1 Samuel 10

1 Samuel 10:1

Bede: (I Kings X) Samuel took a flask of oil, etc. John took the grace of the Holy Spirit to be preached, and testified that all its fullness rests in Christ, saying: “I saw the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven, and it abode upon Him” (Matthew III; Mark I). And well did he pour it out, for “your name is oil poured out” (Song of Solomon I). — Commentary on Samuel

Bede: And he kissed him, etc. And he united the figures of prophecy to the truth of the gospel and the grace of faith to the decrees of the long-desired peace of the law, and said: Behold, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of exultation above your companions, to ask of him, and he will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession (Psalm XLIV). — Commentary on Samuel

Gregory the Dialogist: 1. This indeed is expressed by this anointing, which even now is materially displayed in the holy Church: because he who is placed in a position of authority receives the sacrament of anointing. Because indeed the anointing itself is a sacrament, he who is promoted is well anointed outwardly if he is strengthened inwardly by the power of the sacrament. Let us therefore first consider more attentively the very properties of oil. Oil indeed rises above other liquids, oil nourishes fire, oil is accustomed to heal wounds. By the first property, therefore, it signifies the good of mercy, because it is written of the Lord: His mercies are above all his works (Ps. 144:9). Because it nourishes fire, it designates the grace of preaching, which illuminates the minds of the elect. Because indeed wounds are healed by oil, this surely suggests that the wounds of sins must be cleansed. Let the head of the king therefore be anointed, because the mind of the teacher must be filled with spiritual grace. Let him have oil in his anointing, let him have abundant mercy, which is to be preferred above the other virtues. Let him have oil, so that while he nourishes within himself the ardor of the Holy Spirit, he may shine forth powerfully to others through the word. Let him likewise have the oil of medicine, so that he may wisely arrange how to cleanse the stench of sins and restore sick minds to health. But Saul is anointed with a small flask, not to prefigure doctrine, but to express things to come. A small flask indeed is a small vessel: what then does it mean that Saul is anointed with a small flask of oil, except that in the end he is rejected? For because he afterward refused to obey God, he heard from Samuel: Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king (1 Kings 15:26). For as it were he had but a small flask of oil, he who received spiritual grace only to be cast away. This is fittingly understood also of the rulers of the holy Church. For very often those receive the height of prelacy who are not perfected in the love of God and neighbor. For they have a certain affection of charity, but they do not have its fullness. What then is that rough and imperfect affection of the mind but a small flask of oil? For while it anoints the head, it does not fill it: it is indeed all poured out, but it provides little. On the contrary, however, when the chosen king is commanded to be anointed, the Lord says to the same prophet: Fill your horn with oil, and come, I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself a king among his sons (1 Kings 16:1). Hence it is that the same chosen king, ascribing the fullness of his anointing to the praises of God, says: You have anointed my head with oil, and my inebriating cup, how excellent it is (Ps. 22:5). He therefore who received the grace of anointing without being destined to persevere, by God’s dispensation, is anointed with the liquid of that vessel by which the failure of the anointed one would be signified. And he kissed him and said: Behold, God has anointed you over his inheritance as prince, and you shall deliver his people from the hand of their enemies who are round about them.

2. The ruler is led to the height of holy Church so that he may hold this office by which he establishes peace between God and men. For by sinning, we incur the enmity of our Creator. Therefore, when a ruler is appointed for the correction of sinners, he removes from our midst that which has made us enemies of God. Rightly, then, Samuel is reported to have kissed Saul on the head. For that one bears the prophet’s kiss fixed upon his head who bears in his mind the support of our reconciliation: namely, when he who strives in his mind to restore the discordant to peace cherishes in himself no fuel for divine discord. Therefore, after the prince has been kissed, it is said: “God has anointed you as prince over His inheritance.” As if he were admonishing him by these things, saying: You who know yourself appointed for this purpose—that you ought to dissolve the enmities of sin—what you destroy in others you must not retain in yourself. For some are indeed anointed yet do not receive the kiss; they busy themselves with liberating the people of the Lord, but do not shrink from subjecting themselves to the yoke of His enemies. For he who preaches to others the good things he does not practice gives, as it were, a kiss that he does not receive. For he seeks to make others friends of God, yet he himself does not cease to be His enemy. He builds up in himself the enmities of sin that he attempts to destroy in others by his word. Since, therefore, only he rules with benefit who is a friend of God through the disposition of great charity, Samuel is said to have kissed the head of the king. Hence Truth itself first kisses those whom it appoints, and then sends them to set others free. “You are my friends,” He says; then He added, saying: “I have appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:14). Hence also, rising from the dead, He says: “Peace be with you”; then He adds: “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained” (John 20:23). So that He might, as it were, fix the kiss of peace in the minds of those whom He had commanded to loose the hatreds of sin. The king, therefore, having been kissed, is established over the inheritance of the Lord, because the chosen teacher is selected so that he may stand preeminent in dignity over the faithful committed to him, yet from his position of authority he may seek not his own gain but the Lord’s. For this reason he is declared appointed for this purpose: that those who are under him may be freed from the hands of their enemies. The inheritance of the Lord is the multitude of the faithful. Therefore every worldly intention is set aside when the king is declared anointed over the inheritance of the Lord. The fruit of anointing, then, is the cultivation of the divine inheritance. He therefore fulfills the office of his anointing who seeks only the gain of souls. He who remembers that he was anointed as prince over the inheritance of the Lord seeks from his earthly dignity only what Christ sought through His own ministry. By this word, therefore, the intention of negligent rulers is condemned.

3. For they hear that they have been anointed over the inheritance of the Lord: that the Lord seeks from the earth none but the elect; they know that He calls not the breadth of land, not abundance of gold, not the overflow of riches, but His faithful ones His inheritance, and yet they do not cease to seek earthly things and to gather what perishes. They direct all their care toward that which the Lord does not seek; and what He alone seeks, they neglect to seek. Therefore it is said, so that the negligent may see themselves in it; it is said, so that the good may become better: God has anointed you, he says, as prince over His inheritance. As if to say: He has made His inheritance yours; see that you do not rule in it otherwise. You shall therefore deliver the people from the hand of the enemies who are round about them. A great labor is enjoined upon the preacher by this, that the enemies are said to be round about. For the battle would be grave enough if they endured the fury of evil spirits on one side alone. Hence, declaring through the prophet, He says: The wicked walk round about (Psalms 11:9). Hence blessed Peter, exhorting, says: Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour; resist him, steadfast in the faith (1 Peter 5:8). Our enemies therefore are round about us, because unclean spirits always lie in wait against our thought, word, and deed. For when they seek to suggest evil things to us, they are on one side; when they drag us toward evil, we are struck by their assault from another side; when they invite us to evil works, they stir up war from yet another side. We therefore have enemies round about us, since in everything that we think, speak, and do, we suffer the wars of evil spirits. But because it is said not to free the people from war, but from the hands of the enemies, great marks of virtue are ascribed to preachers: because they ought not only to protect the free lest they be captured, but also to free the captives from their servitude. This moreover is accomplished by our kings when those who through the boldness of transgression have been subjected to the yoke of diabolical power come to their senses through their preaching. Which indeed only those preachers can accomplish who arrive at the summit of governance by divine appointment. For those whom almighty God appoints, He sends to endure the battles of the ancient enemy, but He does not abandon them amid those very wars, because He protects His soldiers and makes them victorious. But when holy men are raised to the primacy of the holy Church, they greatly tremble lest the burden of so great an office has been imposed upon them by the judgment of men, not by the appointment of the Creator. Therefore, for the strengthening of the humble, signs are given by which they may know that they have been chosen by God, not by men. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

Hippolytus of Rome: And of all people, we Christians alone are those who … celebrate the mystery and are anointed there with the unspeakable chrism from a horn, as David (was anointed), not from an earthen vessel, he says, as (was) Saul, who held converse with the evil demon of carnal concupiscence. — THE REFUTATION OF ALL HERESIES 5.4

John Chrysostom: Furthermore, whenever someone had to be chosen and anointed, the grace of the Spirit would wing its way down and the oil would run on the forehead of the elect. Prophets fulfilled these ministries. — DISCOURSES AGAINST JUDAIZING CHRISTIANS 6.4.3

1 Samuel 10:2

Bede: When you depart from me today, you will find two men, etc. When Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, departed from the Jordan from John, he found the people long lost by deceit, but now confirmed by faith and operation. He found them indeed, recalling them to the way of salvation; and this ceased gradually, and as the synagogue’s carnal observance was to be dying and burying, from which he himself was willing to receive flesh. For Rachel was the mother of Benjamin, from the tribe from which Saul originated. He found those whom the Lord would save; and as if in the noonday of new love, in the fervor and light of knowledge shining from the heavenly realms, within the bounds of grace and truth, which in comparison to the law given through Moses is like the right hand to the left. Hence rightly Benjamin is interpreted as the son of the right hand. The believing people, found in this manner, mercifully confessed by Christ, giving thanks for his benefits, because their souls, once wandering like brute animals, were now redeemed by heavenly grace through him who came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke XIX). They also confessed the mysteries of faith which they had learned, that by the dullness of fools’ sluggishness, the Almighty Father, being solicitous for his Son and those believing in him, did not allow them to be disturbed by his passion and to fall from faith until the completion of the dispensation of the same passion and the celebration of the glory of the resurrection, he more fittingly commanded that the unclean souls either of Jews or Gentiles, which he had temporarily neglected, be sought and saved; so that those already partially found might be perfectly gathered by their Lord to the manger. — Commentary on Samuel

Gregory the Dialogist: 4. For it is as if He says to the humble shepherd, trembling at so great a ministry: You tremble for this reason, because you do not know whether what has been done concerning you is from God; but because you can know this, you ought not to tremble. Therefore this shall be a sign to you that not man, but God has anointed you as ruler: namely, those two men will say to you: The donkeys which you went to seek have been found. As if He were saying: If you find those two men, and they tell you this, know that God, not I, has appointed you as ruler. What then do these two men signify to us, except certain perfect preachers of holy Church? They are two, because they are perfect in both precepts of charity; men, because they are strong in holy conduct. They are said to be found near the tomb of Rachel, because through devotion to the contemplative life they are separated from worldly pursuits; and while they seek the gain of souls, they are not buried. For it is the undoubted opinion of the venerable fathers that Rachel signifies the beauty of the contemplative life. Therefore the men stand near the tomb of Rachel, because perfect teachers so devote themselves to heavenly contemplation that they also bear the care of holy Church. They stand near the tomb of Rachel, because they direct the course of good works through the power of contemplation, and because they do nothing in action except what they arrange through contemplation. And because in the very height of heavenly contemplation they strive to maintain not their own presumption but the rule of holy Church, the tomb of Rachel is described as being in the borders of Benjamin. As I have already said, in Benjamin, who is called the son of the right hand, the Redeemer of the human race is signified. The borders of Benjamin, therefore, are the rules of the Holy Scriptures, concerning which borders it is written: Do not transgress the boundaries which your fathers have set (Prov. 22:28). Because, therefore, the holy preachers, when they see the highest things through contemplation, do not depart from the rule of faith, the tomb near which they stand is rightly said to be in the borders of Benjamin. These men indeed leap over great pits at midday, because through the fervor of perfect charity, in which they have been taken up, they despise all the heights of the world that are seen. For whatever is perceived as lofty in this world is not true height, but a pit, which deposits into hell all whom it receives in its ambition. Therefore the heights of the world are to be avoided by spiritual men, not sought after, because they open up from a hidden place, and lead down to hell those whom they swallow up and receive. Spiritual men, therefore, leap over pits, because while they raise themselves up through heavenly desire, they despise earthly things. For they give a leap as if over pits they have seen, when in order to despise earthly things they raise themselves to desire eternal goods. They leap over pits at midday, therefore, because only those who possess the full light and ardor of heavenly charity can despise the world. Then let Saul understand that he has been anointed by the Lord as ruler, when these men say to him: The donkeys which you were seeking have been found. For they tell Saul that the donkeys have been found when they perceive him fit for gathering the gain of souls. As if He were saying otherwise: Do not believe from men that you have been chosen by God for the ministry of preaching, if those men declare this concerning you who, being full of the Spirit of God, are perceived to say things not human but divine. Because, therefore, concerning ourselves we must believe not ourselves but those better than us, fittingly Saul recognizes that he has been anointed by the Lord as ruler through men who leap over great pits at midday. But one is he by whom he is anointed, and others are those who attest that this anointing is from the Lord; because every affair of holy Church, just as it is more fully proved by the consultation of the holy fathers, so also is it more firmly established.

