Commentary on 1 Kings · Book 43

1CHAPTER IV.

21. Therefore, repeating all things in summary, let us see what edification they contain in themselves according to another meaning. Because we said that in Samuel the new priesthood is signified, what does it mean that he grew old, except that while the holy Church is led through the passing spans of time, the beauty of conduct grows old in some priests? Now Samuel grew old because the vigor of authority withered. For Samuel was as if young when the order of priests, yearning only for heavenly desires, while seeking nothing earthly, the more effectively it could preach heavenly things, the more it nonetheless kindled the souls of those subject to them toward those things by words and examples. For he was strong in vigor and radiated with youthful beauty, while he displayed the power of the heavenly word in the splendor of holy conduct: because whatever he could powerfully preach by speaking, he strove also to show by living sublimely. For he both gave life to dead souls by the word; but shining forth with the wondrous flower of youth, he raised dead bodies by his command. Since he both gave sight to the blind, walking to the lame, and healing to all infirmities, and he so radiated with the beauty of most holy conduct, that it was of greater virtue to be able to live in this manner than to aid others in that way. Therefore Samuel flourished as if in youth, when in the order of priests there equally shone forth both the wonderful virtue of works and such immense beauty of holy conduct. But it has already been a long time since Samuel grew old. For many ages have elapsed, during which many of those by whose virtue the joys of the world should have been driven from the hearts of others follow the love of the world. Yet we do not say this as though the holy Church has no religious men: but that few are those who at the height of preaching have perfectly known how to despise the world and cling to the highest desires. Therefore it is aptly said that Samuel is both old and prophesies. He is indeed old, because he has lost the rigor of austere conduct in many: yet he does not cease to prophesy, because while he has some spiritual strength, he powerfully displays the virtue of the provident spirit. This can fittingly be understood of one and the same preacher. They are indeed old and prophesy, who are so dissolved through negligence that they teach well but live badly. They set their sons as judges when they establish in the dignity of the priesthood those who look upon the times of their more lax life. Yet the young are ordained by the old: because those who come to be promoted promise strong things. Indeed they pledge the strongest profession of the priestly life, whose virtue they do not possess in their future conduct. Therefore the young are promoted: because those who ordain them do not raise them to the height of so great an order before they receive from them a profession of virtue. For first they instruct them both how sublimely they should live and how carefully they should teach: that they ought to live sublimely for this reason, that they may be able to preach profitably, that they should always direct the purpose of their life toward heavenly things, that they should not seek temporal rewards from the labor of preaching, that they should not show partiality in judgment, but arrange all things with the just balance of equity: so that they may hear the difficulties of the ways of God, and say whether they are willing to undergo their labors.

32. Indeed, most people profess that they walk difficult paths while they seek after sacred orders; but when they arrive at what they sought, they neglect to maintain the steadfastness of their promise. Hence the sons of Samuel are fittingly reported not to have walked in his ways, but to have accepted bribes and perverted judgment. For the ways of Samuel are so called because they are set forth by the office of a preacher. His sons, therefore, do not walk in the ways of their father when those who ambitiously attain to sacred orders abandon the arduous paths of religious life shown to them by their elders, and by their perverse intention are plunged ever deeper into the desire for earthly things. Hence they are openly declared, after avarice, to have turned aside, accepted bribes, and perverted judgment. For those who neglect to labor for heavenly things must necessarily be bound more tightly in the desire for earthly ones. To turn aside after avarice is to be wholly carried away in intention by ambition for earthly things. For there are some who seek earthly gains through avarice, yet do not turn aside after avarice, because although they desire temporal things, they avoid incurring guilt in their pursuit of them. Those, therefore, turn aside after avarice who, for the sake of the earthly things they ardently seek, have no fear whatsoever of incurring guilt. They consider their own soul to be of less worth than anything they can covet. Hence comes violent plunder, hence secret thefts arise: because those over whom the avaricious have power they oppress by violence, and upon those whose goods they cannot assault by force, they contrive to inflict theft. Often, too, those whom they cannot overpower by theft of hands, they ensnare by the falsehood of words. Hence the sons of Samuel, in an orderly progression, are marked out in the disordered confusion of avarice, when it is said: (1 Kings 8:3) "They turned aside after avarice, accepted bribes, and perverted judgment."

43. For those who perverted judgment in order to receive gifts did not seek the darkness of night to commit the theft of a coveted thing, but the darkness of reason. And it should be noted that the burning of avarice is the cause of accepting gifts, and the acceptance of gifts is the cause of perverting judgment: so that by the prophet's narration the depravity of this vice may be shown, not only how it advances in the hearts of the reprobate, but how it can be utterly uprooted from the minds of the saints. For if this perversity of judgment is born from the acceptance of gifts, he who does not accept gifts does not pervert judgment, and he easily rejects offered gifts who has thoroughly uprooted the root of avarice from his heart. But we gather this fault of the sons of Samuel more fully by seeing than by speaking. For if we look at the desolate places of the Churches, where the father grows old, the sons incur the mark of avarice, of accepted gifts, and of perverted judgment: because where the person of the ruler is dissolved through shameful gains, the hearts of the subject flock are easily scattered, so that they live wickedly in themselves and offer examples of depravity to others. But it is pleasing to greatly admire in these things the judgments of almighty God. For the sons of Samuel, while they turn aside after avarice, while they accept gifts for the purpose of perverting judgment, bestow examples of depravity upon the people over whom they preside. But the people themselves, when they ask for a king, cast down the prophet's sons from the height of power. But almighty God both receives the prayers of those asking for a king, and is angered that one is asked for. By these things we can certainly be disturbed, if we do not carefully examine their rationale. For what is more just than that he should fall by the judgment of the people, who so pursued the reprobate judgment of his own mind that the people following him would perish? But nevertheless, when priests live badly, they are not to be judged by laypeople. Therefore they worthily receive one more unworthy, who presumed to unworthily cast out one who was unworthy. For of the sons of Samuel it is said: "They accepted gifts and perverted judgments." But concerning that king whom the children of Israel request, very terrible threats are uttered, for it is said: "He will take your fields and olive groves, and give them to his servants" (1 Kings 8:14). And what wise person would not observe that it is more wicked to seize fields and vineyards by public violence than to exchange judgment under the pretext of truth in order to receive gifts? This fault is covered by a certain modesty, overshadowed by shame. But that fault is seen as so much more wicked, the more openly and more atrociously it is perpetrated. But we have not yet arrived at discussing those times of the kingdom, in which these evils are described as happening even according to the letter: therefore while we speak according to our purpose about the chosen one and what is good, it seems useful that we also carefully examine how the law of the king, which is foretold, can be received in a good sense. For if it did not show something good spiritually, it would by no means be said in this sacred history: "Samuel spoke to the people the law of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book and placed it before the Lord" (1 Kings 10:15).

