, that we have profited, when you forbid the worship of sacrilege on your estates; for we say that the property of a Christian man, that is, of a clean man, should be clean. For Solomon says: "A clean man is a precious possession." If, then, a pure man is compared to a most precious possession, how much greater the value of this possession if it is sincere and pure and not cheapened by any contagion of the devil! And we ought to know why a clean man is called a clean possession: namely, because what makes him precious is not the frailty of the body but the sincerity of honesty, and because for that very purity of mind the Lord deigns to possess him, as the prophet says in the person of the saints ...

Sometimes, brothers, when we preach, our sermon seems rather harsh to many, and the things we set out according to the rule are taken by some as though they proceeded from the austerity of our severity. For they say, 'How hard and bitter the bishop's preaching was!', not knowing that for priests necessity is greater than will. Necessity, I say, is greater for speaking; not that the will to set out the truth is lacking, but that the silence of keeping quiet is ruled out by an appointed penalty. We suffer necessity because we fear, and through this we are compelled to be able more than we wish, and we press fearful things on others because we ourselves are afraid for our own salvation. For this is the condition of the preacher: that he should not keep silent about another's sins if he wishes to avoid his own sins, and should amend his brother by rebuking him so that he may not lose the priest in himself. But if he wishes to pretend, to be silent, to conceal, he both fails to correct the other by keeping silent and despises himself by not preaching. It is better, then, to amend sin by rebuking than by silence to take on the faults of the sinner. For we are so placed that if we do not tell offenders their crimes, the guilt of those very crimes involves us too. For so the Lord says through the prophet: "And you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, and you will hear the word from my mouth. When I say to the sinner, You shall surely die, and you do not speak so that the wicked man may beware of his way, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand," and so on. A clear and manifest sentence indeed, which pollutes the watchman with the blood of the criminal because he kept silent; and it is not content that his own iniquity condemns the wicked man, unless it also makes him guilty who would not rebuke that iniquity. See, then, how great an evil belongs to the offender: the offender himself sins, and the priest is accused. He cuts his own throat by his sins, and the blood is required from the bishop's hand. We must speak, then, and cry out, lest on the day of judgment that same sinner excuse himself by our silence, and charge as an accomplice in his error the one who pretends to be a partaker of holiness. "And you," he says, "son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel." What is a watchman? He is called a watchman who, standing as it were on some high citadel, looks out for the people nearby, lest some enemy creep up on them suddenly; but, taking anxious care of them, the people may enjoy the sweetness of peace; and if he suddenly sees something hostile, he points it out at once and announces it steadily, so that the citizen may be ready to guard against the danger and the enemy, detected, may flee. But if, when the adversary presses, the watchman pretends, keeps silent, neglects, then it happens that the people are surprised unawares and the enemy, coming upon them, runs riot; and so all the blame is ascribed to him who would not speak to save many but preferred to keep silent so as to perish himself with many. These watchmen appointed by the Lord, then, whom do we say they are but the most blessed priests, who, placed as on a high citadel of wisdom for the protection of the peoples, see from afar the evils coming, and contemplate future punishments while they are still far off, not with the gaze of the fleshly eye but with the sight of spiritual prudence? And so they cannot keep silent but are forced to cry out, lest through silence the devil, the enemy, invade the flock of Christ. For see, we foresee the day of judgment coming, and we already establish the punishments of sinners in thought itself. And so we announce to each one that he turn from the way of his impiety: to the drunkard, that he pursue sobriety, since hostile luxury is the companion of drunkenness; to the avaricious man, that he spend his money, lest by guarding it he seem to have riches not for using but for worshipping; for whoever loves something worships it, guards it, and in a way venerates it. See, then, avaricious man, lest the vessels of your table become an idol to you, while you do not use them as a master but guard them hidden away as a slave.