5. For blessed Paul sought this as a sign of his anointing when he came to Jerusalem to see Peter, and compared his Gospel with him and the other apostles. For he had received his apostleship not from man nor through man, but from heaven, at the call of the Lord Jesus (Gal. 1); and yet he proved the ministry of his anointing through the consultation of his fellow apostles. For he says of himself: “I compared my Gospel with them, lest I should run or had run in vain” (Gal. 2:2). The Precursor of the Redeemer had also anointed his disciples, but so that they might recognize the signs of his anointing, he sent them as if to leap over great ditches, saying: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we expect another?” (Matt. 11:3). For John knew the one whom he had preached, whom he had baptized; but he sent his disciples so that, having seen the signs, they might believe more firmly and hold more securely the proofs of their election. Those, therefore, who are found suitable for the office of preaching recognize, as a sign of their election, that the souls of sinners which they seek have been found. And because almighty God rejoices not only in the preaching but also in the conduct of the chosen teacher, he adds and says: “And your father, having left the donkeys, is anxious about you, and says: What shall I do about my son?” We said that Kish, the father of Saul, who in our language is called “hard,” designates those who teach by word and example to despise earthly things and to hasten to the heavenly homeland through a hard and rough manner of life. We have also recognized this hardness of the heavenly life both in the word and in the life of our Redeemer. If, therefore, we look to the summit of our instruction, we are children of the Redeemer. Our father, therefore, having dismissed the donkeys, is anxious about us; because our Redeemer wills that we seek the salvation of others in such a way that we do not neglect our own. He wills that sinners be called to repentance, but he does not will that those who call those very sinners should perish. He wills that the converted sinner should have the righteousness which he did not have; but he does not will that the righteous person should lose the palm of righteousness which he has. Having left the donkeys, therefore, he is anxious about his son, because he wills his preachers to rest for a time from the anxious attention to others, so that they may better provide for themselves through quiet. And because that very solicitude of the holy Church must be taken up again by a good ruler, our rest is interrupted; because a prior solicitude precedes it, and a later one follows. The chosen preacher, therefore, should devote himself to the benefit of his subjects and devote himself to his own; but let him so have care for his own that he immediately returns to the care of others which he left behind; because then our Creator loves us as sons, when we both love our subjects as brothers and love him as a father, since through the affection of solicitude we are joined to them, and through our rest, which he loves, we hasten to him as to a father. For this love of our rest is expressed in what is said: “What shall I do about my son?” This indeed a father says who loves his son tenderly. This therefore is not said about a present son, but an absent one. But because he seeks the lost donkeys of his father, he is greatly beloved by him; because whoever strives by preaching to convert the souls of sinners is already joined to our Redeemer in great love. He who through solicitude for others is, as it were, far from him, is near through the quiet of contemplation and the affection of prayer. Because, therefore, he desires that we be close to him both through contemplation and prayer, like a loving father he says: “What shall I do about my son?” As if to say: How shall I make that absent one present to me? But because the great men of holy Church praise the solicitude of our preaching but blame excessive solicitude, those who say the father’s donkeys have been found assert that the father is anxious about his son. The elect, therefore, can recognize the sign of their anointing; because indeed they are then led by God to the summit of the holy Church, when through words and examples they are suitable for the salvation of others, and through quiet they are zealous for their own; and when they seek sinners for heaven, they do not abandon themselves to the world. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:3

Bede: And when you depart from there, and go further, etc. Increasing the course of his teaching, the Savior arrived at the point of revealing to the disciples the secret of his passion, signifying that he was to bestow the gifts of the highest light on the world. Indeed, Thabor, which is a very high mountain and is interpreted as the coming light, in both name and position, smiles upon the mysteries of the life-giving cross, whose sacraments the Lord, revealing them, sought devoutly, and found all the mighty confessors of the Holy Trinity ascending to God in the Church with devout progress, which is Bethel, that is, the house of God; who, according to the grace given to them, some offered the richest remedies of penance for thought, speech, and action; others offered strengthening provisions of Sacred Scripture for the heart of man, revealed by divine gift in a threefold manner; others brought the most fervent cups of compunctive love in earthen vessels of the heart to be dedicated to God. While each in their own rank recognized Christ the Savior and wished for his incarnation to bring about the world’s salvation, they gave him a double interpretation of the Scriptures; that after the first reading of the history, which was completed before his incarnation through the law, he might also open the allegorical and anagogical sense, which either pertains to the truth of present grace or to the beatitude of future life, through the act of the assumed dispensation. Surely, he also accepted these loaves from the hand of those who offered when he revealed to the disciples a worthy operation according to merits, so that they might understand the Scriptures. To this, if I am not mistaken, the interpretation of the three loaves rightly resonates; because in the Gospel, the importunate petitioner, urged by necessity, equally seeks and receives three loaves from a faithful friend (Luke 11). And in Leviticus, the loaves to be offered as a sacrifice are commanded to be prepared in three kinds of baking: namely, in the oven, in the pan, and on the griddle (Leviticus 2). We are nourished with the bread baked on the griddle when we receive those things which are openly and literally said or done without any cover to safeguard the soul’s health. But with the bread fried in the pan, we seek what is often reviewed and reconsidered in the surface of the letter, to see what in it allegorically suits the mysteries of Christ, the state of the Catholic Church, and the correction of individual morals. Moreover, we seek the bread of the word in the oven when we also comprehend in the anagogical scripture, that is, by the upward lifting intention of the mind, those things which we cannot yet see, but hope to live out in the future. — Commentary on Samuel

Gregory the Dialogist: 6. When we wish to make good progress in holy conduct, it is necessary for us to gather for ourselves the examples of very many of the elect; for bees too cannot produce honey if they do not gather it from various flowers. Well therefore does Saul pass from some men to others, because the more abundantly we observe the examples of the saints, the better we are instructed. Indeed the flowers of eternal fruits are the works of the saints, which, when they are drenched with the dew of heavenly love, from them we gather that by which we may be filled for our own instruction and for the benefit of others. For Saul goes from there and passes on beyond, when the untrained preacher advances through the examples of the elect, and from the observed virtue of one, goes to explore the conduct of another. Often it delights him to admire in some the labor of preaching, often in others the strength of good works; he venerates those who speak and strives to imitate those who act. He looks at some to see with what beauty they shine outwardly, while the splendor of others he examines not in their outward conduct but in their innermost being. Hence it is also well said that when he passes on, he is reported to come to the oak of Tabor. For the oak is a shady and strong tree. In this tree indeed the more hidden conduct of the saints is expressed. For the men of this manner of life, since they do not go out to the exterior works of the active life, are as if in shadow, because they cannot feel the fires of temptations. For since they rest in heavenly desire, the farther removed they are from the love of the world, the more peacefully they remain in the shadow of refreshment. But this shadow is of a strong tree, because the conduct of the saints despises earthly things all the more powerfully as it rises more purely into the love of heavenly things. It is also strong, because those who love only the heavenly things which they see powerfully endure the adversities of the world. And because those who disdain to look upon earthly things through love are in the great light of interior splendor, the oak itself is said to be of Tabor. For Tabor is interpreted as “coming light.” For light comes when the inner brightness of the Creator opens itself to the chosen mind. Therefore it is called the oak of Tabor, because hidden conduct, by despising earthly things, acts so that it may more clearly behold the intimate light of the Creator. For we are hidden when we guard our senses in the fear of God. And then indeed we perceive the coming light, because when the members of the body are well governed, the grace of the Creator is poured back into our mind. And it should be noted that he who knew that the father was anxious for him on account of those who were leaping into the pits is said to come to the oak of Tabor. For the preachers of the holy Church frequently praise virtues to which they themselves cannot devote themselves. They preach indeed the secret of the contemplative life; but since they are anxious for the care of their subjects, they avoid clinging to the secrets of that life. As if Samuel were to say: Those men praise the pursuit of contemplation to you; but since they cannot hold what they praise, it must be sought in others. Therefore we pass on to the oak of Tabor when from the holy preachers we learn that the pursuit of the contemplative life is praiseworthy; but we seek its perfection in those who devote themselves to it spiritually. The three men, therefore, who find the anointed king at the oak of Tabor designate those who are perfect in the pursuit of the contemplative life. They are rightly said not to be found by the king, but to find the king there. For they are not found, because they are hidden. But they themselves find us, because they open to us the light of their hidden conduct when they deign to do so. They are not found, because they withdraw their life from every testimony of men. But they find us, because through the affection of charity they show us something of their light for imitation. They likewise do not bring forth their virtues for imitation except to those who desire with great longing to obtain and practice them. Therefore it is necessary for us first to come to the oak of Tabor, so that we may be able to be found by those three men. For we are already as if in the shadow of the coming light when we are inflamed with great desires for the highest contemplation.

7. Then therefore three men appear to us: because those who deign to show themselves to us who desire them are strong in the guard of speech, thought, and deed. For they cannot be persons of a more hidden life if they had kept open the doors of their eyes, heart, and mouth. Because therefore they guard the heart from foolish thought, the mouth from idle talk, and the whole body from wicked action, they are three; but they are men, because they observe that same guard most bravely. Three men therefore appear to us: because when we behold such persons, we perceive in them the strength of virtue. They are certainly in the shadow of the coming light; because they can see the inner light of the Creator all the more clearly, the more zealously they guard a pure heart from the defilement of the world. To such persons indeed the Lord appeared rising from the dead; such persons the Holy Spirit filled. For concerning that secret place it is said: “When it was evening on the first day of the week, and the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews” (John 20:19). And again: “After eight days his disciples were again within, and Thomas with them; Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said to them: Peace be to you.” Concerning another secret place likewise it is written: “When the days of Pentecost were being fulfilled, all the disciples were together in the same place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound of a rushing mighty spirit, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:1). Those indeed have closed doors who, against the negligence of human falling, keep the functions of the body restrained under a strong guard. They are also within, because they rest in the inward love of the heavenly life. To these assuredly the risen Lord appears, because they behold his glory all the more clearly, the more strictly they follow the mystery of his passion through contempt of the world. These also can be filled with the Holy Spirit, as though in a house; because those receive abundantly the gifts of his graces who have prepared themselves to receive them by despising visible things.

8. Who are rightly said to ascend to the Lord in Bethel. For Bethel means “house of God.” And what is the house of God, if not that house which the inaccessible light inhabits? The inaccessible light is also the revelation of His divinity. It is light, indeed, because it can be seen in some manner by pure hearts. In its fullness it fills all things, yet abundantly filling all things, it is not grasped. It is grasped, indeed, so that it may fill, but in filling it is not grasped, for though it fills all things, it is not exhausted. The revelation of the Creator, therefore, because it is so great an immensity of light that it illumines all things and is confined in nothing — since it is seen and yet not comprehended — is inaccessible light. These three men, then, ascend to the Lord, because those who guard themselves in a more hidden life are raised up to the contemplation of the divine light. But because they cannot yet attain to the very appearance of God Almighty, they are said to ascend in Bethel. For whatever the human mind can think about Almighty God is not God. But when by thinking it transcends all things, when it considers that whatever it can fashion for itself of inmost light, whatever of inner sweetness and delight, whatever of spiritual pleasure, is believed to be less than that reality, it nevertheless arrives at a certain light which is not God but which God inhabits. And because then the soul of the elect is wonderfully inflamed, wonderfully refreshed, and enjoys ineffable delight, it is compelled to consider how ineffable must be the light, the sweetness, and the delight which is God Himself, if so immense is that light which He inhabits and which is not He Himself. Moses had indeed ascended to the Lord in Bethel when he was speaking with Him on the mountain. But he who had arrived at the light which God inhabits was seeking the light which was God Himself, saying: “Show me Your face” (Exod. 33:13). Of whom it is also written: “The Lord spoke to Moses face to face” (ibid.). What does it mean that Moses speaks with the Lord face to face, and yet entreats the Lord to show him His face? But the face of God is the knowledge of Him. Now God is known through a mirror, and He is known through Himself. Through a mirror here, through Himself in heaven. The mirror is that light which God inhabits; but He Himself is that light which He is (1 Cor. 13:12). And Moses, who is said to see God face to face and yet asks to see His face (Exod. 33:13) — what does he more rightly signify than the perfection of the elect, who already gaze upon the mirror of that supreme light, yet ardently desire to attain to the very truth of that light? This knowledge of the light does not satisfy the desires of the elect but rather arouses them; that other knowledge, however, both satisfies and arouses. For it is so delightful a thing that it is ineffably desired, and so full that those who have always beheld it with great longing are always satisfied with ineffable fullness. The men, therefore, who ascend to the Lord are said to ascend in Bethel, because however much we advance in this life, we can see the very light of the Creator through a mirror, but we are by no means able to see it in itself.

