199 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year Indeed, they teach us to extend our helping hands most willingly to the others who work for the Lord, and to do good deeds together in continuous sweat and hard work as long as we live in this place of mortality. Since we will never have the possibility to anoint the body of Christ, to offer Him this last dutiful action of human kindness, nay, of love, let us refresh Him with the sweet fragrance of virtue and let us anoint Him with the aloe and balsam of holy deeds. For indeed, “if filled with the fragrance of virtues,” [f.41v] (as Gregory the Great teaches) “with the repute of good works we seek the Lord, we come to His tomb truly with perfumed oils.”75 3. “He has risen, [H]e is not here” (Mk 16:6). Consider that the Divine Body in the tomb did not make any fetid odor such as the body of Lazarus caused after four days;76 indeed, it has not undergone any change. In fact, it came out of the tomb most glorious, and shone with rays of immortal brightness that were as numerous as the wounds and torments had been. Consider that the bodies of the Blessed shall have the same heavenly glory, although here on earth by the law of nature, according to God’s decree, they turned into ashes and became food for worms. However, after their resurrection they will radiate in the Kingdom of Christ with as many rays as were the worms with which they teemed while decomposing in the tomb. Therefore, in your unhappy condition, in view of the decomposition of the body, find consolation in this privilege of future glory. What is more, do not fear to weaken your body by labors, mortifications, night vigils, and penances if you long for the greater glory and future splendor of everlasting happiness. This immortal Lord, risen from the dead, whom you are going to receive as a guest today with vivid faith, will be your greatest helper in all these things. 75 Gregorius Magnus, XL Homiliarum in Evangelia: Liber II — Homilia XXI (Marc. XVI, 1-7), in: PL, vol. 76, Ateliers catholiques du Petit-Montrouge, Paris 1857, p. 1170 (n. 1526). Cf. GFGH, p. 158 (Homily 21). 76 Cf. Jn 11:39.
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