I had often resolved within myself, brothers, to withdraw from you the words of the Lord's preaching and not to bestow the mysteries of heavenly sermons on you so often. For indeed it profits nothing to offer food to one who refuses it and to hold out drink to one who is not thirsty, since he does not drink gladly what you offer but returns it with disgust as if it were muddy; and so it happens that the purity of the cup is spoiled, and the disgusted drinker finds causes for offence. So too to press the preaching of the Lord's cup on your love is perhaps superfluous, since your soul, with closed inward parts, does not drink it thirstily but pours it out with indifference. For he pours out the Lord's commandment who receives it with his ear but does not retain it in his heart. For carrying it on a kind of surface of the body and not passing it to the inward parts, he pours out the course of the preaching he heard while he forgets it, and so goes back home empty who had gone out of the church loaded. For tell me, which of you, when he returns to his lodging, says: 'Today we heard the bishop discussing almsgiving; he preached a useful thing; we ought to have mercy on the poor. He also spoke of the accursed worship of idols; let us find out whether without our knowledge there is an idol on our property. He also warned that a catechumen ought to hasten to the grace of God; let us offer it to our little household, so that whoever is a believer may receive the faith, lest perhaps the account of their salvation be required of us, since their life depends on our decision.' No one thinks of the things of God, no one speaks of the day of judgment, as though we were either to live through all things or to die through all things. Believe me: we so live in this world as to die in the body; we so die as to live to render account. Man dies meanwhile, but the case of his deeds does not die; and while the case lives, the person of the case must not be lacking, as the prophet says: "Behold the man and his works." I had wished, then, to withdraw from you the words of the Lord's preaching, not that I did this in anger, but so as to keep the gospel saying. For the Lord says: "To him who has, it will be given; and from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away." He ordered, then, that it be given to him who has, and that from him who has not, not only should nothing be given, but even what he has should be taken away. This saying perhaps seems superfluous to you; but I say that the Lord commanded rightly and wisely. It is ordered, then, to be given to him who has. He plainly deserves to receive who has so laboured as to acquire spiritual riches for his soul by his own care: for instance, if someone with a brave resolve of continence has begun to guard the virtue of chastity, he deserves to hear what the reward of chastity will be, so that, adding the glory of the reward to the observance of virtue, he may more easily wear down the fight he has begun. Another, ready for mercy, ought to hear that God will have mercy on him; and he who has paid for this earthly substance with heavenly riches must, on hearing the returns of heavenly rewards, follow the Lord's work more readily and gladly, and add the increase of generosity to the good of mercy he has. That is why the Lord says, "To him who has it will be given"; that is, whoever is rich in good works, let him be the more enriched by the gospel preaching. But if you preach to a fornicator and say that he ought to remain a virgin, and to the avaricious man that he ought to sell all his goods and give them away, it is foolishness to him. He thinks this preaching ridiculous, as the Apostle says: "But the natural man does not perceive the things of the Spirit"; for it is foolishness to him. For to preach to such people what is perfect is as if you wished to clothe a beggar covered in rags with silk, or to delight a hungry peasant with a cake: each will necessarily refuse the offer. For silk displeases the one who rather desires clothes needed against the cold; the cake is bitter to the other, while he seeks rather food that fills. From these persons, then, rather their own things must be taken away, as the Gospel says: "Even what he has will be taken away from him"; that is, the fornicator must be compelled to throw away the rags of his corruption, the avaricious man must be compelled to lay out the bread of his greed. But I fear, brothers, that this gospel reading fits many of you, which says: "We piped to you, and you did not dance; we lamented, and you did not weep." We announce to you the joy of the heavenly kingdom, and your hearts do not leap with any movement of eagerness. We preached the sad judgment, and your minds do not break out into tears of repentance. For it is a kind of unbelief in divine things neither to rejoice at good news nor to weep at bad. The Lord, then, requires dancing of you, not the twisting of a sinuous body but the holiness of faith lifting itself up. For as he who dances bodily is now suspended in the air, now thrown higher, now