e dead, the custom of each nation should
be observed." Now it was the custom of this people to anoint bodies
with various spices in order the longer to preserve them from
corruption [*Cf. Catena Aurea in Joan. xix]. Accordingly it is said
in De Doctr. Christ. iii that "in all such things, it is not the use
thereof, but the luxury of the user that is at fault"; and, farther
on: "what in other persons is frequently criminal, in a divine or
prophetic person is a sign of something great." For myrrh and aloes
by their bitterness denote penance, by which man keeps Christ within
himself without the corruption of sin; while the odor of the
ointments expresses good report.

Reply Obj. 3: Myrrh and aloes were used on Christ's body in order
that it might be preserved from corruption, and this seemed to imply
a certain need (in the body): hence the example is set us that we may
lawfully use precious things medicinally, from the need of preserving
our body. But the wrapping up of the body was merely a question of
becoming propriety. And we ought to content ourselves with simplicity
in such things. Yet, as Jerome observes, by this act was denoted that
"he swathes Jesus in clean linen, who receives Him with a pure soul."
Hence, as Bede says on Mark 15:46: "The Church's custom has prevailed
for the sacrifice of the altar to be offered not upon silk, nor upon
dyed cloth, but on linen of the earth; as the Lord's body was buried
in a clean winding-sheet."

Reply Obj. 4: Christ was buried "in a garden" to express that by His
death and burial we are delivered from the death which we incur
through Adam's sin committed in the garden of paradise. But for this
"was our Lord buried in the grave of a stranger," as Augustine says
in a sermon (ccxlviii), "because He died for the salvation of others;
and a sepulchre is the abode of death." Also the extent of the
poverty endured for us can be thereby estimated: since He who while
living had no home, after death was laid to rest in another's tomb,
and being naked was clothed by Joseph. But He is laid in a "new"
sepulchre, as Jerome observes on Matt. 27:60, "lest after the
resurrection it might be pretended that someone else had risen, while
the other corpses remained. The new sepulchre can also denote Mary's
virginal womb." And furthermore it may be understood that all of us
are renewed by Christ's burial; death and corruption being destroyed.
Moreover, He was buried in a monument "hewn out of a roc