9. And because only the humble are exalted to this sublime vision, it is well said of these same men: ‘That one was carrying three kids, another three cakes of bread.’ For he carries three kids who, in penitence, considers that he has sinned by mouth, heart, and deed. For since sinners are signified by kids, those who at the final judgment are to be placed at the left hand of the eternal Judge are expressed by the name of kids. Therefore he carries three kids to the Lord who does not cease to consider in penitence the sins of deed, word, and thought. And he is indeed a man, and yet he carries kids; because he strongly guards against sinning, but does not cease to make satisfaction as though he were a sinner. For he was a man and was carrying kids, who said: ‘In many things we all offend’ (James 3:2). And because they strive to blot out by penitence the sins they confess, one carries three kids and another carries three cakes of bread. For we referred the cakes of bread above to the affliction of penitence; because if bread sometimes signifies the pleasure of the present life, bread is twisted when we are tormented for the past pleasure of the flesh. Hence King Hezekiah too, when he is pierced with penitence, promises that he will twist the royal pleasures, saying: ‘I will recount all my years in the bitterness of my soul’ (Isaiah 38:15). For when the carnal mind dissolves into the pleasures of sin, it has, as it were, its day; because it joyfully beholds what it does. Therefore the days of the reprobate mind are evil pleasures. Therefore the sinner recounts all his days; because when he comes to his senses through divine grace, he does not cease to make satisfaction for all his evils. For first one is said to carry three kids, then another three cakes of bread; so that the virtue of each elect person may appear, who is strong in good work, humble in self-estimation, afflicted through the contrition of penitence. And because they cannot be of such great perfection unless, out of love for eternal goods, they have forgotten temporal things, the third is said to carry a flask of wine. For he carries a flask of wine who has filled his mind with the warmth of the Holy Spirit, by which he both eagerly strives after the things ahead by running forward, and leaves behind the things that are past, as if in the great forgetfulness of intoxication. For he was carrying kids who said: ‘Christ came to call sinners, of whom I am the chief’ (1 Timothy 1:15). And because he was also carrying a cake of bread, he says: ‘I chastise my body and bring it into subjection’ (1 Corinthians 9:27). But as though drunk with the wine of a flask, he says: ‘Forgetting what is behind and stretching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 3:13). Therefore three men ascend to the Lord and bring three kids, three cakes of bread, and a flask of wine: because those devoted to the pursuits of a more secluded life rise to the contemplation of the true light by the merit of humility. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

Richard Challoner: Bethel: Where there was at that time an altar of God; it being one of the places where Samuel judged Israel.

1 Samuel 10:4

Gregory the Dialogist: But what they are in themselves and what they are to others, he sets forth, saying: ‘And when they have greeted you, they will give you two loaves, and you shall receive them from their hand.’ Holy men greet us when they announce to us the eternal goods of salvation. Those who greet us in the body incline their head to show reverence to the one greeted. But for spiritual men to incline the head is to bring down their mind from the highest contemplation. For if they do not incline the head, they cannot greet; because they do not instruct us with salutary teaching if they do not bring down their mind from the highest contemplation of heavenly things. For then they show us great reverence: because they do not consider those to be small for whose sake they deign to descend from their lofty summit.

10. But while the future king is greeted, two loaves of bread are given to him. For two loaves are given to the preacher being ordained, when he is taught to weep for sins not only his own, but those of others. He has, therefore, one twisted loaf when he is afflicted for his own sins; he has the other when he strives to lament the sins of his subjects. But the Psalmist, more clearly suggesting this bread, says: “Rise up after you have sat down, you who eat the bread of sorrow” (Psalms 126:2). Hence he confesses to the Lord, saying: “You will feed us with the bread of tears, and you will give us drink in tears with measure” (Psalms 79:9). The twisted loaf, therefore, is the bread of sorrow and the bread of tears. And perhaps for this reason that one man carried three twisted loaves: because there were three who were going together, so that when they divided them among themselves, each would have one loaf apiece. This can also fittingly be understood of the goats. In this matter, what is to be noted except that men of a more secluded life, while they maintain a solitary way of living, do not have care for others? They therefore have one goat and one loaf, who are pricked with compunction only for their own sins and are not burdened by those of others through pastoral office. And because those who are of the same perfect way of life emulate in themselves the affliction of the flesh, fittingly one carries three loaves, another three goats, and a third a flask of wine. For it is as though one carries what all are about to offer or eat; and all eat or offer what one carries, when each one, kindled by pious emulation of them, has in himself good examples for others and does not neglect to imitate the good things that others have. And because the twisted loaves of bread are spoken of in the feminine gender, this surely suggests that for him who is pricked with compunction by habit, from some tears still more tears arise. For the affliction of the penitent is, as it were, fruitful as in the feminine sex; because the more often one is pricked with compunction, the more abundant streams of tears are supplied to him. To Saul, therefore, not one loaf but two are given, because it is not enough for the preacher to weep for himself alone. Let him therefore receive two loaves from the hands of the men, so that he may learn to weep by the example of the perfect, but may recognize that weeping is necessary both for himself and for his subjects. And because by the hand power is sometimes understood, the men have three loaves in hand; because those who have advanced to the heights of contemplation possess weeping in the strength of their power. For because they do not wish to be dissolved in vain joy when they could be, they are rightly able to weep when they wish. We indeed, being weak and negligent of the guard of our mind, even when we wish to be moved to compunction and to weep for our sins, are unable to do so. For since spiritual tears are produced from a great fervor of the spirit, we who are bound by the cold of our negligence are prevented from quickly growing warm unto tears. Rightly, therefore, those who are said to appear to the future king at the oak of Tabor are said to have loaves in their hands; because those who are perfect in the contemplation of the secluded life possess what is profitable for their subjects through the observance of virtues.

11. And it should be noted that Samuel commands the anointed king, saying: “And you shall receive from their hand.” What better meaning can be gathered from this phrase than what is plainly seen: namely, that we do not willingly imitate the affliction found in holy men? For those who seek the honor of prelacy and its dignity are innumerable, but those who desire the labor of ministry and the affliction of the flesh that comes with that same prelacy are few. We gladly wish to be exalted above others, but we avoid mourning their sins. For we see the loaves offered to us, but we refuse to receive them from the hands of those offering, because we observe the affliction in chosen men that we do not imitate. Therefore let the prophet command, saying: “You shall receive from their hand.” So that whoever desires to be a fit ruler of the Church should by no means refuse to take up what has been spoken. It is also fitting that Saul is first led to men leaping over great ditches, and then to those who carry loaves, young goats, and wine: so that the untrained preacher may learn from some to despise the heights of the world, and from others to offer the affliction of the flesh and the sacrifices of tears to almighty God on behalf of himself and those under his care. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:5

Bede: After these things, you will come to the hill of God, where the station of the Philistines is, etc. Understand the hill of God to be Gabatha, the city which is interpreted as a hill. Therefore, the Lord, coming to the height of His divine majesty to be explained to mortals, which impure spirits brazenly claimed for themselves, took a flock of prophets as companions, helpers, and witnesses of His preaching; just as He Himself taught by reading one of them from Isaiah (Luke IV); those prophets, indeed, were accustomed to return from the hidden summit of the highest glory to the common weaknesses of humanity by both doing and speaking, with their life and their word being like an instrument they played and a song they sang. And beautifully, the flock of prophets descending from the height and prophesying is described not as having musicians behind them, but in front of them. For the teacher is truly shown to have been in the height of divine contemplation, who, condescending to speak to the humble and weak, preaches everything he is going to say, demonstrating by his actions what he will teach by his words, similar to how it is written of the Lord: “Jesus began to do and to teach” (Acts I). Therefore, when the prophets met him, Saul accepted the Spirit of the Lord and prophesied with them, and he was immediately changed into another man. So also our Lord, after revealing the prophecies about Himself from the prophets, openly filled with the spirit of grace and prophecy, that is, preaching the joys to come, took up His ministry. And without delay, as the minds of believers advanced, He was changed from a prophet into the Christ, not by beginning to be what He was not, but by appearing as what He was. — Commentary on Samuel

Gregory the Dialogist: 12. A hill is the height of a mountain. What is more rightly understood by this hill than the holy intent of the Scriptures? It is indeed the height of a mountain, because it does not lie on the plain of the letter, but is exceedingly elevated in the sublimity of spiritual meanings. The untrained preacher therefore sets out on the right path of virtues if, after he has seen the public preachers and the secluded anchorites, he sees and recognizes the height of Scripture. In this matter it should be noted that we said Saul, in that he stood out above all the people from his shoulders and upward, signified a learned man of great conduct. Why then does he ascend to the hill of the Lord, so that he may come to the height of the Scriptures, which he already knows? But in a similar way it could have been asked about him why he went to see the men leaping over great ditches, when he was said to be a man of great conduct. To which it must be said: because he was shown to represent great men in conduct, but untrained in the ministry of preaching. He who can advance through the examples of better men both in the purity of contemplation and in the office of preaching ought to return to the height of the Scriptures, because the higher the life by which he advances, the more keenly he attends to the sublimity of sacred speech. Let the prophet therefore say: “After these things you will come to the hill of the Lord.” As if to say: When you grasp the perfection of holy men through perfect imitation, you will advance into so great an understanding of Sacred Scripture that what you once thought you perceived in it sublimely will now seem plain.

13. There is the garrison of the Philistines: because those who fell from heaven through the drink of pride mock the Jews and heretics through the Scriptures. They stand therefore on the hill: because the hearts they possess they deceive in the Scriptures by the falseness of understanding. Therefore, as often as the Jews presume to ascend to the hill of the Lord, they are captured by the Philistines standing there. For while they think they understand the meaning of Scripture in a lofty way, demons meet them in their ascent and, deceiving them, slay them. Rightly, therefore, Saul is commanded to go to the hill of the Lord not immediately, but first, after seeing those leaping over pits and carrying bread and wine: because faithful men are fortified by the great protection of the teaching and examples of their betters. Hence it is also said to the same Saul: “You will meet a company of prophets coming from the high place.” As if to say: You will be able to fear the garrison of the Philistines so much less, the more you will have prophets meeting you for your security. And because a company of prophets is mentioned, a great multitude of our defenders is signified. Let the Jew therefore be afraid: because when he ascends alone, he perishes. For what do those same prophets coming to meet us say? “Woe to him who is alone, for if he falls, there is no one to lift him up” (Eccl. 4:10). For he is alone who is abandoned by God. Certainly no one lifts up this one when he falls, because no saint takes up one abandoned by God. Therefore every elect person ascends securely: because he is not alone. For He who speaks through us is with us. For He also promises, saying: “Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matt. 28:20). Indeed he was not alone who said: “I am not alone, but He who sent me is with me” (John 8:16). Likewise he was not alone who demanded, saying: “Do you seek proof of Christ who speaks in me?” (2 Cor. 13:3). This can fittingly be understood not only of the Lord’s spiritual presence, but also of the material teaching of the elect. Holy preachers indeed ascend to the hill of the Lord, where the garrison of the Philistines is: but because they have the company of prophets meeting them, they in no way fear the Philistines themselves. But who are these prophets, if not the great preachers of holy Church? For the ministry of prophets is to reveal hidden things and to predict the future. Moreover, the teachers of holy Church, when they draw the hidden meanings of the Scriptures to common knowledge, open secrets that are unknown: and when they preach eternal joys, they reveal things to come. Prophets therefore come to meet us: because the teachers of holy Church show us the truth of holy Scripture. For when they tell us what we wish to know from sacred eloquence, they meet those going along the way that leads to the hill of the Lord. There, therefore, through the meeting of the prophets, we are secure where the Philistines are: because through the authority of holy preachers we recognize the understanding of Scripture, in which the Jews and heretics are slain by demons with the sword of their own errors. Behold, for if we have recourse to the Law of Moses, we certainly find the hill of the Lord. There surely we read of the tabernacle, there of the high priest, there of the blood of goats and calves together, and of the Paschal Lamb. The Jews understand these things according to the letter by their own spirit, and because they have no prophet with them in this, they die. If I wish to ascend to this mountain, I first see the prophets descending, and I ascend securely. And to leave aside the new ones for the moment, Isaiah first meets me as I ascend, saying: “Like a sheep he will be led to slaughter, and like a lamb before his shearer, he will not open his mouth” (Isa. 53:7). Hence Paul says: “Christ, appearing as high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, nor through the blood of goats or calves, but through his own blood, entered once into the holy places, having obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:11-12). But if we wish to have more on this hill, we find all the prophets by seeking them: because what the old teachers had promised, the new preachers demonstrate to have been fulfilled in our Redeemer.

14. Wherefore the Redeemer of the human race can also fittingly be designated by the name of a hill. Whence Isaiah, prophesying, says: ‘In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains’ (Isa. 2:2). He is called a hill on account of the sublimity of His holiness, and of the Lord, because He is the Son of the most high Father. On this hill indeed the garrison of the Philistines is said to be, because He was born as a sign to be contradicted. The garrison of the Philistines is the opposition of heretics. For as though standing on the hill, they lie in ambush against those ascending to the hill; and while they pervert the Holy Scriptures by expounding them wrongly, they destroy those who are carelessly ascending to know the Redeemer. Therefore let the elect not be alarmed; ascending, he meets a company of prophets, because all the preachers of the Old and New Testament announce to him the Redeemer Himself. They come indeed from on high, because what they preach on earth, they see in heaven. Whence also to John, as though truly from the chosen company of prophets, it is said from heaven: ‘Come up hither, and I will show you what must take place after this’ (Rev. 4:1). Who, when he had ascended, beheld and recognized the Lamb—whom Moses had prefigured as to be slain, and whom he himself had seen offered on the cross—now reigning; and he learned how great were the thanksgivings rendered to Him by those for whom He had been slain. Therefore the preachers come from on high, because what they preach to those beneath them, they have learned in heavenly contemplation.

