Two Deaths

Sequere me, et dimitte mortuos sepelire mortuos suos. Duplicem necesse est mortem nos intelligere, alteram corporis, et alteram animae, quasi dicat: Dimitte mortuos in peccatis sepelire mortuos in corpore, non ideo prohibet sepelire patrem, quod non sit magnae humanitatis sepelire mortuos, sed, quia melius officium est praedicare Evangelium, et resuscitare in anima mortuos, et minora bona pro majoribus sunt aliquando postponenda. Aliter secundum Gregorium, quod tamen non pertinet ad praesentem locum. Mortui mortuos sepeliunt, quando adulatores fovent in peccatis peccatores, unde dicitur: Linguae adulantium alligant animas in peccatis, et sepeliunt; quia, cum laudant peccatum, quasi negant peccatum, et sic peccatorem tegunt. Notandum est quod nuntiat patrem mortuum, sed quoniam non rogatur Christus pro illo, non resuscitat illum. Sic non resuscitat mortuum in peccatis, postquam nec ipse nec alius orat pro eo. Anselmus Laudunensis, Enarrationes In Matthaeum, Caput VIII Source: Migne PL 162.1323d-1324b

Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead. 1 It is necessary to understand death in a twofold way, one of the body and the other of the soul, as if He said: 'Leave those who are dead in their sins to bury the dead in the body.' Therefore He does not prohibit him from burying his father, as if it were not a matter of great humanity to bury the dead, but because the better duty is to preach the Gospel and to revive dead souls, and lesser goods are sometimes set aside for greater goods. On the other hand, according to Gregory, this does not pertain to the present passage, but the dead bury their own dead when people take delight in praising sinners in their sins, 2 whence it is said, 'The tongues of adulators bind souls in sin and bury them.' 3 because when they praise a sin, just as when they deny it, so they cover up a sinner. It must also be noted that though the man announces his father's death, yet because he does not ask anything from Christ for him, He does not revive him. So he does not revive the dead in their sin, for after it neither he nor any other prays for him. Anselm of Laon, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Chapter 8 1 Mt 8.22 2 Greg Moralia Job 3.52 3 Aug Enarr Ps 9.23