54. What does it mean that the sons of the Israelites are said to be placed in the king's chariots? The chariots of the prelates of holy Church are their devout desires. For while they fervently seek heavenly joys, they are carried aloft as if in chariots. Hence Elijah is said to have been raised to heaven in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:1), because indeed one who does not seek heavenly joys through lofty and fervent desires cannot be raised to them. When, therefore, good hearers begin through the examples of preachers to despise earthly things and to love eternal things, the sons of the Israelites are indeed placed in the kings' chariots. And it should be noted that they are said both to be taken up and to be placed in chariots, because they must first be drawn away from carnal desires so that they may be properly inflamed by the fires of heavenly love. Because these earthly desires are not easily abandoned, the sons are said to be taken up. For it must happen through great violence that the chosen hearer completely abandons earthly desires and raises himself on high to heavenly things. Concerning this violence the Lord says: "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent seize it" (Matt. 11:12). Concerning this Paul says: "No one will be crowned unless he has competed lawfully" (2 Tim. 2:5). This is also shown covertly by these words, because the sons who are taken up are said to be placed not on seats but in chariots. The ancients were indeed accustomed to fight in chariots. And he who is carried in a chariot is borne lofty and terrible against the enemy. For chosen men are all the more lofty and terrible to hidden enemies the higher they have advanced in the sublimity of interior love. They are indeed lofty because the suggestion of evil spirits does not reach up to their intention. They are also terrible because they can reject the counsels of evil spirits all the more easily the more firmly they stand in the contemplation of heavenly joy through the vigor of their innermost affection. Indeed whenever this is said to those who are still carnal, the goodness of holy warnings is shown to them. This is as if he were saying: Because you seek the role of virtue, under its discipline you cannot be free for the leisure of life. Therefore they are also said to become the king's horsemen and pursuers of the royal chariots, tribunes and centurions. All these indeed belong to earthly warfare. Therefore when they are declared to become horsemen, pursuers of chariots, tribunes, and centurions, they are summoned to every exercise of war. They are indeed horsemen when by the power of the spirit the flowing pleasures of their flesh are restrained and they rule with great power over all enticing impulses. For he rides aloft as if on a horse who, set above his flesh through the good of chastity, free and swift, is able both to flee the enemy when he disdains him and to attack when he deigns to. Indeed through the fact that he has learned to rule well, he has received such increases of virtue that the enemy cannot withstand the charge as of a rushing horseman. And because in the strength of their virtue they follow the examples of the chosen Fathers, they are pursuers of the royal chariots. For the chariots of the king are the good examples of the chosen preacher. In them indeed he is shown both fighting and triumphing, because when we behold the holy works of the preacher, we indeed see him exalted both in the struggle of contest and in the power of triumph. But those oppressed by carnal desires can see him in his chariots but cannot pursue his chariots. For like foot soldiers on level ground they are sluggish in running, weak in battle. Therefore, that they may be able to pursue the royal chariots, let them first become horsemen, trample earthly desires, rule over their flesh, and glow white with the armor of chastity. Then indeed we can run after the chosen Fathers in spiritual battle all the more fittingly the more powerfully we strike the ranks of hidden enemies through that by which we laudably govern ourselves. But if, as many manuscripts have it, we read not "pursuers" but "forerunners," it is not without a good meaning. A forerunner of the royal chariots is one who praises with his word the examples of the just. He certainly ought to be a horseman, because he is a worthless praiser who proclaims the lofty life and teaching of the saints which he by no means takes care to imitate with a lofty purpose. But he who knows how to set forth the life and teaching of others for the imitation of others already begins to be a master of spiritual warfare. Therefore it is well added: (1 Sam. 8:12) "And he will appoint for himself tribunes and centurions."

65. They are tribunes when they begin; centurions when they are perfected in spiritual teaching. For indeed, as we said above, a centurion is so called from the number one hundred. Tribunes can also be understood as spiritual men, simple in knowledge, but inflamed with love of God and neighbor. Although they do not know how to speak of lofty and spiritual things, nevertheless through the examples of the elect, which they know, they strive to kindle those whom they can to the love of the Creator. A tribe is indeed called a kinship, or an assembly. If therefore tribunes are so called from "tribe," those who bring forth the examples of the saints for the advancement of their neighbors are named tribunes. They come as an assembly, as it were, to destroy our rusticity, when they set before us those things by which holy men pleased almighty God. And when they set forth the particular virtues of very many saints, they open to us, as it were, the nobility of spiritual kinships. Centurions, therefore, can be understood as more perfect men, who, while they advance well under the teaching of preachers, become their hearers and co-workers. Concerning whom the Lord indeed says in the Gospel: 'Every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a householder, who brings forth from his treasure things new and old' (Matt. 13:52). Such men indeed are not only outstanding in action, but also learned in the knowledge of God's word. Hence they can exhort their neighbors to the struggle of spiritual warfare all the more usefully, inasmuch as they demonstrate in the work of virtue the lofty things which they know how to preach. They have words in their learning, and they have works as examples for the simple: so that the wise may understand the lofty things they speak, and those who do not perceive the secrets of words in their depths may imitate the works which they see outwardly. They are therefore appointed centurions when, by the perfection of virtue, they obtain the summit of dignity: so that they may live sublimely, and the more loftily they live, the more usefully they may teach.

76. But those who are centurions, when they have arranged the times of war, ought to advance: so that they may be recognized as bearing fruit in peacetime as well. After the tribunes, therefore, the centurions become plowers of fields and reapers of crops; so that they may open the hearts of the now-victorious with the plowshare of exhortation, from which they may reap more abundantly the wheat of good works. As if now indeed plowing in peace, they rouse to the practice of works of piety those hearts that had conquered spiritual assaults. And they reap the harvests when they rejoice that chosen works have sprung forth from the seed of the divine word which they had scattered in the hearts of their hearers. For just as they reap wheat from a field with sickles, so through the embrace of charity they receive from heavenly conversation that by which they may be satisfied with inner devotion.

87. But as long as we live in this life, we possess nothing in peace. For since the ancient enemy always opposes those who act well, it is necessary that we always defend the things we do well. Wherefore they are also rightly said to become, after being plowers of fields and reapers of crops, makers of arms and chariots of the king. They make arms and chariots so that they may defend those very fields which they cultivate and those crops which they reap. They make a chariot so that they may be swift to meet adversaries, and arms so that they may be powerful. They mount the chariot so that with great force they may crush the camps of demons, and they carry arms so that they may destroy those whom they attack. In this lofty height of the chariot stood he who said: "Our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20). Whence also, now secure, he who appeared superior to all his enemies, affirming, said: "No creature shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ" (Rom. 8:39). But he who had mounted the chariot held arms; whence he also explains, saying: "But I so run, not as uncertainly; so I fight, not as one beating the air, but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection" (1 Cor. 9:26, 27). What then is more rightly expressed by this chariot than the loftiness of right intention? To make a chariot, therefore, is to raise up the height of right intention in the minds of hearers. For those who obtain the ministry of preaching through the examples of their betters make chariots after the labor of plowing and reaping, when they teach their well-doing subjects that from all the good works they do, they should await only the rewards of eternal recompense. Indeed, to despise earthly things, to desire nothing transitory, to love eternal things, and to hasten toward them with great desires, is already to preside over a lofty chariot. Of which chariots indeed it is said through the Psalmist: "The chariot of God is multiplied ten thousandfold, thousands of those rejoicing; the Lord ascends in them" (Ps. 67:18). But their arms are keen counsels, by which they strike their enemies the more powerfully as they more quickly detect their cunning. Whence also that powerful one spoke as if armed: "We are not ignorant of his devices" (2 Cor. 2:11). He was also making arms when he said: "And the shield of faith, with which you may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:16, 17). The elect, placed in those chariots and arms, are indeed swift and powerful. Swift indeed, because while they desire spiritual things, they detect spiritual wickedness in a moment. And they are powerful, because while they more ardently desire the highest things, whatever is suggested to them from the lowest love of the world, they count as nothing; and like chariots carried by their weight, they have great force against enemies, who, filled with holy virtues and keen counsels, destroy in a moment all the temptations that are brought against them. Nor is it without meaning in this regard that a chariot, while it rolls along the ground, both lifts the lower part upward and brings the upper part downward. So indeed also the right intention of holy men, while from the earthly things it does it expects heavenly things, as it were directs upward the part that it drags along the ground. And because it humbles itself before the Creator both for its good work and for its expectation of eternal recompense, it as it were plunges toward the earth the part that it lifts upward. Our chariot indeed revolves unceasingly on its wheels, if from good work we always aim at eternal things, and from every height of our advancement we take care to be humble. These arms and chariots are indeed the king's when they are seen to differ in no way from the pattern and teaching of the preachers of holy Church. The elect preachers therefore make chariots and arms when they teach their hearers to hasten toward the heavenly homeland, both by the rectitude of intention and by the fortification of virtue. But there is nothing to prevent us from understanding all these things, which we have shown in the advancement of one person, as distributed individually among many. We have shown indeed that the elect, advancing through the degrees of virtues, are first placed in chariots, then appointed as horsemen and runners before the royal chariots, established as tribunes, centurions, plowers, and reapers, and finally become makers of arms. But because holy Church makes use of the diverse ministries of the elect, whoever wishes may attribute individual gifts of graces to individual orders, so that each of these may be proper to those who are more closely joined to their respective dispositions.