15. Well also is the company of prophets said to have met Saul at the entrance of the city; because we can see the great preachers of Holy Church where they descend, not where they are exalted. For the things which they say to us little ones, we hear; but the things which they see in heavenly places, how they see them, or how sweetly they love them, we do not see. For the apostle Paul was caught up into paradise and was taken up to the third heaven, and he heard secret words which it is not lawful for a man to speak (2 Cor. 12:4). Who then could find so great a preacher caught up into paradise, or taken up to the third heaven? But blessed Paul said these things about himself under compulsion. Whence also at the end of the sublimity he had set forth, humbling himself, he says: “I have become a fool; you compelled me” (2 Cor. 12:11). How great then were those things which he was unwilling to tell, if he came to reveal even these under compulsion? For he who heard things which it is not lawful for a man to speak also saw things which it is not lawful for a man to know. You might perhaps say: Even if he wished, how could he express in human speech the beauty of that third heaven, the light of that innermost brightness, the indescribable splendor of the angels, and the inaccessible glory — how sweetly all those elect and blessed eternal citizens receive from the fullness of that One, how eagerly they partake, how completely they are filled, how pleasantly they taste the sweetness of divine goodness, with what delightful fullness they are satisfied: what the splendors are for each one from that one ineffable light of the Creator, what the beauty of all together is from that one glory: by what excellence of dignity some surpass others, and by what means the good are subject to the better in the ineffable delight of justice?

16. We cannot, therefore, follow the lofty Paul to that height, but we enter the city, in which, as if descending from on high, he comes to meet us. For we who cannot perceive the lofty things that the preachers see must reverently hear the plain things that they teach. But when they descend, they carry before them the psaltery, the timbrel, the flute, and the harp. They have the psaltery because they announce the kingdom of heaven; they have the timbrel because they preach the mortification of the flesh; they have the flute because they command their subjects to weep for the acquisition of eternal joy; and they also have the harp because they teach the devout to rejoice in the certainty of eternal goods. The psaltery indeed, which resonates from the upper part, also signifies the proclamation of eternal joys, because when it urges us to love heavenly things, it sends forth the sound of its sweetness, as it were, from the upper part. The timbrel, because it is stretched over the hide of a dead animal, fittingly represents the mortification of our flesh. That the flute is customarily present at the funeral rites of the dead, we have learned from the Gospel, for when the Lord wished to raise the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, He cast the flute players out of the house and drove away the tumultuous crowd (Matt. 9:25). What then is expressed by the flute, if not the mourning of the saints? For when they see themselves cast out from that eternal life which they desire, they lament over themselves as though they were dead. The harp, however, is a very joyful musical instrument. By this instrument the word of consolation for the elect is fittingly represented, because just as we are gladdened by the sound of the harp, so the elect preachers console us amid the hardships of our present exile. The psaltery, therefore, is placed first in the procession of the preachers, because above all else the glory of the heavenly kingdom must be proclaimed, so that when we recognize the good that we should love, we may desire to labor for the attainment of that same good. Hence it is that when Matthew in the Gospel was setting forth the beginnings of the Lord’s Incarnation, he said: John began to preach and to say: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt. 4:17). But because when we know heavenly things, if we wish to reach them, it is necessary that we mortify the passions of the flesh, the preachers of holy Church produce, as it were after the psaltery, the sound of the timbrel. And what is this mortification of the body other than a preparation for eternal blessedness? We learn to love the preparation of heavenly things, and we are commanded to seek them with the most ardent weeping. For we mourn the dead, as it were with a flute, when we grieve vehemently that we do not yet live in that eternal life. After the timbrel, therefore, our preachers have the flute, because they teach us both to mortify our members and to groan for love of eternal life. They also bring the harp after the flute, because they command us so to bewail the hardships of our present exile that we may rejoice in the promise of our eternal inheritance. For the great prophet sounded the psaltery when he said: My sheep hear my voice, and I give them eternal life (John 10:27). Again striking the psaltery, he says: The Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life (John 3:14). He sounded the timbrel who said: Mortify your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil desire (Col. 3:5). He sounded the flute who said: Be afflicted, mourn; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to sorrow (James 4:9). He sounded the timbrel who said: For your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter (Ps. 43:22). He holds the flute before him who likewise speaks to God, saying: You will feed us with the bread of tears, and give us drink in full measure (Ps. 79:6). The Lord held the flute before Him when He said: Amen I say to you, that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be sorrowful (John 16:20). But as if adding the sound of the harp, He says: Your sorrow shall be turned into joy (ibid.). He sounded the harp for us, as it were, who said: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men; the Lord is near (Phil. 4:4). He sounds the harp for us who, announcing the good things of our city, says: Joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of praise (Isa. 51:3). Because, therefore, the preachers of holy Church announce the heavenly kingdom, and for the attainment of that same kingdom command us to mortify the flesh, to bewail our captivity, and to exult in hope of future blessedness, the prophets descending from the height are said to carry before them the psaltery, the timbrel, the flute, and the harp. And they are called a company of prophets, because the pastors of holy Church are many, yet they have one pastor, the Lord Jesus Christ.

17. And it should be noted that the prophets are said to have the psaltery, drum, flute, and harp before them, so that the pattern of the elect preachers might be seen. For the reprobate have what they preach behind them, because they say and do not do; they neglect to do the good things that they know. Whence also to King Saul, already despising the Lord’s commands, it is said: “Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23). Hence the Lord complains through the prophet concerning the Jews, saying: “They have cast me behind their back” (1 Kings 14:9). Therefore the holy teachers, because they maintain the path of heavenly conduct that they preach by the continual course of good works, in their figure it is said that the prophets had the psaltery, drum, flute, and harp before them as they descended. For these instruments can be referred to the preaching of the Redeemer. And because not far above we said that the hill of the Lord is the Redeemer himself, let us consider the fittingness of the instruments. He who names him king of the eternal kingdom surely sounds the psaltery for us. And he who affirms the discipline of our mortification in him strikes, as it were, the drum. He sounds the flute who proclaims the Redeemer dead for the salvation of the world. He strikes the harp who declares that he rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. But we are made glad at the delight of such great instruments if we hear the very flock of prophets sounding forth. For David says: “His going forth is from the highest heaven, and his circuit reaches to the highest” (Psalms 18:7). Hence he likewise says: “All kings of the earth shall worship him, all nations shall serve him” (Psalms 71:11). For he held, as it were, the psaltery in praise of the Redeemer, who obtained the higher part of praise and preached the coming of the Redeemer from the highest heaven. Isaiah touched the drum of his mortification, saying: “And we saw him, and there was no beauty, and we desired him, despised and the lowest of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity; and his face was as it were hidden and despised, whence we did not esteem him” (Isaiah 53:3). Likewise sounding the flute of his death, he says: “He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb he was silent” (Isaiah 53:7). David, striking the harp of the resurrection, says: “Let the whole earth be moved before his face; say among the nations that the Lord has reigned from the wood; for he has established the world, which shall not be moved” (Psalms 95:10). Also touching the harp of the ascension, he said: “O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, who ascends above the heaven of heavens to the east” (Psalms 67:33–34). Therefore the prophets descend from on high when the holy preachers announce to us those mysteries which they have learned by lofty contemplation. And they sound the psaltery, flute, and harp, because they declare our Redeemer to be Lord of the eternal kingdom, both humbled through the human condition, and that by his death he redeems the world, and by rising again he restores heavenly things. Which instruments of praise they surely have before them, because they understand what they say. On the contrary, Caiaphas is said to prophesy (John 11) and yet to be ignorant of what he said, since the flute of the Lord’s death that he touched he did not have before him as an elect prophet would, but behind him. Well then is it added concerning the elect prophets: “And them prophesying.” Because while they see what they say, they have, as it were, the instruments that they play before them; and while they preach, they bring forth what they have known by foreseeing. Therefore Saul comes to the hill of the Lord when the chosen yet unformed preacher advances in spiritual knowledge and recognizes the Redeemer of the human race not on the level plain of his humanity, but in the lofty majesty of his divinity. Then indeed he hears the choirs of the prophets singing together, because he perfectly understands all the Scriptures that concern him. He therefore who saw the men leaping over great pits, who beheld those carrying kids, and loaves of bread, and a flask of wine, arrives at the hill of the Lord—when he who is known to have advanced through the examples of the elect is raised to the summit of knowledge, and knowing the Redeemer sublimely, loves him ineffably, from whom, as a familiar friend, he may obtain what he further desires to know about him. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

Richard Challoner: Prophets: These were men whose office it was to sing hymns and praises to God; for such in holy writ are called prophets, and their singing praises to God is called prophesying. See 1 Par. alias 1 Chr. 15. 22, and 25. 1. Now there were in those days colleges, or schools for training up these prophets; and it seems there was one of these schools at this hill of God; and another at Najoth in Ramatha. See 1 Kings 19. 20, 21, etc.

Richard Challoner: The hill of God: Gabaa, in which there was also at that time, a high place or altar.

1 Samuel 10:6

Gregory the Dialogist: 18. It is well added: “And the Spirit of the Lord will leap upon you, and you will prophesy with them.” The Spirit of the Lord is said to leap because the hearts of the elect are suddenly filled with His gifts. They immediately begin to prophesy, because those who are full of the divine Spirit cannot remain silent about the mighty works of God. Or he is declared about to prophesy, to whom Samuel promises the grace of the divine word. This is as if he were saying: You who now cannot speak in that abundance of the Spirit coming upon you—when that fullness has poured itself into you, you will abound with a wealth of speech. Indeed, the Lord, promising this leaping Spirit to the disciples, says: “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will teach you all truth, and will announce to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13). The Spirit indeed leaps upon those whose hearts He illuminated by coming suddenly (Acts 2:2). And once illuminated, they prophesied, because they proclaimed the Redeemer of the human race in every tongue. This we certainly see happening even now in the holy Church, because often those who desire to speak divine things are suddenly taught by that same Spirit, and they are also able to speak most excellently things they had learned by no prior meditation. For in return for keeping the commandments of God, they receive the grace of the word in the sublime revelation of the Redeemer. For what wonder is it if those who through purity of life are always the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit can suddenly receive the light of knowledge? But what kind of gift of the Holy Spirit would it be if it gave knowledge and did not give the affection of great charity? For those who are filled with that Spirit preach heavenly things, but they love what they speak. Therefore it is fittingly added: “And you will be changed into another man.” What is the love of the elect mind other than a transformation of the old nature? For our nature was so condemned through the fall of the first man that it daily declines by slipping and grows old by declining. But we who fail in ourselves, when that Spirit leaps into us, are renewed, because we are immediately made what we were not. Someone was lukewarm, but suddenly visited by the Spirit, he is made fervent. He begins to burn with devotion, to exercise himself vigorously in good work. He has therefore been changed into another man, because he began to be what, before the Spirit leaped into him, he could not be. Someone is already of good conduct, loves heavenly things, despises earthly things, but he cannot manage to weep for the things he loves above or for the things he hates below. Often indeed he desires to weep and cannot, though he recalls having committed many things for which he ought to weep; but when that Spirit suddenly leaps in, he bursts forth into fountains of tears. He is therefore changed into another man, who receives the grace of compunction through the coming Spirit, which he did not have before the coming of that same Spirit. Someone desires to obtain purity of heart, to think on heavenly things, to be hindered by no encounters with worldly cares; but he cannot rise up to what he desires through devotion by means of the affection of purity. But suddenly, caught up in the power of the coming Spirit, he ceases to be carnal, powerfully casts aside the cares of the world, and rises to the contemplation of eternal things with wonderful purity. He then marvels that he is what he was not; he then marvels that he was not what he is. For when he sees himself to be such in spiritual things, he who is such marvels that he could not have been such before. He is therefore changed into another man, who sees himself to be what he was not, and not to be what he had been. Well therefore concerning Saul: “You will be changed into another man.” Because when the preachers of the holy Church receive the grace of divine preaching, they do not receive only the knowledge of the word, but the power of love—so that through the word they may be able to benefit others, and through love of the word they themselves may become better. For when they speak, they are changed into another man, because when the Spirit speaks through them, they themselves are joined to that same Spirit by wondrous charity, and they no longer dissent from His will in either word or deed. For sacred Scripture, praising such a man, says: “He who clings to God is one spirit with Him” (1 Cor. 6:17). For we cling to God when we abundantly receive the grace of the Holy Spirit; and we are made one spirit with Him when we are in harmony with the divine will in mind, mouth, and deed. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:7

Gregory the Dialogist: 19. These indeed are the signs by which a preacher may recognize himself, and then let him dare to undertake everything he plans to do, when he has learned by certain experience that he has received the power of the Holy Spirit in great abundance of charity. But the preacher ought to teach those things which he does, just as Luke says of the Lord: “That Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day in which, commanding the apostles through the Holy Spirit whom He had chosen, He was taken up” (Acts 1:1-2). Hence Paul says: “I dare not speak of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed” (Rom. 15:18). And so Samuel commands the anointed king, saying: “Do whatever your hand finds to do.” As if to say: When you see yourself filled with divine grace, teach others whatever you do, because from the divine grace presiding over you, you have the ability both to live excellently and to preach profitably. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:8

Bede: And descending before me in Gilgal, etc. The Lord descended before John in Gilgal, that is, the place of rolling, namely those about which he speaks to the Father in the Psalm: Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold (Psalms 68). Not because the Lord had undergone death’s destruction before John, but because before they killed John, the Jews were persecuting Jesus and seeking to kill Him; because He not only broke the Sabbath but also called God His Father, making Himself equal to God (John 5). And John descended to Him, because he accepted the mud of prison and death as an example of His humility and patience. The Lord offered Himself as a sacrifice to the Father and made peace through His blood, both on earth and in heaven. But He awaited the time of His forerunner’s example. The completeness of this, according to the custom of the Scriptures, is signified by the number of seven days, until, namely, the same John, having undergone death by the wicked, showed what the Lord Himself would suffer. — Commentary on Samuel

Gregory the Dialogist: 20. What does it mean that he first says: “Do whatever your hand finds,” and then adds: “You shall wait seven days for me, until I come and show you what you are to do”? But he who had received the signs by which he would know himself anointed king by the Lord was to be tested as to whether he would recognize those very signs. This indeed suits a spiritual rather than a historical explanation. For we have said that coming to the hill of the Lord pertains to the perfect knowledge and love of the Redeemer, and being filled with the gift of prophecy pertains to the power of the Holy Spirit. He says therefore: “When all these signs have come upon you, do whatever your hand finds.” Because whoever is certain of the intimate inspiration of the Holy Spirit can be confident both in the purpose of good work and in the ordering of preaching. He likewise said: “You shall wait seven days for me, until I come; and I will show you what you are to do.” Because the chief pastors of the holy Church, while they are uncertain about the progress of those beneath them, are very anxious to recognize it in them by sure indications. But what are the indications of the Spirit, if not the surpassing gifts of humility? For the Holy Spirit, the greater the light of virtues with which He illuminates the hearts of the elect, the more abundantly He enriches them with the gift of humility. For the loftier they are in merits, the lowlier they are through the virtue of humility. He therefore who is commanded to go down to Gilgal before the prophet and to wait, is clearly given the burden of obedience for the purpose of testing his humility. It is also the right order of a chosen way of life that one should not impose obedience on others which he himself has not taken care to render to others. He is therefore commanded to wait, so that it may be recognized whether he is truly humble. If, then, the sign of a perfect preacher is the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and the virtue of humility is the sign of that fullness, what is said in praise of humility except that its gifts are the signs of signs?

