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| Reasons for Burying the Bodies of the Saints.
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Chapter 13.—Reasons for Burying
the Bodies of the Saints.
Nevertheless the bodies of the dead
are not on this account to be despised and left unburied; least of
all the bodies of the righteous and faithful, which have been used
by the Holy Spirit as His organs and instruments for all good
works. For if the dress of a father, or his ring, or anything he
wore, be precious to his children, in proportion to the love they
bore him, with how much more reason ought we to care for the bodies
of those we love, which they wore far more closely and intimately
than any clothing! For the body is not an extraneous ornament or
aid, but a part of man’s very nature. And therefore to the
righteous of ancient times the last offices were piously rendered,
and sepulchres provided for them, and obsequies celebrated;68
and they themselves, while yet
alive, gave commandment to their sons about the burial, and, on
occasion, even about the removal of their bodies to some favorite
place.69
And Tobit,
according to the angel’s testimony, is commended, and is said to
have pleased God by burying the dead.70
Our Lord Himself, too, though He
was to rise again the third day, applauds, and commends to our
applause, the good work of the religious woman who poured precious
ointment over His limbs, and did it against His burial.71
And the Gospel speaks with
commendation of those who were careful to take down His body from
the cross, and wrap it lovingly in costly cerements, and see to its
burial.72
These
instances certainly do not prove that corpses have any feeling; but
they show that God’s providence extends even to the bodies of the
dead, and that such pious offices are pleasing to Him, as
cherishing faith in the resurrection. And we may also draw from
them this wholesome lesson, that if God does not forget even any
kind office which loving care pays to the unconscious dead, much
more does He reward the charity we exercise towards the living.
Other things, indeed, which the holy patriarchs said of the burial
and removal of their bodies, they meant to be taken in a prophetic
sense; but of these we need not here speak at large, what we have
already said being sufficient. But if the want of those things
which are necessary for the support of the living, as food and
clothing, though painful and trying, does not break down the
fortitude and virtuous endurance of good men, nor eradicate piety
from their souls, but rather renders it more fruitful, how much
less can the absence of the funeral, and of the other customary
attentions paid to the dead, render those wretched who are already
reposing in the hidden abodes of the blessed! Consequently,
though in the sack of Rome and of other towns the dead bodies of
the Christians were deprived of these last offices, this is neither
the fault of the living, for they could not render them; nor an
infliction to the dead, for they cannot feel the loss.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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