Cornelius a Lapide

Mary (Magdalene) therefore (that she might not be wanting on her part, and in order specially to honour Christ, and to surpass all others in her services, as she surpassed them in love) took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly . Ointment of nard was composed of several sweet scents (see Pliny H. N. xiii. 2), and was thick. But this was liquid, as S. Matt. (xxvi. 7) says that it was poured on His head. Liquids are very often weighed in vessels, or anyhow the nard itself from which the ointment was made. Or this pound was rather a measure of quantity, not of weight. Digitized by v^iOOQLe ANOINTING CHRIST'S FEET. 5 Mystically. S. Augustine says, “ The ointment was righteousness. Therefore it was of due weight” (libra). The Gloss says, “Mary before anointed His feet as a penitent ; but now, when the righteousness of the perfect, and not the mere rudiments of penitence, are designated, she anoints His head and His feet. The pound of ointment is the perfection of righteousness. He anoints the head, who preaches high doctrines respecting Christ ; He anoints the feet who respects the least commandments.” But what is “pistic nard”? (i.) The Commentary on S. Matthew (in S. Jerome) says “mystic,” which is absurd. (2.) S. Augustine says it is so called from the place whence it was brought. But the place itself is uncertain. (3.) Maldonatus derives it awb rov vi Inn, meaning that it was liquid, and so could be drunk, other ointments being thick and clotted. (4.) Others derive it from squeezed or pressed out. (5.) As if from wlurig, pure, unadulterated, as nard frequently was. (See Pliny H. N. xii. 13.) So Euthymius, Theophylact, on Mark xii., Baronius, Ribera, Jansenius, Toletus and others. (6.) Pistici is the same as spicati by a change of letters. This was the best kind of ointment. (This point treated at very great length.) Morally. Here learn that the good works, with which we anoint Christ, ought to be quite free from fault, and of the very best kind. Compare the offerings of Cain and Abel. (See Ps. lxvi., xx. 4, and Dan. iii. 40 (Vulg.), Lev. iii. 16, Num. xviii. 17, 29, and Lev. xxiii. 19.) And anointed the feet of Jesus. S. Matt, adds “ arid the head.” Alcuin explains mystically, “The Head is the loftiness of the Godhead, the feet the humility of the Incarnation. Or the Head is Christ, the feet the poor who are His members. We anoint them when we give them alms.” And wiped His feet with her hair. A hysteron * froteron. For first she wiped, and then anointed His feet. For had she anointed His feet first, and then wiped them with her hair, she would have anointed her own hair, (which she did not wish to do,) and which indeed she counted unworthy of such anointing, and not His feet Digitized by Google 6 Moreover, this sweet-scented and precious ointment was not to be wiped off, but left on His feet, to give them ease Her hair. To soil those hairs, of which she used to be vain, with the dust of His feet, and also that she might with the deepest reverence and humility place her whole head beneath His feet For S. Chrysostom says, she placed the noblest part of her body beneath His feet, and she approached Him not as man but as God. And the house was filled with the odour of the ointment S. Augustine says, mystically, the whole world was filled with the good fame of her piety and virtue. As S. Paul says, “ We are a sweet savour of Christ” (2 Cor. ii. 14) — to the good, of life unto life; to the wicked, of death unto death — as was here the case. Whence it follows :