98. What then is the meaning of what he adds: that the daughters of the Israelites would become perfumers, cooks, and bakers? But by the term "daughters" sometimes weakness is signified, sometimes fruitfulness. Who then are the daughters of the Israelites, if not chosen souls, prepared for the conception of the divine Word? They become the king's perfumers: because as they advance through the instruction of their preacher, they receive within themselves the abundant grace of the Holy Spirit, through which they can wholesomely heal the brokenhearted. They also become cooks: because while they are filled with the fervor of the Holy Spirit, by their example they kindle the hearts of their neighbors to love of the Creator. They become bakers, when they restore chosen souls with the nourishment of the Word of God. The daughters therefore become perfumers when they heal the wounds of sinners. Cooks, when they set ablaze hearts purged from the filth of sins toward the pursuit of good works by the example of their virtue. And they are bakers when, to those advancing through their examples, they no longer set forth examples, but bring forth words of deep knowledge; so that, fed as it were with solid food, they may act all the more strongly, inasmuch as, now spiritually instructed, they more fervently desire eternal things. There follows: (Verse 14.) "And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants."

109. What are the fields, what are the vineyards, what are the olive groves that are taken from us by the right of rulers? But the holy preachers, when they speak for the correction of sinners, rebuke the pleasures of the flesh, the lusts of the mind, and the pretenses of good works. For if the pleasures of the flesh were not the fields of wicked possession, the Apostle would never say: "He who sows in the flesh, from the flesh shall reap corruption" (Gal. 6:8). To sow in the flesh, indeed, is to bury the purpose of the mind in the pleasures of the body. And they truly reap corruption from the flesh, because in the resurrection of the elect they shall in no way receive the renewal of eternal incorruption. By the name of vineyards, the lusts of the mind are also rightly represented, because they intoxicate the hearts of the reprobate and estrange them from the knowledge of truth. Criticizing the fruit of this vine, Moses says: "Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the suburbs of Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, and their cluster most bitter" (Deut. 32:32). For he draws his vine from the vineyard of Sodom and his shoot from Gomorrah, who fills his mind with the most abominable lusts. For he makes, as it were, a vineyard, who thereby forgets eternal things, by which he is also intoxicated through lusts; and he who refreshes himself as if under the shade of a vineyard and the pleasantness of depraved delight, prepares for himself the retribution of eternal fire. Hence, most fittingly setting forth the fruit of that same vineyard, he called it a grape of gall and a cluster of bitterness. For the grape is pleasing to the sight but gall to the taste — delighting the eye, embittering the palate — because indeed what it lusts after greatly pleases the reprobate mind, but in eternal punishment what is now sweet to it turns bitter. The king, therefore, takes away our fields when the chosen preacher by his words removes the joyful impulses of our flesh in its delight. He takes away the vineyards when he utterly cuts off the intoxicating lusts from our heart. He also takes away the olive groves when he rebukes the works of false mercy, when by rightly exhorting he suggests that there is no merit in a work unless it proceeds from the purpose of a good intention.

1110. But it must be earnestly inquired why these things are said to be given to the servants of the king. For if these things are justly taken from us, who will there be to whom they may not be unworthily assigned? Yet if we examine this more carefully, we find that our holy preachers are great in their dominions. Who then are these servants, if not those of whose head the Lord says to blessed Job: "Will you take him as a servant forever?" (Job 40:23) For evil spirits are the servants of holy men — in this life perpetual servants, and in the next life eternal servants. For daily they bring about that by which holy men are crowned. For since from the battle of this life the victory of eternal glory is granted to us, those who renew against us those wars by which we are led to eternal rest assuredly render us great services. They are also the servants of the victors, as the Truth testifies: "By whom a man is overcome, of the same he is made a servant" (2 Peter 2:19). For while they stir up battles against those who will be victorious, they serve those who are thereby crowned, inasmuch as these for a time valiantly withstand their attacks. But because what advances the glory of the saints increases for evil spirits as an addition to their damnation, the fields, vineyards, and olive groves that are taken away are assigned to the servants. Indeed, demons will be punished with eternal punishment for all their wickedness. In the encounter of the hidden contest, when the elect conquer, they assign the evils which they repel to their enemies: because the former are tested as gold in the furnace (Wisdom 3:6), while the latter are punished for their wicked suggestion. Therefore the servants receive the fields, vineyards, and olive groves: because when sinners return to life through the preaching of teachers, this also contributes to the heap of damnation for the demons — that the penitent were held so long in past sin by their deceit. These things are also given to the servants when sinners, converted to the Lord through the office of the preacher, recognize that they were held in love of their past crimes by the deceit of demons.

1211. But what does it mean that the crops and the returns of the vineyards are said to be tithed and given to the eunuchs and servants of the king? The crops of the elect are tithed when we gather their most excellent works so that we may bring them forth as an example for the faithful. For there was only one who had in himself the fullness of all virtues, into whom all the fullness of the Godhead poured itself bodily (Col. 1:19). But we, because we have all received from his fullness, possess the gifts of graces in divided portions. Hence Paul says: "To one indeed is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of speeches, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the working of powers, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits" (1 Cor. 12:8). By the number ten, because it is perfect, we tithe the virtues when we gather the gifts of individual elect persons for the lesser ones to imitate. For it is written of Moses: "He was the meekest of all men on earth" (Num. 12:3). Of Abraham also it is said: "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness" (Gen. 15:6). When therefore we wish to imitate gentleness together with faith, it is necessary that from the example of Moses and Abraham, as from choice crops, food be tithed for the refreshment of our mind. Just so, just so indeed, preachers bring forth the chastity of Joseph (Gen. 39:8), the patience of Job (Job 1:21), the zeal of Phinehas (Num. 25:7) as an example for us: because when they display the virtues of the perfect, they gather, as it were, the tithes of choice harvests, which they may set before those who are making good progress. Hence also it is rightly said that these same tithes of the fruits are given to the eunuchs and servants. Eunuchs, indeed, are those who by strength of soul have crushed in themselves all the fuel of lust. Of whom the Lord certainly says in the Gospel: "There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 19:12). Servants are those who still serve under another's care in the pursuits of the active life and cannot yet go forth free to the heights of charity. These are also found in Moses to owe six years of service to their masters (Exod. 21:2), so that in the seventh they may go forth free: because indeed they must first be perfected in works so that they may be able to go forth in due order into the summit of contemplation. The teacher therefore assigns the tithes of the harvests to the eunuch-servants when those who obey him in the splendor of chastity follow the chosen works of the great ones. He also assigns the tithes of the vineyards when he shows them with what wondrous charity our Fathers loved God and neighbor, so that they too may strive to be filled with the same abundance of charity, and as though inebriated and forgetful of things past, may love only the things to come, and not fail to run fervently toward them.

1312. After all these things, the servants and maidservants of the Israelites, the best young men, are declared to be taken away and put to the king's work. Who are the servants of the carnal, except those who, by the example of the wicked, have been so corrupted by long habit that they seem to have perpetually subjected the necks of their minds under the yoke of most wicked imitation? Their servants, therefore, are taken away when, by the zeal of chosen preachers, even those abandon their sins who seemed to be vehemently subjected to the reprobate imitation of the carnal. They are also called the best young men. They are young, indeed, because they are strong in evil; they are also called the best because they are more wicked than the rest of sinners. To whom, of course, it is said through the prophet: "Woe to you who are mighty at drinking wine, and men of strength at mixing drunkenness" (Isaiah 5:22). They drink wine, indeed, who by deliberation of mind recklessly take in the heat of concupiscence, and they mix drunkenness, because while they are inflamed by the fires of their lusts, they know not how to return to the ways of righteousness, their reason being lost. They are mighty and strong both at drinking and at mixing drunkenness, so that on account of their fervent devotion to evil they are shown to be, as it were, the best servants. These best young men the divine word likewise points out when it describes the greed of the devil, saying: "His food is choice" (Habakkuk 1:16). For the ancient enemy is greatly refreshed by the wickedness of those who are more wicked than the most wicked.

1413. By the name of maidservants, that most wicked condition of sinners is designated—those who through iniquity are exceedingly depraved and furnish examples of wickedness to others. For like maidservants they bear slaves, since they are not only workers of great iniquity but also mothers of it. But because through the preaching of the saints even such people are converted, who afterward render great services to almighty God, the servants and maidservants are fittingly said to be taken away and placed in the work of the king. Did not the King of kings then take a maidservant when He said of that great sinful woman: "Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much" (Luke 7:47)? And He placed her in His work when He entered the village and she received Him in her house (Luke 10:38). He also placed her in His work because, rising from the dead, He entrusted to her the proclamation of His resurrection (Mark 16:7). He also took a servant when He called Matthew from the profit of the tax booth to follow Him. He placed him too in His work, because Matthew provided a banquet for Him in his house and He made him a preacher to Ethiopia, an Evangelist of the converted world (Matt. 9:9; Mark 1:14; Luke 5:27). Therefore, because through the ministry of preachers even those return to the Lord of whose salvation human thought could have despaired, the servants and maidservants and finest young men are fittingly described as being placed in the work of the king.

