Psalms 141:7

"Our bones are scattered into the netherworld." What bones, according to the word of the one speaking, are scattered into the netherworld? Imagine, I beg you, a sinner; imagine his condition in the dwelling of sin, in the dwelling of the dead, in the dwelling of evil — and you will say of such a man that his bones have been scattered.

As the thickness of the earth. Everything thick is near to the earth: and the soul that sins clings to the earth. For the Lord from the beginning made all things thin. By his own fault, therefore, each one is made thick, and is drawn down to the earth. Let us give an example. As a wound in the body, swelling, is thick, and is full of pus, when the physician comes he cuts it, and heals it and makes it thin, then it is brought back to its own nature, as it was also created. Therefore he says: As the thickness of the earth has been broken up over the earth. And the Savior — Our bones are scattered beside hell — in the twenty-first psalm says: 'All my bones are scattered.' If we understand according to the letter, it does not stand: since he was only crucified. When you see Arius, Eunomius outside the Church, understand the bones of the Lord to be scattered beside hell. The bone, which is strong: those very greater ones, who seem to be something through their much talking and philosophy and contention, are led astray by the heretics.

What then have all those deaths of the martyrs accomplished? Listen: "As the fatness of the earth is spread over the earth, our bones have been scattered beside the pit" [Psalm 141:7]. "The bones" of the martyrs, that is, the bodies of the witnesses of Christ. The martyrs were slain, and they who slew them seemed to prevail. They prevailed by persecution, that the words of Christ might prevail by preaching. And what was the result of the deaths of the saints? What means, "the fatness of the earth is spread over the earth"? We know that everything that is refuse is the fatness of the earth. The things which are, as it were, contemptible to men, enrich the earth...."Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." As it is contemptible to the world, so is it precious to the husbandman. For he knows the use thereof, and its rich juice; he knows what he desires, what he seeks, whence the fertile crop arises; but this world despises it. Do you not know that "God has chosen the contemptible things of the world, and those which are not, like as those which are, that the things which are may be brought to nought"? [1 Corinthians 1:27-28] From the dunghill was Peter lifted up, and Paul; when they were put to death, they were despised: now, the earth having been enriched by them, and the cross of the Church springing up, behold, all that is noble and chief in the world, even the emperor himself, comes to Rome, and whither does he hasten? To the temple of the emperor, or the memorial of the fisherman?