21. But because the king who is about to sacrifice is commanded to be preceded by the prophet, we discern better the things that are said if they are examined in order. Gilgal is indeed interpreted as “wheel.” But what does the wheel signify in this place, if not the life of the obedient? A wheel indeed advances by turning, and now seeks the heights, now the depths. So indeed is the life of the obedient, because it does below what draws it upward, and sees above what it performs below, as if it is raised to the heights and set down to the depths. For what the obedient do below, they lift upward; because when they obey the commands of their superiors, the things they perform are earthly, but from the earthly things they do, they await heavenly rewards. Likewise, what they hold above, they bend toward the earth, because in order to perform earthly things well, they contemplate heavenly things, and they do only that which they perceive to be fitting to that supreme happiness. Indeed, commanding Moses to turn this wheel, the Lord said: “Make all things according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain” (Exod. 25:40). For he who saw on the heights what he made in the depths surely bent the upper part of the wheel toward the earth. He had also raised the lower part to the heights, who said: “The Lord lives, in whose sight I stand” (3 Kings 17:1). He stood indeed in the lowest place through the humility of obedience, while he rebuked the faithless king; but he raised the level ground of his work to the height of divine contemplation, so that he might turn the running wheel most excellently, while in his earthly work he looked to what heavenly reward he might merit. This indeed is the pattern of chosen obedience: that in everything we do outwardly, we look to the power of the Creator present everywhere. Thus indeed in the submission of our obedience we can have both uprightness of work and growth in devotion. We are indeed upright in work then, because we exert ourselves in the labor of obedience for him whom we behold. We are also devout, because we believe we please him whom we regard as the observer of our labors and the bestower of eternal recompense. And because the commands of superiors must be observed with perfect humility, it is well said to Saul: “You shall wait seven days.” For the number seven stands for the gifts of the sevenfold Spirit. We wait seven days for the teachers of the Church when, through the power of the sevenfold Spirit, we receive such great clarity of inward devotion that we in no way neglect their precepts. In this place it should be noted that he did not say: “You shall be in Gilgal for seven days,” but: “You shall wait for me seven days, after you have gone down before me.” We go down before the preacher when we do what is commanded us by his judgment. Then indeed we are said to descend, because we subject our minds to their authority. But to wait seven days is to fulfill the good of obedience with every light of the heart. Which we certainly do when we pass over neither the hard nor the easy commands of our superiors. For the Lord wanted no day to be devoid of this light, when he said: “Whoever breaks one of these least commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19). And because the perfect obedience that we render to men is a gift of the Creator, he who waits seven days is said to offer an oblation and to sacrifice peace offerings. The oblation is indeed the Lord’s because it is offered to men for God’s sake, but what is offered to men is received by God. The victims are the services of the obedient, because when we submit to men for God’s sake, we overcome the proud spirits. By other virtues we indeed assail the demons; through obedience we conquer them. Therefore those who obey are victors, because while they perfectly subject their own will to others, they themselves through obedience exercise dominion over the fallen angels.

22. But it should be noted that Samuel commanded Saul to go down before him to Gilgal, yet did not want him to offer oblation and sacrifices without him. For he said: “I indeed will come down to you so that you may offer oblation and sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait for me, until I come to you, and I will show you what you should do.” What is this but that we ought both to be wisely ignorant of our own good deeds, and sometimes to know them usefully? They should indeed be left unknown, lest they furnish occasion for pride to us who are weak; but they should be known by the more perfect, so that they may grow through devotion. Hence it is also fittingly said in the Gospel concerning the pregnant Elizabeth: “And she hid herself for five months” (Luke 1:24). For those who cannot yet be spiritual and strong are designated by the number five. But she who has newly conceived hides herself for five months: because she does good through the bodily senses; but because she is not yet spiritual and strong in this good work, she wisely conceals what she does. He therefore offers sacrifices to God, he offers oblation, who waiting seven days receives the coming prophet: because then what he offers is worthy of God, when the one offering is righteous by the virtue of obedience and filled with fear by the consideration of divine immensity; when he does not believe himself to be anything other than what he knows by the approval of his superiors. For it is as if we offer in the presence of the prophet, when we believe only those works of ours to be worthy of divine acceptance which are approved by the judgment of holy preachers. And because he is said to sacrifice in the presence of the prophet, this assuredly signifies that in our works we ought to trust wise and spiritual men. Because likewise Saul waits seven days, the preacher of the holy Church ought to wisely order the virtue of his subject, so that he does not praise his good deeds before him except when he can despise the favor of his own praise. Hence also the same oblation and sacrifices are declared to be offered by Saul to God, and not to himself. For he offers sacrifices to God who is not vainly puffed up about the virtue he possesses, but attributes everything he accomplishes to the grace of the Creator. This also, because we learn by the teaching of doctors, Samuel fittingly says in concluding his speech: “And I will show you what you should do.” He indeed shows the one who waits what he should do: when the one who is known to obey perfectly is taught how he ought to command others. But this is not yet shown to Saul, but is promised. For he is not sent to sacrifice, but to wait. And because we advance by conversation with the saints, it is fittingly added. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

Richard Challoner: Galgal: Here also by dispensation was an altar of God.

1 Samuel 10:9

Bede: So then, when He turned His shoulder, etc. When the Lord went away from John, immediately obeying the command of paternal dispensation, He was changed in a new thought, so that He who hitherto had been subject to His parents and was considered like other mortals, from then on, by the clear proofs of virtues, would also be revealed as God. And all that John had spoken of Him, and what other prophets had predicted, were true. — Commentary on Samuel

Gregory the Dialogist: 23. For the heart is changed to another when it is directed toward desiring better things; the heart is also changed when it is abandoned to evil. But in the case of Saul, who was first good and afterward evil, how this ought rather to be understood literally is not very clear. But if it is said with reference to his advancement, he had a changed heart, because he who had been searching for donkeys was now thinking about the governance of a kingdom. If, however, he is understood to have then received an evil heart, he was humble before the prophet; but as he began to depart, he likewise began also to grow proud. In his mind he was already thinking of himself not as a little one but as a king. He was not yet exalted in rank, but he was exalted in his own estimation. But since throughout this sacred history nothing is yet openly said about his pride, we too act more rightly if for the time being we pass over in silence what might seem unfavorable about him. What can still support his remaining innocence is said in what follows: That Saul was a child of one year when he began to reign, and he reigned two years over Israel (1 Sam. 13:1). For if he was a humble king for two years, the changed heart is asserted of him on account of the vigor of his purpose, not on account of a new swelling of pride. Therefore, in that Saul is said to have had a changed heart, he is likened to new preachers of the holy Church, who when they receive the office of preaching become better through divine grace. For Samuel anointed Saul as prince, but God changed his heart to another, because we receive the sacraments of holy orders outwardly from the teachers of the Church, but we are strengthened inwardly by the power of the sacraments from Almighty God. The power of the sacrament, however, is the grace of the sevenfold Spirit. Those who receive this grace are surely changed as if having received another heart, because those whom the Holy Spirit strengthens by his grace, he immediately makes to be what they were not. So indeed the disciples of the Redeemer also formerly were afraid; but when through the coming of the Holy Spirit another heart was changed in them, they preached the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31). For God changed their heart to another, to whom he granted knowledge of all languages (Acts 2:6). For he changed their heart to another whom he clothed with wondrous love and illuminated with the splendors of all virtues. And it should be noted that God changed his heart to another at the time when he turned his shoulder to go away from the prophet. For he turns his shoulder, as it were, to go away, when he who receives the office of preaching resolves to carry out what is commanded him concerning the pastoral office. He resolves indeed, but does not prevail, if God does not change his heart to another, because the highest place is not well governed unless the mind of the ruler is filled with the supreme grace of the divine gift. Moreover, because these things are promised to him for the future, it is added: And all these signs came to him on that day.

24. For what else is the teaching of a chosen preacher than the day of an instructed disciple? For he who walks in the day sees both the level ground on which to walk and the precipices to avoid. So indeed, while we are illuminated by the teachings of holy preachers, we openly perceive what must be done and what must be avoided. In that day, therefore, in which the prophet preaches, a good hearer perceives the signs of his election—he who beholds in himself those gifts of virtues which his preacher previously showed would come to him. They are indeed signs, because through these those who are advanced to the order of preaching understand themselves to be chosen by God. Therefore, let no one consider himself anointed for the leadership of the Church who has not seen the signs of that day present in the power of perfection. Let him therefore first attentively observe the first sign, namely whether, by the example of men, he already knows how to leap over great pits. Let him also recognize the following sign: whether at the oak of Tabor he met three men whom he saw carrying young goats and loaves of bread to Bethel, to the house of the Lord; whether he received two loaves from their hands. Let him likewise see the third: whether he came to the hill of the Lord, whether he beheld the bands prophesying, whether the Spirit of the Lord leaped upon him and he can already prophesy in their midst. And indeed he saw men leaping over pits if, by the example of the perfect, he has already learned to despise all things of the world. He came to the oak of Tabor if he already knows how to experience the strength and pleasantness of the contemplative life. There he also beheld those carrying young goats and loaves of bread and wine to the Lord, because from the lovers of the contemplative life he has already learned both to acknowledge himself unceasingly as a sinner, and to afflict the flesh for those same sins, and to offer the pain of his affliction gratefully to almighty God. He came to the hill of the Lord if, by advancing, he has ascended to the revealed intimate glory of the Redeemer or to the sublime understanding of the Scriptures. He met the band of prophets if he has understood the harmonious knowledge of the preachers of the holy Church. In their midst he felt the Spirit of the Lord leaping upon him; in that ineffable sweetness of inner experience he recognized in himself the gift of divinity coming upon him, and by speaking he poured forth the abundance of the grace he had come to know. As often as holy preachers show these things to us who are imperfect, through the teaching by which they illuminate us, they produce, as it were, a most brilliant day. And indeed all these things preachers who have already been advanced know, as their ordainers have set them forth.