1514. By the name of male and female servants, the movements of the heart and its affections can be understood. For when they suggest wicked things to us, they are male servants; when the affections of the mind desire to submit themselves to the suggestions of depraved impulses, they are female servants. Then indeed it is necessary that we master both through the rigor of our resolve. Preachers take away our male and female servants when they instruct the movements of our hearts and affections as to how they should be directed toward the service of God. They place them in the work of the king when we now exercise that very service of almighty God which we learned through their instruction. Moreover, what is more fittingly represented by donkeys than the lustful movements of the soul? They are placed in the work of the king when that mind which was accustomed to be moved to lasciviousness by depraved thoughts profits from the preaching of the teacher and directs its affections toward the desire of imitating chastity. By the name of male servants, female servants, and donkeys can be designated those who vigorously render bodily service to worldly men. But they are placed in the work of the king, because once converted to the service of almighty God, they endure spiritual labors all the more devoutly for eternal recompense, the more clearly they recognize that they had been enduring great things without fruit. The king is also said to tithe the flocks, because whoever desires to please almighty God must be clean through innocence and intent upon the pursuit of good works. By the former he is a good tree; by the latter he also bears fruit. Since indeed we employ many things in order to preserve innocence and to be able to perform good works, these very crowds of innocent thoughts are our flocks. What then does it mean that they are tithed, except that the subtlety of thoughts is not easily discerned? For often we think we are thinking good things which, when carefully examined, are not good. Therefore the flocks must be tithed, so that only what is contained in the number ten belongs to the king's right. This is rightly accomplished in us when, through the instruction of our preachers, we learn to be perfect not only in the performance of works but also in the examination of thought. Finally it is said: (Verse 17.) And you shall be his servants.

1615. So that, namely, they may know themselves to be subject to his authority in such a way that they dare not transgress his commands. The Lord indeed wished to establish this royal dominion when He said: "Whatever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19). This power also He demanded from His subjects, who said: "If anyone shall preach to you a gospel other than what I have preached to you, let him be anathema" (Gal. 1:8). Likewise the Lord, sending His disciples to preach, says: "He who hears you, hears me; and he who despises you, despises me" (Luke 10:16). Hence concerning the preachers of Judea the Lord says to those same disciples: "Whatever they shall tell you, do" (Matt. 23:3). We are therefore servants of our kings, when we are so subjected to the authority of our prelates that we presume to do nothing apart from their authority. Since, therefore, those who strengthen their virtues in the power of obedience are set over them, at the end of the royal law it is said: "And you shall be his servants" — so that faithful subjects may then also recognize that they ought to be subject to the command of their preachers, when through the advancement of virtues they are led to the heights of perfection. The Truth itself also taught this to the disciples in these very words, saying: "When you have done all these things, say: We are unprofitable servants" (Luke 17:10). Nevertheless, because He was speaking these things to carnal men, He added, saying (v. 18): "And you will cry out on that day before the face of the king, and the Lord will not hear you on that day, because you asked for yourselves a king."

1716. Those who had asked for a king cry out from the face of the king, when those who had vowed to lead a spiritual life under a good ruler attempt to abandon the labors of that same life. Indeed, all are recognized by their face. Therefore the face of the king is the known manner of life and teaching of a good preacher. Because they do hard and harsh things for the sake of eternal life and command hard things, their carnal subjects strive not to imitate but to flee from their life and doctrine. For those who had asked for a king, whose appearance they did not know, then see the face of the king; because they consider how laborious is the strictness of the heavenly journey in their superior, which they had desired as if it were an easy thing before they knew it. Then those who had asked for a king cry out from the face of the king; because while they are unwilling to abandon the habit of carnal life, they strive to escape the praiseworthy imitation of the excellent pastor whom they had wanted to be set over them. And because with a blind heart they cannot see the light, they cry out to the Lord, that is, they beseech the Lord that they might escape the spiritual yoke of God. But the Lord does not hear them on that day. What is that day on which the reprobate subjects beseech the Lord, if not the pursuit of vain prosperity? They are not heard; because indeed it never happens through divine grace that subjection once promised to good rulers can freely go out to the pleasures of the world. Therefore he also added the reason, saying: (Verse 18.) Because you asked for yourselves a king.

1817. As if to say: The promised subjection to spiritual pastors is indissoluble. You ask for a king easily enough, but because royal authority is burdensome, you cannot easily escape their power. Because we say this with regard to the historical sense, we think it should be noted that almighty God, while foretelling the rights of a king, bestows upon religious superiors a pattern of governance. Why? So that those who command the most strict way of life should not easily grant entrance to newcomers. For this reason also the best teacher of that most strict life, a disciple well-trained by the highest Truth, commands, saying: "Test the spirits, whether they are from God" (1 John 4:1). And likewise: "Let the hard and difficult things through which one goes to God be announced to him, so that he may know what he is entering into." The Lord therefore proclaims the rights of a king — let him speak, let him know all things, what sort of carnal persons will exist under his rule — and so that the weak may not easily approach the life of virtue, strong superiors should by no means easily accept the weak. For swiftness of conversion most often arises from rashness of counsel, not from growth of devotion. For when the weak promise strong things, it is not a proven strength of soul but a confusion of discernment. The wise man admonishes all such persons under a single designation when he says: "Do not lift a burden above yourself." Therefore those who preside over others in the strong resolution of the regular life ought to receive converts to that same life with all the more discernment, inasmuch as it is all the more useful to know beforehand whether the petition of those approaching comes from strength of soul or from rashness of will. For those who are fickle in their actions are accustomed to eagerly desire the harshness of the spiritual life, so that they may appear to desire what they seek with great strength of soul. (Verses 19–20.) But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said: "By no means! Rather, a king shall be over us, and we too shall be like all the nations, and our king shall judge us, and he shall go out before us, and he shall fight our battles for us." Because this has been expounded at length above, we are detained needlessly in examining it further. There follows: (Verse 21.) And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he spoke them in the ears of the Lord.

1918. To hear the voice of the people is to recognize outwardly what those seeking the habit of holy life say. For we hear, as it were, only the voice of those approaching, when we know what they assert outwardly; but what kind of people they will be amid the assertions of their promise, we do not see. Therefore we ought to speak these things in the ears of the Lord, so that He Himself may receive the words of their promise: He who, while hearing the words, examines the hearts, and from the course of their progress, demands the returns of vigorous work. Let the minds of our novices hear this and tremble: because indeed what they say to us, we speak in the ears of the Lord. For what they promise before us, we offer to God, so that He Himself may now hold from our hands what He will demand an account of. This freedom of the superior is indeed the obligation of the subject: because he is subjected to a stricter judgment in proportion as he can more clearly know that he must render an account to almighty God for what he answers. Therefore, when we offer to God the things that novices promise, we give to Him, as it were, the written bond that they make to us. And because this is done in secret, Samuel is said to have spoken in the ears of the Lord the things that the people had said. For we speak in the ears of friends when we conceal from outsiders what we say. There follows: (Verse 21.) And the Lord said to Samuel: Hear their voice, and establish a king over them.

2019. Above, the prophet, foreseeing the future, said: 'You will cry out to the Lord, and He will not hear you, because you asked for a king for yourselves.' But now the Lord says: 'Listen to their voice, and appoint a king over them' (1 Kings 8:18). What is shown to us through this, except that it is often divinely inspired in the good rulers of holy Church to subject to the pursuits of the heavenly life those who are afterward not devout under the discipline of the same profession? These will indeed afterward cry out from before the face of their king, and yet by divine command they receive a king: because those are divinely inspired to approach the service of God devoutly whom the anxious care of pastors, involving great labor, must restrain under the bond of that same service for the increase of their eternal reward. They are said to cry out to the Lord from before the face of their king; but let the kings themselves hear what the prophet sent by the Lord responds, so that they may know what they ought to do amid those very outcries. 'He will not hear you', he says. Therefore neither should they themselves give ear. For those who are lukewarm in holy monasteries must be healed, as though sick; they are not to be cast out, as though dead. For if they have been sent by the Lord, they will come to their senses amid the applications of spiritual ointments. Let the Lord therefore say: 'Appoint a king over them': because indeed many come devoutly to the service of God who are then permitted to grow cold, but through the zeal of pastors—to whose authority they had submitted themselves by divine inspiration—they are rekindled to the love of the heavenly homeland. But now he sets forth what kind of pastor is fit for these things, saying: (1 Kings 9:1–2) 'There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, the son of a man of Jemini, mighty in strength. And he had a son whose name was Saul, chosen and good, and there was no man of Israel better than he; from the shoulder and upward he stood above all the people.'