covers different places with alternating leaps; so he who dances spiritually, with faith intervening, is now raised to the height of the air, now lifted to the heights of the stars, now covers paradise and heaven with various leaps of thought. And as he who dances bodily, exercising himself by the nimbleness of his limbs, makes for himself the circle of the dance, so he who dances spiritually, moving himself with the eagerness of faith, takes for himself the circle of the whole world. Men dance, as is the custom, at their celebrations, that is, especially at weddings they dance and sing; and so we too have a wedding to celebrate, at which we ought to dance and sing. For our celebrations are held when the Church is joined to Christ, as John says: "He who has the bride is the bridegroom." For this wedding, then, it is fitting for us to dance. Indeed David, king and prophet alike, though he sang many things, is also said to have danced before the ark of the covenant. For carried away with joy he broke out into dancing. For he foresaw in the spirit that Mary of his stock was to be joined to the bridal chamber of Christ. Hence he says: "And he, like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber." That is why he sang more than the other authors of the prophets, because, more joyful than all, he was joining his descendants in marriage through these joys, and, inviting them to his own celebrations more sweetly than usual, he taught us what we ought to do at the wedding itself, since he danced before the ark with such exultation before the wedding. The prophet David, then, danced before the ark. And what shall we say the ark is but holy Mary? For the ark carried within it the tablets of the covenant, while Mary bore the heir of the covenant itself. The one held the law within itself, the other the Gospel. The one had the voice of God, the other the true Word. The ark shone inside and out with the brightness of gold; and holy Mary too shone inside and out with the splendour of virginity. The one was adorned with earthly gold, the other with heavenly ...

God, the most merciful Saviour of the human race, the most abundant distributor of incorruptible gifts, so that he may find more people on whom to bestow his gifts, promises his faithful a heavenly reward even for a cup of cold water, saying: "Whoever gives one of the least a cup of cold water to drink, only in my name, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward." Notice, brothers, that our Lord loves and commends his least ones with special care. For he pledges that he will give a reward for water alone which a devout hand has offered to his servants, who certainly are reckoned least in this world. Water becomes more acceptable to God when it has been brought to those who believe in Christ for the honour of his name. He says, then: "Whoever gives a cup of cold water to drink, only in my name." We see many, brothers, bestowing very great wealth and magnificent gifts on their own people, either friends or patrons, not so much with a view to heavenly grace as from the use and necessity of human intercourse. It is plain that these will slip away with this world, because they are given not to God who abides for ever but to mortals who will soon depart from here. For whatever is spent for the ambitions of the world must slip away with the world. But our Lord, the comforter of his poor and lowly, does not seek alluring necklaces of shining gems, nor silken and costly garments, but promises a recompense even for cold water. He asks for cold water, so that all poverty may abound in devout mercy toward the needy. "Whoever," he says, "gives a cup of cold water to drink will not lose his reward." This saying, dearest ones, both invites the poor and spurs the rich to the obedience of the heavenly commands. For which of the poor can lack water to give to the thirsty? Or which of the faithful, at least of the rich, would not be eager to give better things, when he sees that with the most munificent God even small things are rewarded with great prizes? For in this fellowship it is not the price of the gift that is sought but the devotion of the giver. So that needy and most devout woman who put two small coins into the treasury was preferred by the Lord's sentence to all the rich. And rightly, brothers, because the most wise Judge was looking not so much for the abundance of the work as for the affection of the worker. Nor did he consider how much the rich man brought out from his fullest stores for God's gifts, but how much remained with the woman, who had left herself nothing. For those rich men offered gifts to the great God in such a way that they did not cease to be rich. But the poor woman with such magnanimity of faith preferred God to herself that, despising her own need, she offered all she had. She put in more than all, then, because she kept less for herself than all. "Whoever gives," he says, "a cup of cold water will not lose his reward." What poverty, then, can be without reward under such great generosity of the most kind Judge, with