25. Since therefore they have the day of signs, let them profitably consider whether they already see the promised signs. For he who has not yet learned to despise the glory of the world was able to hear the first sign promised, but did not see it displayed. If he does not know the strength and sweetness of the contemplative life, he has not deserved to see the good of the following sign. If he has not ascended to the height of the Scriptures through the knowledge of intimate learning, he has not yet come to the hill of the Lord. If he does not yet have the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon him, he cannot prophesy. For without that Spirit a pastor is carnal, and what he speaks cannot be attributed to the dignity of preaching, but to the boldness of rashness. With what dread, then, can we wretches be terrified? For behold, we have undertaken the leadership of others, we who do not possess the power of the governance we have assumed. We have heard the signs of spiritual prelacy which we do not see in ourselves through the light of experience. We desire earthly things, we are occupied with outward cares, and we are driven the further from heavenly contemplation the more we are weighed down by anxiety over earthly affairs. Pressed down also by this burden of earthly life, when can we attain that splendor of the intimate glory of the Redeemer, when can we arrive at the loftiest meanings of the holy Scriptures? But neither can we speak of heavenly things, which we do not know, as though they were known. And we who are unwilling to devote ourselves through quiet to the love of the interior life do not feel the Spirit of the Lord leaping upon us. Therefore let the signs that are known but not possessed terrify us, so that when we are pricked with compunction for the immensity of our negligence, we may seek the power of the order we have assumed through weeping and lamentation. Hence the Psalmist laments with the voice of the weak, saying: “We have not seen our signs, there is no longer a prophet” (Psalms 73:9). For one is a prophet when these aforementioned signs of prophecy are foreseen to be present in him. If therefore he is raised to the summit of prelacy, let him not measure himself by the height of his office, but by the power of his perfection. Let him therefore say: “We have not seen our signs, there is no longer a prophet.” As if to say: I would call myself a prophet now, if I could discern the gifts of the Spirit with which the person of a prophet ought to shine. He therefore who has heard of the perfection of the pastoral order he has assumed, which he has not deserved to obtain in himself by his manner of living, is not a fit teacher of holy Church. In the first king, therefore, the advancement of all pastors of holy Church is shown. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:10

Augustine of Hippo: First, you ask that I explain how it can be said in the first book of Kings [Samuel], “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul,” when it is said elsewhere “There was an evil spirit from the Lord in Saul.” Thus it is written: “And it happened that when he turned his back to depart from Samuel, God gave Saul another heart, and all the signs came to pass on that day. Then he came to the hill and, behold, a chorus of prophets met him on the way and the Spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied among them.” But Samuel had already predicted this when he anointed him. About that, I don’t think that there is any question. For “the Spirit blows where he wills,” and no one’s soul can be fouled by contact with the Spirit of prophecy, for it extends everywhere on account of its purity. Yet, it does not affect everyone in the same way; the Spirit’s infusion in some people confers images of things, others are granted the mental fruit of understanding, others are given both by inspiration, and still others know nothing. But the Spirit works through infusion in two ways. The first way comes during sleep, and not only to saints, but even Pharaoh and King Nebuchadnezzar saw what neither of them was able to understand but both of them were able to see. The second way is through demonstration in ecstasy (which some Latins translate as “trembling”—astonishingly idiosyncratic, but close in meaning nonetheless), where the mind is separated from the bodily senses so that the human spirit, which is assumed by the divine Spirit, might be free of perceiving and intuiting ideas, as, for instance, when it was shown to Daniel what he had not understood and, to Peter, the sheet let down from heaven by its four corners, who only later recognized what this vision represented. One way is through the mental fruit of understanding, when the significance and relevance of the things demonstrated through images is revealed, which is a more certain prophecy, for the apostle calls such prophecy “greater,” as Joseph deserved to understand but Pharaoh only to see, and as Daniel explained to the king that he saw but did not know. But since the mind is affected in such a fashion that it does not understand ideas of things by conjectural examination but intuits the things themselves, as wisdom and justice and every divine form are understood to be immutable, it does not pertain to the prophecy about which we are now concerned. — ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS TO SIMPLICIAN 2.1.1

1 Samuel 10:11

Bede: And all those who knew Him yesterday and the day before, etc. Jesus, teaching in His homeland, many hearing were astonished at His doctrine, saying: Whence has this man these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph, and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us? And they were offended in Him. And Jesus said to them: A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house (Matthew 13). — Commentary on Samuel

Gregory the Dialogist: 26. What is it that they say, “What is this thing that has happened,” except to marvel greatly at what could not be comprehended by them? They had known the man, a son of man; they saw him joined to the prophets. They had known him as carnal; they saw him as spiritual. They had known him as simple; they saw him as a prophet. They say therefore: “What has happened to the son of Kish?” They were able to know what he had been; what he now was, and how he could be so, they did not know. This indeed is the spiritual progress of the preacher: that he who was once known in ordinary life should possess something in a higher order that is beyond understanding. Three degrees of perfection are shown, because he says: “Yesterday and the day before.” In two days indeed the preacher is recognized; on the third he possesses something that even those who knew him cannot comprehend. For the first day belongs to hearers, the second to companions, the third is that of preaching. For the pastor had his first day when as a disciple he obeyed his superiors. For he who is devoted in the virtue of obedience is seen as if in a great light. He had his second day when he began to be an assistant to his betters. For this brightness of a great way of life, in the example of the elect, makes the greatest day. The Lord, indicating this day, said: “So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). But the third day is that of the rushing Spirit and of prophecy. For on the third day the pastor is beheld, when he matches the sublimity of his dignity with the splendor of his conduct, when, clothed with heavenly power, he shines upon his subjects with such life and such teaching that he can be seen by them but cannot be examined and judged. Such indeed was Moses when he descended from the mountain with a most radiant face, whose subjects saw the brightness but could not fix their gaze upon the shining splendor (Exod. 34:35; 2 Cor. 3:7). Such was he who gloried, saying: “But we, beholding the glory of God with unveiled face, are transformed into the same image, as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). Such indeed were those whom the Holy Spirit had filled. Whence also those who had gathered in Jerusalem say in amazement: “Are not all these who speak Galileans?” (Acts 2:7). For they were asking in order to understand what they were hearing, and they could not understand it. But those who had known Saul ask in wonder about the thing that happened to him; because we sometimes see those who are humble and despised in a lower order of holy Church, whom, when the Holy Spirit takes them up to the order of preaching, He clothes with the splendors of His graces and shows them to be wondrous in those same splendors. But we rightly admire the virtues of the saints when we ascribe them to the goodness of the Creator. Wherefore Moses also, praising the Lord, said: “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, glorious among the saints, wonderful in majesty, working wonders?” (Exod. 15:11). Hence the Psalmist says: “God is wonderful in His saints; He Himself will give power and strength to His people” (Ps. 67:36). — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

Tertullian: It is possible for an evil spirit to influence a person. The spirit of God later turned Saul into another man, that is, into a prophet, when people said, “What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” But the evil spirit also turned him into another man, in other words, into a renegade. For some time Judas was numbered among the chosen [apostles], even becoming the keeper of the purse. He was then not yet a traitor, but he was dishonest. Later, the devil entered into his soul.Therefore, if neither the spirit of God nor the devil enters into the soul of man at the birth of the soul, then the soul must exist separately before the accession of either spirit. If it exists alone, then it is simple and uncompounded in substance and it breathes simply as a result of the substance which it received from God. — ON THE SOUL 11.5-6

1 Samuel 10:12

Gregory the Dialogist: 27. What is it that up to this point it was said of Saul alone: “What has happened to the son of Kish?” And now, as if concerning many, the answer is given: “And who is their father?” But if this is understood according to history, it can in no way stand. It remains therefore that the meaning which is taken from the letter must be sought in spiritual signification. When therefore it is said: “Who is their father?” not only Saul prophesying is considered, but that entire company of prophets. For indeed all those prophets, because they were greatly spiritual, were reckoned not from carnal descent but from heavenly origin. The Father of the prophets is He who inquires through Malachi, saying: “If I am the Lord, where is my fear? And if I am a father, where is my love?” (Mal. 1:6). For because they are joined to almighty God in great love, they are called sons of Him whom they love as a father. This applies all the more fittingly to the preachers of the new Church, inasmuch as He raised them higher into heavenly nobility, who revealed to them the glory of so great a lineage in the form of a prayer. “Thus,” He says, “you shall pray: Our Father, who art in heaven” (Matt. 6:9). Which is as if to say: The holy preachers would be worthy of admiration if the wonders they perform they accomplished by their own power; but now what is seen is not a wonder, because He works this through them for whom nothing seems difficult. Let one therefore say to another: “And who is their father?” As if to say: What wonder is it if they teach marvelously, since it is not they themselves who speak, but the Spirit of their Father who speaks in them? Therefore it is not said: “Who is his father?” (John 6:42), lest what belongs to many sons be attributed to one alone. For only He who is Son by nature dares to say: “My Father works until now” (John 5:17). And likewise: “The Lord said to me: You are my Son, today I have begotten you” (Ps. 2:7). For in order to bring forth the difference between each dignity, He speaks to Mary Magdalene, saying: “I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17). As often therefore as one preacher is seen to be distinguished by a wondrous life or preaching, in his heavenly generation he is seen not alone but with innumerable others; because almighty God, who is shown to be wonderful in one, produces far greater admiration among people when innumerable others are considered who possessed that which they marvel at in one. This, however, can fittingly be referred to the detraction of carnal people: for when they try to diminish the reputation of spiritual men, they search out their carnal circumstances which they may bring forward for disparagement. And very often in holy Church those have a wondrous reputation for holiness who have no worldly eminence at all. When therefore carnal people find fault with either the fleshly origin or the poverty in those who by divine generation are already great and rich, they inquire about the father of the prophets as if in mockery. And because they consider it a very strange thing that lowly men of the world can appear so great, there is added: “Therefore it was turned into a proverb: Is Saul also among the prophets?”

28. Which indeed, if they were to examine with the eyes of the heart, they would not regard as a new thing. For the Holy Spirit acts according to His own custom when He raises the poor, the humble, and the simple to the summit of virtues. For of Him it is written: “Who sets the humble on high, and lifts up the mourning to safety” (Job 5:11). Hence the almighty Father says of His same almighty Spirit through the prophet: “Upon whom does my spirit rest, if not upon the humble, and the quiet, and the one who trembles at my words?” (Isaiah 66:2). Hence Paul says: “Not many wise according to the flesh, not many noble, but God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the strong; and God chose the ignoble things of the world, to destroy the things that are; so that no flesh should glory in His sight” (1 Corinthians 1:26, etc.). Which proverb can certainly be ascribed to the elect as well. For no less amazement was held concerning the blessed apostle Paul, when it was heard by the Church that he who used to assault the Church by threatening and slaughtering was now evangelizing and defending it by preaching. Then indeed those who heard could say: “Is Saul among the apostles? Does he who used to persecute Jesus now preach Jesus?” But this has now been turned into a proverb of the elect. A proverb indeed is when in what is said, something else is concealed. But the conversion of the blessed apostle Paul has become a proverb for the sinner. Let every sinner therefore hear of the conversion of blessed Paul, and not despair on account of the multitude of his crimes. For Saul, breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, was afflicting the elect everywhere; he was guarding the garments of those who stoned the protomartyr Stephen, and was as it were stoning with the hands of all, since he made them all free to stone (Acts 9:1 ff.). But he who was such while persecuting Christ, upon being converted to Christ, was made the head of the nations, because he obtained the leadership of the whole Church. While we behold so great a sinner converted and honored by the Lord with so sublime a dignity, let us presume that we too can find forgiveness for our sins. Our proverb therefore is this: that a persecutor is taken up for evangelizing, which contains this mystery—that the converted sinner may not only hope for pardon from the Lord, but that by fighting manfully he may be able to attain to the crown. But this is the usual difference between carnal and spiritual preachers: that carnal preachers, after the lofty words of preaching, descend to the depths of wicked works, while spiritual preachers, after the sublime things they speak, raise themselves up to even higher desires for the heavenly homeland. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

Richard Challoner: Their father: That is, their teacher, or superior. As much as to say, Who could bring about such a wonderful change as to make Saul a prophet?

1 Samuel 10:13

Bede: But he ceased to prophesy, etc. However, Jesus ceased to be considered a prophet, and began to be believed as Almighty God, of whom Isaiah to the pursuing peoples said: “Therefore desist from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he is considered on high” (Isa. II). — Commentary on Samuel

Gregory the Dialogist: 29. He comes to a high place after the ministry of prophecy, who raises his mind to the heavenly joys which he preaches, and lifts himself up by loving those things which he displays by speaking. Teachers indeed preach plain things with those of lesser rank; when they are with those whom they teach, they are, as it were, on level ground. And because after the words of preaching they prepare themselves by good works to merit the things they preach, they are said to come to a high place. Those who are certainly sublime in word and deed are not so in thoughts of pride. They always do great things, but never desire to appear great. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:14

Bede: And Saul’s uncle said to him: Tell me, etc. Saul’s uncle who speaks with him here is understood to be Ner, the father of Abner, who was the son of Abiel or Saul. Therefore, the relatives and brothers of the Lord, who were seeking what testimony John had given of him but not yet believing in him, as John the Evangelist testifies; the Lord himself responded, teaching that the entrance of the heavenly kingdom was proclaimed to those repenting by his precursor and promised; but he delayed saying that he was the God and Lord preached by that same precursor, and that he was to be proclaimed king to all nations unsparing and proud. Thus far we have briefly traversed the allegorical exposition of the anointing of Saul concerning the Lord. But also tropologically, that is, according to the rules of moral understanding, each of us keeps simple thoughts and those refreshed by the word of God to bear the burdens of fraternal necessity within the enclosures of our hearts, as if pasturing donkeys prepared for daily work, which namely, the most healthful devotion of thoughts, having been slipped away by some temptation as is usual at the moment, having escaped from watchfulness, broken with the reins of continence, to pursue external and secular things, it is necessary to recall wandering minds with all instant attention and to hasten to return them to the inner manger of heavenly fodder. And because we are not sufficient to do anything of ourselves, as from ourselves, having received the gifts of obedience and humility, let us ascend to hear the word of God, and being raised by his modest consolations, let us acquire that which our weakness could not achieve. And indeed it will come, with the help of divine grace, that not only do we recover the interrupted watchfulness of the mind, but also being enriched with the interest of a more perfect gift, we may begin to hope for the joys of the heavenly kingdom; indeed leading devoted people of God in charity, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, goodness, kindness, faith, modesty, continence, and the other fruits of the Spirit, we may be anointed with the oil of heavenly grace as prince over this inheritance of the Lord; and also to kiss with the prophetic mouth, that is, to receive in our manner the exhortatory admonitions of the holy Scripture, by which the hearts of either ourselves or our neighbors may be comforted. — Commentary on Samuel