2120. What does it mean that when the king to be appointed is shown, the names of the fathers are proclaimed, unless that he is unworthily taken up to the leadership of the holy Church who does not maintain the nobility of the holy Fathers in his conduct? Moreover, six names of fathers are assigned, so that the perfection of their holy way of life in good action might be designated. For the world was created in six days and is completed in six ages. Therefore there are six fathers who are named in the order of the genealogy of the chosen pastors of the holy Church: because indeed those who obtain the summit of perfection in the pattern of those who follow are sons by imitation. But the father of the king, Kish, is said to mean "hard": because surely those whom the holy preachers imitate are not lax in life and zeal. For they are hard because they do not speak soft things to sinners; they are also hard because, in order to correct others well, they demonstrate in their own conduct the hard things they prescribe to them. For he seemed hard who rebuked the Jews, saying: "O generation of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth worthy fruits of repentance" (Matt. 3:7). But he who was hard to others was not lenient with himself. For to show that he maintained the harshness of penance that he preached, the Evangelist says: "He had a garment of camel's hair, and a leather belt around his loins; and his food was locusts and wild honey" (Mark 1:6). To Ezekiel also it is said: "Behold, I have made your forehead harder than their foreheads; I have made your face like diamond and flint" (Ezek. 3:8). But he who came so hard against those hard in evil, to show that he was about to speak the hard things that were coming, wept for seven days in their midst before he spoke. For thus he says: "And I sat where they sat, and I remained seven days mourning in their midst." Therefore, because the holy preachers are not gentle and meek toward obstinate sinners, and because they practice what they preach harshly, Saul is rightly called the son of a hard man. For the chosen preacher ought to imitate those who both preach sharp things and observe what they say. Whence also concerning the same father of the king it is added: "strong in might." There are some within the holy Church who are strong in pride and arrogance. For they do great things; but when people cease to praise the things they do, they themselves cease to do those great things. Therefore he is strong in might who has from the Holy Spirit the virtue that he displays in good work. Concerning this might, Anna prophesied above (1 Sam. 2:4) in her canticle, saying: "The weak have been girded with strength." Concerning this the Lord promises the disciples, saying: "Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). In this might he walked strongly, of whom it is written: "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee" (Luke 4:14). He therefore who is called hard is declared strong in might: because chosen men, while they preach the highest things, demonstrate mighty deeds; and everything lofty they prescribe and everything great they do, they accomplish in the power of the Holy Spirit. Concerning whom it is fittingly added: "And he had a son whose name was Saul, chosen and good." For he who is an imitator of such men is useful not only for the labor of ministry but fit for the fruit of inheritance. Indeed, Judas too was chosen for ministry; but because he was not good, he lost the right of succession. Who then are signified by Saul, still chosen and good, if not the chosen imitators of the holy Fathers, who are useful to others through teaching and to themselves through their way of life; who are able so to govern others that they by no means cease to provide for themselves? For they are chosen and good because they so seek the gain of others that they suffer no losses of their own. For they are full in themselves, overflowing to others, and from their own abundance they so give to others that they lose nothing of their own fullness. They have what they may offer to others, yet having what can suffice for themselves, they offer to no one at their own expense. They strive so to supply oil to others that the fuel of their light is not taken from them: so that while they illuminate others, they do not extinguish themselves. Rightly therefore he is called chosen and good: because certainly he who takes up the governance of the holy Church ought to be rich, adorned with spiritual gifts and the fullness of merits. And because those who excel must be chosen from the common order, it follows: "And there was not among the children of Israel a better man than he." His excellence is indeed commended when it is added: "From the shoulder and upward he stood above all the people." By this bodily appearance, in the person of the bishop to be ordained, the deeds of virtue are prefigured. For what is designated by the shoulder if not strength? But he who from the shoulder and upward stood above all the people was of such lofty stature that he who was tallest among the people reached only to the shoulder of the king; while the future king surpassed the height of all by his neck and head. But what are the heads if not the minds of the subject people? When they are greatly stretched, they reach up to the shoulder of the king to be ordained, because he who is sought for the summit of governing the holy Church ought to be of such perfection that whatever the people wish to set before themselves as good works, he ought to demonstrate in his own conduct. For the heads of the people touch, as it were, the shoulder of the king when their hearts find in their pastor whatever virtue they seek. But the king excels by his neck, and excels by his head. For what is designated by the neck if not speech, and what by the head if not the contemplation of the mind? Therefore he surpasses the heads of all his subjects by head and neck if he is admirable in the height of contemplation and in the sublimity of teaching. For he is, as it were, lofty by his head when he contemplates those things about the heavenly secrets that others cannot contemplate. He also has his neck above others, who, admirable in the height of his speech, cannot be equaled by others. For he had, as it were, raised his head on high who said: "I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know; God knows" (2 Cor. 12:1–2). But as a chosen and good king, to show that his neck also rose above all heads, he said: "He heard secret words which it is not lawful for a man to speak" (2 Cor. 12:4). But why do we marvel at his neck, as it were towering, in those things he kept silent? Let us equal him, if we can, in those things he said. From the neck of the apostle Paul proceeded his epistles, and although wise men have been expounding them since that time, they still strive to better understand what he said. And though they daily advance in learning from him, as if straining toward the summit of his neck, they can by no means reach it. Let the king therefore stand out by his neck, stand out by his head, be lofty by his shoulder: so that he may be perfect in conduct, admirable in speech, above all others exalted on the heights of contemplation. But he who is great in conduct, preeminent in speech, raised above all in contemplation, before he arrives at the summit of governance, ought to have outward signs of fraternal charity: that is, he should have such concern for his neighbors that he seeks the gain of souls for eternal life. Rightly therefore it is added in the type of these men: (Verses 3–4) "Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost; and Kish said to Saul his son: Take with you one of the servants, and arise, go and seek the donkeys. And when they had passed through Mount Ephraim and through the land of Shalisha and had not found them, they also passed through the land of Shaalim and they were not there, and through the land of Benjamin and did not find them."

2221. Kish, who is called harsh, signifies not only his elect, but also the Redeemer himself. For no one was harsher toward himself than he. For the prophet, indicating the severity of this harshness, says: "Truly he himself bore our infirmities, and he himself carried our sorrows" (Isa. 53:4). For to die is not to suffer for mortals, who are subject to the suffering of a condemned nature. He therefore was exceedingly harsh toward himself, who had nothing in himself by which he might suffer; but in order to free us by suffering, he graciously assumed that by which he might be harsh toward himself and be able to suffer. The donkeys of Kish are sinful souls (1 Sam. 10). Because even though they have been regenerated in the faith of the Redeemer, they are called stubborn; and lost donkeys, because through uncleanness they have been separated from his service. Hence it is that, as he was heading toward his passion, he sat upon a loosed donkey and her colt (Matt. 21:7), to show openly that he had come to suffer for this purpose: to come to the aid of sinners. For he acknowledged that he was seeking lost donkeys when he said: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). These donkeys he both sought by himself, and still sends preachers to seek them. Therefore Kish tells his son to seek the donkeys, when the Redeemer commands the hearts of the elect by spiritual inspiration to go forth into the ministry of preaching. But those going forth in the office of preaching, because they ought to bring with them only spiritual understanding, are commanded to take one of the servants. For he takes one servant who, while going forth to provide others a pattern of living, is spiritual in everything he does. For he took one of the servants, of whom it was foretold: "He himself will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17). He had taken one servant with him, who says: "We have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God" (1 Cor. 2:12). Hence he says again: "We have the mind of Christ" (ibid., 16). Hence through Ezekiel it is said of the holy living creatures: "Where the impulse of the spirit was, there they went" (Ezek. 1:12). Therefore, when seeking the donkeys, he takes one of the servants: when he who newly begins to seek the gain of souls arranges to do all things spiritually, whatever he thinks to do. But to find the donkeys is to behold sinners converted in the light of holiness. For like lost donkeys they are not found, when in the darkness of sins, reprobate hearts bury themselves.

