Commentary on Sirach
Paulinus of Nola
Before all else, I will praise in you the fruitful work of your Christian piety. In fact, the sacred Scripture shows that your behavior is also pleasing to God when it says, "Shed tears over the dead. As one who suffers grievously, begin the lament, and do not neglect his tomb." Our patriarchs are also examples of the performance of this ritual. Abraham, the father of our faith, wept over Sarah, the mother of our vocation, not because he doubted ever seeing her again but out of sorrow for having lost her. How could the father of our faith have had doubts about the resurrection, he who was the first to hear the divine promise? Mindful of her human condition, however, he did not despise care for the body in view of eternal salvation, but after acquiring a field suited for the burial, he interred his dead wife in an honorable grave. In this way he wanted to show what people should do for the dying, since he, immediately after leaving the land of his ancestors at the call of God, and though acquiring no land among the fertile plots of the various countries, nevertheless wanted to buy—he, the pilgrim of every nation—a small fistful of dirt for the burial, that is, a perennial and…
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