whom even water offered has earned a reward? Water indeed is abundant, and by its very abundance most cheap; but when it is offered for the sake of religion, the confession of Christ makes it precious. From this, most beloved, it is now for you to weigh what and how great rewards of heavenly riches are to be returned to one who gives food or clothing or money, when it will be of advantage to have offered a cup of water. The rich should indeed beware lest this kindness of Christ make them slower in giving; because the offering of water earns a reward especially for those who have nothing else they can offer the poor. For what religion, what devotion is it, to overflow with much substance and to wish to buy heaven with a slight and very small work? After this, dearest ones, if we turn our minds to the spiritual understanding, we shall find another water too, which with very delightful grace can refresh the hearts of the just. Whoever, then, receive with believing ear the word of holy men preaching God will strengthen by their simplicity the inward parts of those who hear, which thirst for life. So the Lord Jesus himself, when, weary and thirsty, he had sat down by the well, he who truly thirsted for the salvation of mortals, was given drink most richly by the belief of the Samaritan woman and of the crowds coming out of the city. For though the Lord watered the dryness of their minds with a saving word, yet the nature of spiritual words is such that, if the effect follows, it refreshes both the hearer and the speaker by a kind of mutual gift. And so it comes about that when the champion of truth sows the gospel seed, if the one who receives it pours on it the moisture of faith, a most abundant crop of heavenly fruits is nourished. Hence, brothers, both understandings profit our salvation: that we should show mercy most readily, and give obedience to those who teach holy things, so that we may hope for a full and perfect reward from the Lord who repays.

After the festive solemnity of holidays, what remains is usually sweeter, and the leftovers of a great banquet usually taste more pleasant. Hence we too, celebrating the Lord's Nativity, ought the more gladly to take up the things that have been most amply reserved for us from the feast. For we cannot fear disgust at leftovers, because the Saviour's dishes are always whole, always untouched, and are not diminished by any contamination. But when you have taken anything from them, they are renewed again in their grace with heavenly vigour. A great food, then, where you take as much as you wish and all you have taken remains whole. For divine Scripture is of such vigour that when you have said very much about it, still more remains to be said; so that as far as the preacher's discussion extends into the depth, so far does the holy mind find a height for discussing. Hence the Apostle says: "O the depth of the riches and knowledge and wisdom of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out!" We ought not to fear, then, that after so great a banquet we shall suffer disgust and hunger. We spent everything for devotion, but everything remained for grace; and let it not seem strange that I said that, all being spent, all remained. Remember the gospel scripture which was lately read, and you will find that more is taken away from the Lord's table than is brought to it. For five loaves were brought, and twelve baskets of fragments were carried away. Those who gather the leftovers, then, find more than he brought who served the food for the banquet. Indeed, when five thousand men had been filled, twelve apostles could scarcely carry twelve baskets of what one boy had brought in his hand before anything was spent. So the bread in the Lord's hand is multiplied while it is broken, grows while it is diminished, increases while it is given out; and by a more useful expense the creature of food feeds the peoples and grows; it increases in the mouth of those who eat, what was thought to be less in the hands of the servers. Indeed holy Andrew says: "There is a boy here who has five loaves and two fish," and so on. In a marvellous way, then, by the blessing of Christ the Lord the solid nature of bread flows, abounds, overflows, and with a kind of irrigation of vigour becomes for those who eat no longer a spring of waters but of foods. We read in the prophets that the same Lord brought forth drink for the thirsty from the hard rock. See, now he has produced for the hungry a stream of fullness from dry bread. There he dissolved a rock into waves, here he multiplied food into abundance. All these things, then, as I said, are to be compared figuratively with the gospel Scriptures, which with a few verses refresh the Christian peoples and never fail; which by their blessing feed hungry souls, and when they have filled them abound the more. For who, when he has been refreshed by the gospel commands, would not, as though enlarged by these commands, give thanks, having a treasure by which he himself may always be filled and may fill the mouth of another who is hungry?