2322. And because through the five senses of the body they fall into those same darknesses of sins, they are sought in five regions where they cannot be found, namely Mount Ephraim, the land of Shalisha, and Shaalim, and the land of the Benjaminites, and Zuph. For everyone is hidden where he is cast down through sin; and as one who is lost, it is not known where he is, when he abandons the light of justice in which God placed him. Hence it is that in paradise after the sin, He seeks the first man, saying: "Adam, where are you?" (Gen. 3:9). As if to say: Because I do not find you in the light in which I placed you, show yourself where you have placed yourself. Hence He inquires about the dead Lazarus, saying: "Where have you laid him?" (John 11:34). But the one whom He sought as lost, He commanded to come forth that He might find him, saying: "Lazarus, come out." Therefore man is lost when he sins; he is found when, now repenting, he declares his sin against himself. For since through the sacred Scriptures the sinner is commanded: "Declare your iniquities first, that you may be justified" (Isa. 43:26, according to the LXX), when the one who has sinned begins to be justified by confessing, he is now seen in the light, where he is now found to be placed. Now Saul, who seeking the donkeys did not find them, represents the character of a learned preacher, but one newly beginning. Almighty God indeed does not allow him to bear the fruit of preaching, lest he esteem the conversion of sinners as a cheap thing, since he can easily convert them to the Lord. The conversion is therefore delayed, so that the converted may be cherished all the more; and the preacher loves them all the more greatly, the more clearly he sees that he cannot quickly win them over. But while holy men cannot convert others through their preaching, they begin to fear intensely for themselves—lest they displease Almighty God in the very thing by which they thought they were greatly pleasing Him. And it often happens that the hearts of new preachers are so frightened that they now resolve to abandon the office of preaching itself and to devote themselves to God through silence. For this reason it is added: (Verse 5.) "When he had come to the land of Zuph and had not found them, Saul said to his servant: Come, let us return, lest perhaps my father has stopped thinking about the donkeys and is anxious for us."

2423. He deliberates about returning to his father who, having set aside the intention of preaching, desires to be free for God in the secret of silence. He is said to return who is reported to have been sent before. For the sons are, as it were, in the presence of their father when chosen men linger in the secret contemplation of the Redeemer. They return, therefore, when from the public work of holy preaching they come to search out the joys of eternal brightness. But because holy men do nothing without counsel, Saul consulted the boy about the return to his father. For we consult the boy when with attentive mind we take care that what we attempt to arrange should not differ from spiritual understanding. Indeed, he had resolved to return to his father who said: "I said, I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue. I set a guard over my mouth, when the sinner stood against me" (Psalm 38:1–2). The sinner stands against the preachers when, in response to their preaching, he does not abandon the state of his iniquity. And because the preacher then proposes to be silent toward him and to be free for God, so that he may return to the Father, he becomes mute. But because through silence he better learned the will of God, his heart grew warm, and with the fire of inward meditation blazing forth, he spoke. This is shown also in this passage, because the boy, when consulted, bestows counsel upon the one consulting him, saying: (Verse 6) "Behold, there is a man of God in this city, a noble man; everything he says comes to pass without ambiguity. Now therefore let us go there; perhaps he will show us our way for which we have come."

2524. He calls Samuel a man of God, in whom we have already said that the preachers of Holy Church are designated. He is indeed called a man out of reverence for his holy manner of life, and everything he speaks is declared to come without ambiguity: because whatever he threatens concerning eternal punishments, whatever he promises to the just concerning eternal joy, comes to pass just as he announces it, and the impious shall go away to punishment and the elect to glory. He is also said to be in the city: because a chosen pastor is known to be always vigilant in the common guardianship of the people subject to him. The pastor is in the city, because while he guards others, he is fortified in himself. Whence also through the prophet, in the praises of all men of God, it is said under the description of one: "He shall dwell on high; the fortifications of rocks shall be his loftiness" (Isa. 33:16). For the higher he is raised up in the vision of the eternal citizens, the stronger he is found to be in himself, and the more useful to his neighbors.

2625. He is also called noble: because he is conspicuous for his heavenly manner of life, and has nothing of the rusticity of worldly life. For he is seen to be noble from the same source whence he is a citizen. For secular men, because there is no composure of morals in them, are rustic, as though nurtured in outlying places. For from their habitual dishonesty of mind, they produce unseemly movements of body; and like those who are very degenerate, they do not know the bearing of urbane custom, while through everything they do, they cover the appearance of their life with the vileness of earthly obscurity. On the contrary, the men of God are noble, who while they vigorously pursue the things that are divine, shine with heavenly light in all their work: and they have nothing of degeneracy, who in the great light of all their conduct display the rays of their celestial origin. To this end, therefore, Saul is led by the boy, that he may be instructed: because those who are to be placed on the height of prelacy are admonished to submit themselves to the spiritual understanding of perfect preachers through their teaching. He who says this admonishes us to be led by this boy: "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law" (Gal. 5:18). But it must be asked why it is said with hesitation: "If perhaps he may show us our way, on account of which we have come." But because he desires to learn spiritual things, because he longs to receive great gifts, he cannot know whether he is worthy of those same gifts. Therefore he begins to doubt, who does not presume that he merits such great things by his own merits. Which doubt indeed arises in the elect from the virtue of humility. Wherefore also in the voice of the accompanying boy it is said to Saul: "If perhaps he may show us our way." Because indeed the spiritual sense suggests that we should not think lofty things of ourselves, not presume boldly concerning almighty God, but seek His gifts with the utmost reverence of holy fear. Rightly therefore he is called a boy, who is proclaimed as always teaching humble things. Therefore when he says, "Let us go there," and suddenly adds, "If perhaps he may show us our way," he openly indicates that the Spirit of God works in the understanding of the elect, while He both makes them approach devoutly to seek spiritual gifts, and makes them fear with great reverence the omnipotence of the Giver. Whence also he who is led by the spirit is said to look upon the poverty of his own merits, when it is added: (Verse 7.) "And Saul said to his boy: Behold, we shall go, but what shall we bring to the man? The bread has failed in our bags, and we have no small basket to give to the man of God, nor anything else."

2726. The minds of the humble have this characteristic: that they possess spiritual gifts, but do not regard themselves in those things which they possess. For because they receive the gifts of virtues from the Holy Spirit, therefore the Holy Spirit, who bestows the gifts, removes them from their own estimation, so that they may have these things in the virtue of their conduct, but not have them in the swelling of pride. Rightly therefore it is said of Saul: 'From the shoulder and upward he was taller than all the people.' And he said to his servant: 'The bread has failed in our bags, and we have no basket'—because chosen men, fit for governing the summit of holy Church, even regard themselves as small through humility in that very thing in which they are great through virtue. And indeed they have bread for the refreshment of the souls of the faithful in the wisdom of the word, and the basket in the memory of inner meditation. For when they preserve in memory for the instruction of the faithful those things which they gather in secret meditation, they store bread, as it were, in a basket. For concerning these baskets it is said in the Gospel: 'They filled seven baskets with the fragments' (Matt. 15:37; Mark 8:8). When loaves abound on the Lord's table, the baskets are commanded to be filled—because when the soul of the elect is refreshed in the heavenly contemplation of the Redeemer, it is instructed in that same contemplation of the truth, so that the nourishment of the word, which is seen to grow abundantly in itself, may be stored in the memory for the instruction of the faithful. They also abundantly have something else besides bread and a basket—those who, along with the virtue of contemplation and the teaching of the word, abound in a wealth of holy works. Therefore, so that the humility of the saints may resound in the speech of the king about to be appointed, he says: 'The bread has failed in our bags, and we have no basket to give to the man of God, nor anything else'—because the Holy Spirit makes those who are being prepared for the governance of the ecclesiastical summit great in the virtue of their inner gift, but altogether small in the regard of their own estimation. Let the servant therefore say: 'Let us go there, if perhaps he may show us about our way.' But let Saul look upon himself as empty—because the Holy Spirit, while he instructs the senses of those living uprightly, makes them now bold, now timid. Bold indeed, so that they may venture forth; timid, lest they become proud. He impels them to seek what is necessary; he holds them back, lest by presuming too much they fall into the vice of rashness. And because those whom he makes fearful he raises up to venture forth through the strength of confidence, it is suddenly added: 'And so the servant of Saul answered again and said:' (Verse 8) 'Behold, there is found in my hand a fourth part of a silver stater; let us give it to the man of God, and he will show us about our way.'