1 Samuel 10:16

Gregory the Dialogist: 30. The word of the kingdom is the honorable dignity of the pastor. For by its very display it speaks: because he is no mere uncle who is elevated by so great an order. Therefore the king does not reveal the word of the kingdom: because the pastor of the Church speaks with the great splendor of divinity, but does not speak with pride. He who indeed does not reveal the word conceals what he speaks. For the word always speaks to him for whom it is a word; otherwise it is not a word. Therefore he possesses the word of the kingdom who shines with that manner of life which, as if by speaking, provides to others examples of the heavenly journey. Therefore he does not reveal the word who does not disclose the greatness of his holiness through vainglory. He indeed has what he might reveal, but what is shown through itself he does not wish to proclaim. For he who shines with great dignity and great holiness shows many things by living which he does not say by speaking. The Lord surely wished the preacher to have this word of the kingdom when He commanded that bells be placed on the garment of the high priest (Exod. 28:34). The garment of the high priest is the display of a good manner of life. It is furnished, as it were, with many bells when it multiplies the good works that cry out as an example to the lesser ones. But the king does not dare to reveal the word of the kingdom: because it is commanded of priests that they bear the beauty of their garment before the Lord. He bears the beauty of his garment before the Lord who both shows forth good things and, from the display of good works, seeks to please not men outwardly through vanity, but God inwardly through love. Then certainly the priest is silent, but as he walks, what he wears cries out; because the chosen preacher does not proclaim himself by boasting, but never ceases to speak by living well. Let it therefore be said of Saul that he did not reveal to his uncle the word of the kingdom: because chosen men, when they receive the splendor of dignity or the growth of a good life, put themselves forward by examples, but conceal themselves in silence. And because they believe themselves to be lesser in merits than other chosen ones, he to whom he does not reveal the word is called his uncle. For an uncle is called the brother of the father. Moreover, the Redeemer of the human race makes as many sons unto the unfading glory of the eternal inheritance as He instructs in the sacraments of His faith and doctrine. For those who are instructed in the Church are, as it were, still little children. But he who now meets Him as a perfect man through great merits is a brother of the Redeemer. The blessed Apostle Paul, praising such men indeed, says: Heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). Because therefore perfect preachers regard other chosen and perfect ones as such and themselves as imperfect, the one who is reported to have questioned him about the word of the kingdom is called the uncle of Saul. Moreover, Samuel had spoken to Saul this same word of the kingdom: because chosen men have learned the spiritual manner of life which they possess from the speech of their elders. But the king who had been initiated through anointing had not yet been chosen by the people. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:17

Gregory the Dialogist: 31. Mizpah, as I said, is interpreted as “watchtower.” In the ordination of the king, the people are called to Mizpah, because those who come together to ordain a pastor of holy Church are taught to attend to his spiritual qualities, not his carnal ones. To watch, indeed, is to recognize the preacher to be ordained through the standard of sacred Scripture. For sacred Scripture is the mirror of the elect. A pastor is known as if through a mirror, when he is shown by his conduct to be such as is proclaimed in sacred eloquence. Rightly, therefore, Samuel convokes the people at Mizpah, so that the election of a good bishop may not rest on human judgment, but on divine: since there is elected not such a one as can be determined by the will of men, but such as is declared in sacred eloquence. Because this is a gift of God, it is necessary that the people, who are known to expect such great things from God, be purged of their guilt through the satisfaction of penance. Moreover, the very recognition of sin is a preparation for the divine gift, because often when we believe ourselves unworthy of the divine gift, we merit it through humility. Hence Samuel also strives to turn those who had gathered to receive the king first to the consideration of their sins. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:19

Gregory the Dialogist: 32. Indeed, he carefully showed them both the good things which the Lord had bestowed upon them and the evil things which they themselves had done against the Lord, so that they might recognize that they had sinned all the more gravely, inasmuch as they had dared by sinning to offend him from whom they had received such great blessings. But what it means to reject the Lord, and how it ought to be understood according to the literal and the spiritual sense, has been explained at length above, where the Lord says to Samuel: “They have not rejected you, but me, according to all their works which they have done from the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” But because holy preachers instruct by teaching those whom they pierce by rebuking, he added, saying: “Now therefore, stand before the Lord by your tribes and by your families.”

33. We are indeed commanded to stand before the Lord when we prepare our hearts to know His commandments at the instruction of our elders. Or the elect stand before the Lord when they are considered by great men with respect to their spiritual virtues, so that whoever is seen to be better among them may be preferred over the rest through pastoral care. And because there are many orders of the faithful, they are commanded to stand before the Lord by tribes and families. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:20

Gregory the Dialogist: 34. He made them all stand by tribes and families, so that he might consider them all, and having considered all, might choose the more suitable one. But since he himself had already known the king by the Lord’s revelation, and had anointed him as ruler at His command, why is it that he is still sought out as one to be chosen through tribes and families? But the king had been found by the prophet alone. Therefore, the one already found is sought, so that he who had not been found by the people might be found by them. He is also sought by lot, so that the people could not doubt that the one whom the prophet chose had been provided by divine dispensation. What then is signified in this event, if not that the rulers of the holy Church must be chosen with great deliberation? For the highest preachers, from the interior grace of the Holy Spirit which they possess, are full of the great light of providence. And because they are deeply humble, they do not presume upon the greatness of their inner illumination. Therefore, what they rightly determine within themselves, they also test before others. For the prophet alone knows the future king, when the supreme ruler of the holy Church perceives the character and merits of the one to be ordained as ruler. He also anoints him as ruler when he declares him to be full of spiritual gifts. Nevertheless, he still convenes the people, divides them by tribes and kindreds, casts lots, and finds, as if by a method, the one whom he already knows. The tribes and families stand, as it were, divided, when in the state of virtues the diverse orders of the holy Church are examined. For when we behold the many perfections of the elect—when we see the purity of virgins, the strength of the continent, the honorable ministries of clerics, the devotion of monks—we observe, as it were, tribes standing before us. And because there is great variety among these in the service of God, when we likewise observe the varieties that exist within each order, we see standing before us not only tribes, as it were, but also kindreds. And the lot falls upon a tribe, because better men are often found in one order than in another. For a tribe receives, as it were, the lot, when those who are more perfect than others are seen to be suited for the ministry of preaching. But the lot does not yet fall upon a person, but upon a tribe, when there are many among whom a worthy person lies hidden. Thus there still remains something for the highest men to investigate. Rightly, therefore, the lot is said to have fallen upon the tribe of Benjamin, and Samuel is said to have brought forward that tribe and its kindreds and to have arrived at the son of Kish, because the elect and highest men of the holy Church do not cease to consider the virtues of each individual until they arrive at the one who is found worthy of the lot of pastoral ministry. But those who are worthy are vehemently terrified to take up the burden of so great an office. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:21

Gregory the Dialogist: Commonly in the school of adversity the heart is subdued under discipline, while, on sudden attainment of supreme rule, it is forthwith changed and becomes elated through familiarity with glory. Thus Saul, who had before fled in consideration of his unworthiness, no sooner had assumed the government of the kingdom than he was puffed up; for, desirous of being honoured before the people while unwilling to be publicly blamed, he cut off from himself even him who had anointed him to the kingdom. — The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 1, Chapter 3

1 Samuel 10:22

Gregory the Dialogist: 35. For they hide themselves so as not to be found, because they flee from undertaking a dignity whose burden they judge themselves unequal to bear. For spiritual leadership has the outward glory of dignity, and it also has the greatness of its inward labor. For a ruler is both honored by his subjects and bears those by whom he is honored. When therefore from the beginning of honor a cause of burden arises, because from the very source whence honor is received by the ruler, he takes on that by which he is weighed down. Although honor of dignity is in itself a great burden upon the mind, because it ought to be despised, and yet it pleases. It ought indeed to be despised lest it lift up the mind through pride; and it ought to be accepted, so that subjects may reverence the heavenly things which the teacher speaks. A heavier burden therefore arises from honor, because the chosen pastor can bear it only by great strength of soul—namely, to despise in himself what he receives in himself for God’s sake, so that he may be such a one for God yet not be such for himself, and may deny himself yet not deny himself; so that what he is, he may be for God, and what he is for himself, he may not be. And so the honor offered by a subject is accepted, so that preaching may be commended. The preacher also despises the honor offered, because he is not puffed up by being honored, but rejoices that the ministry of the word of God is commended. But how difficult this is to accomplish is better grasped by thinking than by speaking. For it is impossible for weak minds to bear bravely the burden of others and to manage by strength of mind the reverence of honor offered to them—so that amid the attentions of that same honor, one may know how to rejoice in the progress of subjects and not know how to swell with pride on account of the reverence shown to oneself. Because therefore chosen men do not wish to displease God, when called they flee from undertaking the office of leadership. But they hold that very flight from ministry as a virtue of humility, not as a boast of dignity. For they flee as much as they can; but if they have been appointed by the Lord, they can by no means remain hidden. For the same reason Saul is hidden at home, but at the Lord’s revealing he is shown forth, because chosen men withdraw themselves from the outward ministries of holy Church, yet by the Lord’s dispensation they are brought forward to administer outward ministries. But because now in holy Church those who withdraw themselves from such great honors are few, while those who thrust themselves forward are many, those who thrust themselves forward ought to note this: that he who is said by the prophet to have been hidden at home was being sought not for the spiritual dignity of the Church, but for the secular glory of a kingdom. For they were not seeking to make him a pontiff, but they wanted to make him king. Let the priest therefore see with what disposition the summit of holy Church ought to be fled from, if kings so cautiously flee from ascending the summit of the world. But because holy men, the more earnestly they refuse to accept the rank of leadership, are the more devoutly sought after by devoted peoples, there follows: ‘They ran and brought him from there.’ — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:23

Gregory the Dialogist: 36. The prelate stands in the midst of the people when his strength is observed by all his subjects. For to stand is a mark of virtue. He who does good works steadfastly, therefore, stands. And because good works provide an example to those of lesser rank, he is seen to stand in the midst of the people, not in solitude. This is also fittingly understood as referring to the uprightness of intention. For he who stands with uprightness of body raises his head on high. But he who does good publicly does not stand with the strength of his work if he does not possess uprightness of intention. The king is therefore said to stand in the midst of the people so that the model of the holy prelates of the Church may be shown; because they ought to display good works as an example to their subjects, yet they should avoid receiving the glory of the world for that same good work. But he adds how great he ought to appear, and says: And he was taller than all the people from his shoulder and upward.

37. We have shown at length above that the outstanding greatness of body in holy preachers signifies the increase of perfection. Therefore he is seen as exalted in the midst of the people, who, placed at the summit of virtues, is not unknown by his subjects. Indeed the right order for a chosen preacher is that before the loftiness of ecclesiastical eminence, he ascend the summit of virtue, that for the honor of God he obtain the summit of glory, but shine with greater loftiness through the revealed perfection of virtues. Such a Pastor indeed is greatly to be proclaimed by perfect men, and to be desired and loved by the lesser ones. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:24

Gregory the Dialogist: But I see we must enquire, how this Behemoth, who eats hay like an ox, is said to destroy the life of the spiritual, when, as was before said, by the word ‘hay’ is designated the life of the carnal. His food also will no longer be choice, if, in eating hay, he seizes the carnal. But it occurs at once in reply, that some men are both hay in the sight of God, and among men are counted under the name of holiness, when their life displays one thing before the eyes of men, and before the Divine judgment their conscience intends another. They therefore in the opinion of men are ‘choice,’ but in the accurate judgment of the Lord are ‘hay.’ Was not Saul hay in the sight of God, of whom the Prophet Samuel said to the people, Ye surely see him whom the Lord hath chosen, and of whom it is said just above, He is choice and good? For he whom the sinful people deserved, was both reprobate in the sight of God, and yet in the order of causes was choice and good. — Morals on the Book of Job, Book 32, Section 19

Gregory the Dialogist: Indeed the right order for a chosen preacher is that before the loftiness of ecclesiastical eminence, he ascend the summit of virtue, that for the honor of God he obtain the summit of glory, but shine with greater loftiness through the revealed perfection of virtues. Such a Pastor indeed is greatly to be proclaimed by perfect men, and to be desired and loved by the lesser ones. Well therefore is it added: “And he said to all the people: Surely you see whom the Lord has chosen, that there is none like him among all the people.” And all the people cried out: Long live the king. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:25

Bede: But Samuel spoke to the people the law of the kingdom, etc. John the Baptist spoke, as did the other prophets, to the people the law of the heavenly kingdom, which is given through Christ; and each wrote in his own book, and placed them among the sacred Scriptures, in which alone the divine will is always found. Certainly, according to the letter, it should be said that above, where the law of the king is promulgated, his proud presumption is foretold to allay the obstinacy of the requesting people. Here indeed, through the spoken, written law of the kingdom and stored for the sake of memory before the Lord, it is declared what kind of good ruler and what kind of spirit towards subjects he ought to have, according to the commands of Deuteronomy. — Commentary on Samuel