2827. As it were, the boy speaks the good understanding of the chosen man, when he is impelled to speak by the direction of the Holy Spirit. What then is it that he says: "There is found in my hand a fourth part of a stater of silver"? What is this part of a stater of silver? But because by the name of silver the divine words are signified, silver in the hand of the boy is the divine word in the power of knowing. Indeed, it is one thing to be able to speak the word, and another to be able to feel it. For even the reprobate speak the divine words, but none except the elect can truly feel them. For that thing is truly felt whose power is recognized. For the sick also eat fish, but the force of their sickness takes from them the experience of taste, so that what they seem to eat, they are prevented from also tasting. Just so indeed, all carnal persons, when they speak of heavenly things which they do not love, like the sick make use of things which they are prevented from tasting. Therefore silver is found in the hand of the boy, when through the merit of humility holy men receive the heavenly things they speak of with great affection of charity, so that it is very sweet for them to speak of heavenly things, because they are sweetly, and indeed very sweetly, satisfied through love. Whence also it is written: "The poor shall eat and be satisfied" (Psalm 21:27). For because the food of the soul is the word of God, the poor eat and are satisfied, but the rich cannot be satisfied; because indeed the elect, who love heavenly things, as often as they hear these things, are more fervently inflamed toward them; while the reprobate speak and hear heavenly things, which they receive with no sweetness for the refreshment of their mind. But a fourth part of a stater of silver is said on account of the quality of the time. For that we may see the other parts of this stater, we must consider the prophets, apostles, and martyrs. For because according to the quality of the time the sound of preaching has been distributed to each order, each as it were held a fourth part of the stater. The prophets therefore presented their fourth part of the stater when they promised the coming of the Redeemer to the Synagogue. The apostles gave their part when they preached to the Jews that he who had been promised had now come. The martyrs also contributed their part when they brought unbelievers to faith in the Redeemer. Therefore the fourth part of the stater is known to have remained, because through the bishops and doctors of the holy Church the word of faith is presented to the elect faithful until the end of the world. But the word of faith is well preached by those to whom it is supplied through the hand of the boy, because indeed those ought to preach heavenly things who in the sweetness of their mind have merited to know their pleasantness. For this part of the stater is given so that one may more fully merit to know the way of right preaching, because the chief doctors of the holy Church commit the authority of preaching to none others except those whom they know to love the heavenly things they speak of. By these words the simpler folk are to be admonished according to the letter, that they should not dare to suspect the depravity of avarice in the man of God on account of what is said: "That we may give to the man of God, and he may show us our way." For if the prophet had his word for sale, he would not be a man of God, and could in no way possess the spirit of prophecy itself. Therefore when this is said, it is not the character of the man of God that is set forth, but the devotion of the one approaching him, because Saul held him in great veneration, and was ashamed to appear empty-handed in his sight. And because a celebrated fame invited them to veneration of this same man of God, he adds: (Verse 9) "For he was called the Seer."

2928. For to be called is to be spoken of by public report. But a Seer is one who looks upon even inward things, which the mind of carnal men does not attend to. Whence it is also said of the holy living creatures: "Round about and within they were full of eyes." They are watchful in outward things and provident inwardly. Against which presumption of carnal teachers the Lord rebukes in the Gospel, saying: "If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch" (Matt. 15:14). A Seer is also called one to whom distant and absent things are present. This well befits holy preachers, who through knowledge are as present to spiritual things as they disdain to fix their attention on outward things. For they hold hidden things as open and distant things as present, who always understand those things which carnal men cannot know. For such ought the pastor of the holy Church to be, because he is placed on the way of the heavenly homeland to provide light to those under him. Therefore let him always scatter rays of light, so that the faithful subjects, from the experience of his illumination, may draw others to illumination. There follows, and he says: (Verse 9.) "Formerly in Israel everyone going to consult God spoke thus: Come, let us go to the Seer."

3029. We go to consult the Lord when we proceed to learned preachers, so that we may find counsel for our salvation. But because there is now such a rarity of perfect men, while we consider the flower of religion in ancient times, let us bewail its decline in the present time. Struck with compunction over the misery and calamity of the present time, let us sigh that the flower of the past age has withered together with the beauty of holiness. Therefore, when we see the pastors of the Churches clinging to earthly things, seeking what is passing away, displaying no marks of the spiritual life, when no light from our prelates is poured upon us, remembering those things which have passed away unto the labor of compunction, let us say: "Formerly everyone in Israel who went to consult the Lord used to speak thus: Come, let us go to the Seer." Israel means "seeing God," or "in whom God is." This name is certainly fittingly applied to the holy Church, whose people it is said to be. For in the Gospel it is also said: "Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age" (Matt. 28:20). Since she indeed had in former times pastors flourishing in spiritual conduct, learned in great knowledge, who with great contempt despised earthly things and contemplated heavenly ones, the people could exhort one another toward the light which they saw in them, saying: "Let us go to the Seer." If therefore we must go to those who see, we must equally turn away from the blind, because we ought not to imitate but flee the examples of reprobate prelates; but from those who through the merit of their conduct know spiritual things, we should always seek instruction for our edification. And because none but spiritual men do this, there follows: (Verse 10.) And Saul said to his servant: "Your word is excellent; come, let us go."

3130. The best speech is that than which no better can be heard. Therefore, whenever counsels of our salvation are spiritually suggested to us, a speech is made within us than which no better can be found. We praise the speech of the boy, therefore, whenever we are pleased with ourselves in the purpose of our spiritual understanding. And we promise to go with him when we consent to spiritual thoughts. But because a good thought is then fruitful when it is perfected in action, there follows: (Verses 10, 11.) And they came into the city in which the man of God was. And as they were going up the slope of the city, they found young women coming out to draw water, and they said to them: Is the Seer here?

3231. Those who seek the man of God come into the city, because it often happens that the life and teaching of a prelate is sought in the conduct of his subjects. So indeed trees too are often examined, whose beauty is found not in their leaves but in their fruit. Often, however, undergrowth that has sprung up is mingled with great trees, and its fruits falsely claim to be the fruits of those trees with which they are mixed. Therefore, whoever wishes to discern the fruit must first discern the branches as well, so that he may recognize from which tree the fruit comes. So indeed it is in the conduct of the faithful: because in the chosen people of a good preacher, while many wicked ones are mixed in, thorns spring up as if among good trees. Therefore the conduct of the chosen preacher is not to be examined in all his subjects, but only in the elect. Then indeed we separate, as it were, the branches of a good tree with discernment, when among the people we imitate those rulers like choice fruits who advance by the example of their master, and we flee from those like thorns who are condemned by the deceit of the ancient enemy. Well therefore is it said of Saul and his servant that they came into the city and ascended the slope of that same city, because indeed when the perfection of holy men is sought in their subjects, it is not the imperfect members but the chosen and perfect ones that must be sought out. For artisans too first begin their works, then adorn them. A painter too, when he desires to apply beautiful colors or gold, first lays down a baser color. Therefore, whoever wishes to judge the skill of artisans should look not at their unfinished works but at the completed ones. Let him therefore ascend the slope of the city, so that he who desires to find the Seer may discover him. For the slope is a low and sunken place. In that part of the city, indeed, those are represented who have not yet advanced to a higher manner of life. We therefore ascend the slope when we avoid setting before ourselves as an example the level ground of weak hearers.