Bede: And Samuel dismissed all the people, etc. Even today, a teacher dismisses the congregation after the sermon is finished, similarly, once the reading of the little script is concluded, he dismisses all the listeners, each to their own conscience, so that they may reconsider what they have heard through meditation, and by acting on what they have meditated, may bring it to perfection. But if anyone is disturbed as to why I have presumed to interpret the deeds of a reprobate king allegorically in relation to Christ, who is the King of Kings, let him know that it is customary for interpreters, indeed it is the essence of the Scriptures, to draw either good from evil or an allegorical form from a good man, where such an order is necessary, impartially. Otherwise, it would never be appropriate to write with black ink, but always with bright gold, or some other honorable form; for God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1). A dark color does not unorderly signify brightness. Accordingly, Blessed Pope Gregory did not doubt to transfer even the anointing of the same Saul, not only to the kingdom of Christ but also his death, which befell because of his sin, to signify allegorically the innocent death of Christ. For you may read his exposition in Job, where he says, “Let the day perish in which I was born.” Similarly, concerning King Jehoiachin, who, condemned for his crime, is carried away from Judah to the Chaldeans, he understands it as representing the Lord being transferred from the unbelieving Jews to the salvation of the Gentiles. Likewise, the Church refers all the wisdom, sayings, and actions of Solomon, though he gravely sinned afterwards, to be figures of praises of Christ. Quite a few Church commentators, as the Apostle says, “The rock was Christ,” understand the rod that struck the rock as the cross of Christ, and Moses and Aaron, holy men who struck it, as representing the chief priests and doctors of the law, that is, the Pharisees, who crucified the Lord. And if that rock, although offering salutary drinks to the people, a rock nonetheless adhering to the back of the countryside with natural mass, signifies the ineffable gifts of Christ, or that patriarch anointed with holy chrism proclaims the Son of God anointed with the holy oil of the Spirit; or certainly Cyrus, the Persian, though a reasonable man yet wholly alien to the faith and sacraments of Christ, could rightly be consecrated in type or name for the congruity of prefiguring Christ: why could not a man of Christ, consecrated in youth with mystical anointing to Christ, illustrious unto death with the most holy name, predictively proclaim the future deeds of Christ in the flesh through figurative representation? It is also to be noted more attentively that the Scripture itself does not approve of all things it takes up as examples. For it is not to be thought that the wise man preached the art of the Marsi, which is undoubtedly demonic, when he says: “Who shall heal the enchanter bitten by the serpent?” The sense of which saying is, who will correct a teacher deceived by the devil? And if it seems novel to anyone that the same Saul is said to signify both good and evil at the same time, let him see the holy man Isaac blessing his son, but not recognizing the same son, as a type of the Jews, who having long sung of Christ the Savior coming blessed in the name of the Lord, did not recognize Him already present in the flesh by faith. Let him see the same son both blessed by an angel and rendered lame, signifying the Jewish nation, blessed indeed in those who believe in Christ, but lame in those who persecute Christ. And so, through the good, good things, through the evil, evil things, and through the evil, good things are figuratively represented freely according to places and times. However, in the reception of rewards, the good bring only the good things they have done, and the evil bring only the evil things they have done. Just as Ethiopians drawn in black color and a fair Saxon, discerned by their native color, can be easily and without any controversy distinguished, but differently in a painting, where unless each person is transformed into their proper colors as well as forms, the shamelessly deceptive picture, which has promised an image, is accused. — Commentary on Samuel

Gregory the Dialogist: 38. Concerning the law of kingship, because we spoke at length about it above, we recall only this about it: that in the historical narrative it is not prescribed but rather shown what wicked kings will do and what good kings should avoid. Kings are indeed to defend their subjects, not to strip them of their own goods. They ought to provide help to those under them, not to seize their fields, vineyards, and olive groves. But if anyone should wish to argue that these things were written not as things to be avoided but as things to be done, then the law of tyrants is written on behalf of that king who is demanded after the Lord has been rejected. The cruel law of the kingdom, therefore, is the punishment of a people that rejects the Lord. For it was not unjust that he should lose his fields and vineyards who willingly cast off the Lord reigning over him. Therefore we perceive that all the things contained in this law of kingship that seem contrary to equity are in fact equitable, if we consider what the people had sinned in asking for a king. For what great burden of law is it in the judgment of divine equity, if they should unwillingly place their sons and daughters in the service of the king, when they had willingly removed them from the liberty of God? And what is seen to be unfitting if, as the final consequence, those who rejected God reigning over them should themselves become the servants of men? Therefore, when the law of the kingdom is written, a punishment is handed down to perpetual memory by which the presumptuous may be chastised; and because it had been issued through the justice of the Lord, it is said to have been deposited before the Lord. But perhaps that right was something other than this law that is written. If that is true, then Samuel speaks this law before the king to the people, so that the king may know what to require from the people, and the people may know what they ought to render to their kings. This law is written in a book so that it may be preserved for the memory of those to come. It is placed before the Lord so that it may be held in reverence. We, however, have said that the kings of the Churches are the holy preachers, and we have shown that all the things contained in the law of kingship plainly apply to them. Samuel therefore speaks this law to the people when a chosen teacher instructs the faithful of holy Church with what humility they ought to submit to their superiors. It is also written in a book when he firmly implants these things in their minds. For he who speaks in such a way that his hearers forget what they have heard tells the law to the people but does not write it in a book. Therefore, for a teacher to write in a book the words he speaks is to commend them attentively to the minds of his hearers. The Lord was, as it were, wishing to write what He had said when He declared: “Remember the word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his lord” (John 15:20). Hence Paul, inscribing the spoken law of the kingdom in a book, says: “Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you; considering the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7). But if anyone here wishes to understand that another law is prefigured, let him look to the one that blessed Paul sets forth, saying: “Let him who preaches the gospel live by the gospel, and let him who serves the altar live by the altar” (1 Cor. 9:14). For the Lord was speaking this law of the kingdom to the people when He said: “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward” (Matt. 10:41). And so that He might inscribe this more firmly in the book, strengthening His word from the lesser case, He said: “Whoever gives one of these least of mine only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple shall not lose his reward” (Mark 9:40). — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5

1 Samuel 10:26

Augustine of Hippo: Accordingly, there is no doubt that human wills cannot resist the will of God, “who has done whatever he pleased in heaven and on earth,” and who has even “done the things that are to come.” Nor can the human will prevent him from doing what he wills, seeing that even with human wills he does what he wills, when he wills to do it. Take, for instance, the case of Saul. When God willed to give the kingdom to Saul, was it in the power of the Israelites to subject themselves to him or not to subject themselves? In a sense, yes; but not in such a way that they were able to resist God himself. As a matter of fact, God carried the matter through by means of the wills of people themselves, having, as he undoubtedly does, the almighty power to bend human hearts in whatever direction he pleases. So it is written: “And Samuel sent away all the people, everyone to his own house. Saul also departed to his own house in Gibeah; and there went with him a part of the army, whose hearts God had touched. But the children of Belial said, ‘Shall this fellow be able to save us?’ And they despised him, and brought him no presents.” Surely, no one will say that any of the children of Belial, whose hearts God had not so touched, did go with him. — ADMONITION AND GRACE 14.45

Augustine of Hippo: In vain also do they object that what we have established from Scripture in the books of Kings [which includes Samuel] and Chronicles—that when God wills the accomplishment of something which ought not to be done except by people who will it, their hearts will be inclined to will this, with God producing this inclination, who in a marvelous and ineffable way works also in us that we will—is not pertinent to the subject with which we are dealing. What else is this but to contradict without saying anything? Unless perhaps they gave you some explanation of why it seems this way to them, but you have chosen not to mention it in your letters. But what that explanation could be, I do not know. Do our brothers perhaps think that because we have shown that God so acted in the human hearts and led the wills of those whom it pleased him to lead, that Saul or David was established as king, these examples are not pertinent to the subject, since it is one thing to reign temporally in this world and another to reign eternally with God? Do they suppose, accordingly, that God moves the wills of those whom he has wished to the creation of earthly kingdoms but that he does not move them to the attainment of a heavenly kingdom? — PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 20.42

Gregory the Dialogist: 39. If a plain historical narrative is sought, what could ever have been stated more clearly? But if we attend to the force of each individual word, great things are enclosed within this simplicity of words. For the people are said to have been dismissed to their home, but the king is reported not to have been dismissed to his home, but to have gone away. Separately also it speaks of the homes of the people and of the home of the king: because the people are reported as dismissed to their home, and the king as having gone away to his own. Yet the people were dismissed before the king went away. Concerning the departing people it is also carefully indicated that they did not go all at once, but each one is reported to have gone away to his own home. But concerning those who followed the king it does not say: “A part of the army went away, each one after the king,” but: “A part of the army went with him.” Finally, those who follow the king are reported to have had their hearts touched by God; those who despise the king are called sons of Belial. This manner of speaking is certainly not simple, but is very subtle for one who knows how to consider not what merely sounds on the surface, but what is wisely intimated within. What does it mean, then, that the king is said to go away to his home, but the people to be dismissed? We have shown that the king designates the pastor of the Church, and the people designate his subjects. Now to go is the act of one who is free; to be dismissed belongs to one who can be held back. The king is therefore said to go away so that in the person of the preacher, freedom of spirit may be proclaimed. Teachers can indeed go when they wish and return, because they are strong in good work and wise in their inner disposition. They come, indeed, when they go out to their subjects either by the example of good work or by the word of preaching. They go away when they return to the secret place of the mind and inwardly arrange what they are about to do outwardly. Inasmuch as they remain daily in this contemplation, they are, as it were, hidden within their home. The king is therefore said to go away to his home because the preacher, proven by the work of eternal life and secure in the teaching of wisdom, is free to go out to his labors and to enter into the counsels of the mind.

40. But the people is sent to its own house, because faithful subjects are not free to arrange what they wish, but only what is commanded. They are sent away as if held under constraint, while they are directed to do what is ordered and to avoid presuming what is not ordered. And because they are sent to diverse works, each one of them is sent to his own house. For in order that we may well accomplish those things which they command us, before we appear in the work, we are hidden within in internal consideration. Therefore our kings send each of us to our own house, because they command us to go to those things which they enjoin upon us through the secret disposition of the mind. They indeed command well, but if we neglect to foresee the manner of our action, we scatter with an inconsiderate mind what has been well commanded. Therefore each one returns to his own house, when every faithful subject anticipates by arranging through the counsel of the mind the work of obedience that he sets before himself. But because after the king was chosen the people was sent to its own house before the king is said to have departed, something else can be signified in this. For those who receive the king go to their own house when each subject prepares himself by considering, so that he may render faithful obedience to him whom he has asked to be set over him. In this place, therefore, the point is not to consider things already commanded, but to subject oneself with the lowest disposition to things about to be commanded. And for the king to go to his own house is to consider how he may command with discretion those who are prepared. Therefore the house of the king is one thing, and that of the subject people another; because the former consider with a lofty mind the journeys of subjects that must be arranged, while the latter prepare to carry out the commands of their superiors through the strength of their inmost purpose. Whence also the house of the king is reported to be situated in Gibeah. For Gibeah means “lofty.” Therefore the house of the king is shown to be in Gibeah, because the chosen teacher strives not to dwell by thinking on low and earthly things, but to meditate on high and heavenly things. Whence also it is well said that a part of the army goes with him to Gibeah, because those who are strong against the devil follow their chosen pastor to the heights of virtues. Therefore a part of the army is said to go with the king, because in the holy Church very many are faithful who know how to humbly obey their superiors but do not know how to think lofty thoughts. They know indeed how to carry out what is commanded, but they do not know how to foresee what should be commanded to others. For Paul was, as it were, commemorating the soldiers of this part when he wrote to the Colossians, saying: “Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas, and John who is called Justus, who are of the circumcision: these alone are my helpers in the kingdom of God” (Col. 4:10). Likewise, addressing the Romans, he says: “Greet Prisca and Aquila, my helpers” (Rom. 16:5). And a little later: “Timothy my helper greets you, and Lucas, and Jason” (ibid. 21). He called his disciples helpers, because they were lesser in rank but sharers of the labor; they were subject to the Apostle by the humility of obedience, but while they preached with him the glory of the eternal kingdom, equally defended the truth with him, resisted the unbelievers, and bravely endured the persecutions inflicted upon them, they were, as it were, soldiers of the king in the war of God. A part of the army is said to go with the king to Gibeah, because perfect disciples are co-helpers of their teachers in the lofty governance of the holy Church; they bring what aid they can through the height of virtue, but they serve through humility those whom they help.

41. And because only those can do this who have been prevented by the grace of the Holy Spirit, when part of the army is said to go with the king, it is added: ‘Whose hearts God had touched.’ For since we are accustomed to touch with a finger, God touches the hearts of the Saints when He bestows upon them the grace of the Holy Spirit. And they feel His touch: because, having received the gift of inward virtue, they are stirred from the weakness of their carnality. They immediately become soldiers of the heavenly army, because through the power of the Holy Spirit they abandon what is weak and are prepared for undertaking mighty deeds in the warfare of Christ. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5