3332. And then indeed we find the girls going out to draw water: because we behold the beauty of holy minds in a more perfect way of life. The girls are indeed the minds of the elect, pure through innocence, beautiful through the splendor of virtues. And because they preserve their beauty in a more hidden life, they cannot be seen unless they go out to draw water. The girls draw water when chosen souls, from the deep sorrow of their present exile, pour forth streams of tears. They are said to draw water because, while they remember themselves cast down in this valley of tears, mourning, they send, as it were, the rope of thought into the deep, from which they draw the waters of tears with labor. Then also they are seen going out: because although what they are like within remains hidden, they nevertheless appear in their eyes; and how much they love their Creator is shown by those who endure life amid such great sorrow of the present age. From these, therefore, one must ask: Where is the Seer? Because the dwelling place of the perfect is then well known when it is shown to us by those who, through the progress of their life, are close to their way of living. But preachers have different places. For they have one place for themselves, another for their subjects: because indeed in themselves they dwell in the loftiest contemplation, but for their subjects they descend to the mountain of teaching. Through contemplation they are as if in heaven; and because what they teach is lofty, they both descend when they teach and yet keep themselves on high while speaking sublime things. The more perfect hearers, therefore, are close to their ruler not when he is in the highest contemplation, but on the lower mountain of teaching. Wherefore the girls also answer and say: (Verse 12.) He is here, behold, before you: for today he has come into the city.

3433. As if they were saying: We can point out his place because he comes there where we used to see him. For if he remained in the citadel of his own loftiness, no one could show him to you. For a teacher is in the city when he lingers in the instruction of the people subject to him through the ministry of preaching. A teacher is in the city when he leaves his own affairs to arrange what is common to all. For since the people, fortified and made strong through the exhortation of a good preacher, are protected when he lingers in their ministry, he is known to be in the city. Likewise, because among the multitude of the subject people some are simple and others are wise, the young women add: (Verses 12, 13.) Make haste now, today he has come into the city, because there is a sacrifice of the people on the high place. As soon as you enter, you will find him immediately, before he goes up to the high place to eat. For the people will not eat until he comes, because he himself will bless the offering, and then those who have been invited will eat.

3534. When Samuel came to the city, he went up to the high place: because the chosen preacher, in the instruction of his subjects, sometimes utters plain words, sometimes lofty ones. Therefore, when he commands plain and intelligible things, he is in the city; when sublime things, and those which are scarcely understood, he is in the high place. He is in the city when he sets forth examples for the simple; but he is in the high place when he utters to the perfect the lofty things of spiritual words. For he was, as it were, in the city, who said: "I judged not myself to know anything among you, except Christ, and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). Likewise, he was in the city when he showed remedies to the weak, saying: "Because of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband" (ibid., 7). But he went up to the high place, because not long after he adds: "But concerning virgins I have no commandment, yet I give counsel. I would that all men were even as myself" (ibid., 8). He also confesses that he often ascends to the high place of words, because he says: "We speak wisdom among the perfect" (ibid., 6).

3635. What then is the meaning of what the maidens say: "Hurry now, today he comes into the city," unless that he was rarely seen in the city, namely coming late and departing quickly? By this teaching indeed the doctor of the holy Church is instructed to be rarely in public and frequently in secret, so that the more slowly he is seen, the more devoutly he is revered. Then indeed he is received as though heavenly, because the more he has hidden himself in the secret of contemplation, the richer the treasures of the Word of God he brings to those who await him. For he is able to speak many good things about the lowest matters to whom it is granted through the secret gaze of the mind to see the highest things. And because those things which are spoken seem sweeter, the maidens say: "Hurry." As if they were saying: if he has completed that for which he came into the city, you will not be able to see him hidden away in his secret place.

3736. Which statement indeed is now not to be taken literally, but is an example for religious persons. For the holy man was of such strictness that he had appointed days and hours in which whoever desired could see him. They say therefore: "Make haste." As if they were saying: If the appointed time passes, during the hours of his rest, he does not attend to words or actions. We therefore who have taken up the rule of a secluded life ought to observe this more attentively. Hours of ministry must be appointed for us, so that we may persist briefly in work and be able to return hastily to the citadel of contemplation. Moreover, the periods of our secret silence must be guarded with such a strict rule that even those who are accustomed to approach may know that they do not have access to us contrary to our purpose.

3837. But since we have begun to explain these things spiritually, this can fittingly be understood as spoken concerning the simple. For in the city, one who appears a stranger is thought to be able to address Samuel, but on the high place he is not thought so: because those whom we believe to be simple, we consider to need plain, not lofty instruction. Therefore they ought to hear the holy preachers when they speak plain things to the simple, which they understand: not when they say lofty things, which they can in no way understand. They say therefore: "Hurry now, today he has come to the city, because there is a sacrifice of the people on the high place." Which is as if one were to say: Because there are many who desire to hear the highest things, now you ought to hurry, when he appears to be instructing the simple like yourself. The sacrifice of the people is indeed the devotion of the chosen people. Which devotion, assuredly, because it is aroused in the hearts of the elect by the word of preaching, is as it were accomplished by Samuel. But the sacrifice of the people is on the high place when the hearts of faithful subjects eagerly desire to hear devoutly the lofty words of holy preaching. Whence it is also aptly said: "Because the people do not eat unless Samuel first blesses the sacrifice": because the more perfect hearers, while they desire to attain the summit of the perfection of virtues, await with great longing the word of knowledge, through which they may arrive at what they desire. In this passage it should be noted that the sacrifice had not yet been offered, and yet it says: "There is a sacrifice of the people on the high place." For if a sacrifice does not exist before it begins to be offered, how was there a sacrifice that did not exist? But because we are pursuing spiritual meanings, the sacrifice did not yet exist, and yet it did: because when the faithful elect desire to be instructed in loftier things, they already indeed have a great devotion for hearing, which, after the preaching has been heard, they have much greater. The sacrifice has therefore not yet been offered: because that greatness of devotion which is born in the heart of the elect from the word of preaching does not exist in the heart before the preacher's word. And yet the sacrifice is indeed on the high place: because from the expectation of the word, there is already a great force of devotion in the heart of one who wishes to hear. Wherefore it is also well said: "Because the people do not eat until he blesses the sacrifice." For because they eagerly love the highest things, they do not rest until they receive those same highest things. For if the sacrifice of the mind is its devotion, the sacrifice is blessed when it is sanctified by the voice of preaching, so that the purer it becomes, the more acceptable it may be held for divine reception. For what is blessed in God's sacrifice is indeed clean when it is offered, and material: but once offered it is so much cleaner, inasmuch as it is not only material but spiritual, inasmuch as it is not only clean but also cleansing. For who would doubt that sins are cleansed by the offerings of sacrifices? For so, so it is with the devotion of the mind: for when it longs to hear good things, it is clean; but when it has been received and blessed by the hands of holy preaching, it is rendered so much more ardent and sacred, the more clearly it has learned whom it can love more sweetly once known. It was indeed clean before, like a preparation of the sacrifice, which desired to know the good, and yet it was a material arrangement: because it did not yet know what it desired to learn. But it is very clean and spiritual when, now sanctified by the words of doctrine, it no longer desires to hear what it may know, but delights to experience through what it has heard the things it loves. Then also the sacrifice is not only clean but cleansing: because the more fervent the love of heavenly things by which it is kindled, the more powerfully the darkness of carnal negligence is driven away from it. For it is written: "Because charity covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8): because assuredly we destroy our carnal things when we are lifted up to heavenly things by ardent devotion.

3938. And because it is added: 'And then those who have been called will eat.' What else does this signify, except that the affection of devotion is food for the mind? For we will eat then, when the sacrifice is blessed: because when our devotion is raised up to the love of the Creator at the voice of the preachers, the soul that has arrived at the sweetness of the Creator already has its food. Therefore those eat then who were unwilling to eat before the blessing of the sacrifice. For those who prepare themselves with the highest expectation of intention for the perception of divine sweetness, while they receive no evil desires through appetite, are, as though fasting, filled more eagerly with the refreshment of devotion. For they wait, as it were, for the blessing of the sacrifice for their refreshment, who flee all unlawful desires, so that they may be satisfied by the vision of interior glory through devotion. For indeed it is written: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Matt. 5:8). For he who does not admit foolish things into his heart, while he desires heavenly things, is pure in heart: and while he is led through the good of preaching to the sweetness of divine contemplation, he has, as it were, the blessing of the sacrifice in the satisfaction of his soul. Therefore he says: 'Then those who have been called will eat.' For those who are fasting are called to the meal, while the preacher speaks outwardly, who guard their mind from wicked desires, and are drawn through the grace of the Holy Spirit to the experience of interior sweetness. For those who had been called were the invited ones who had come. Therefore the called who are fasting then eat, when those are fed with the devotion of spiritual grace who have prepared themselves to receive it by great watchfulness of their mind. But what does it mean that they say: (Verse 13) 'Go up, for today you will find him'?

4039. But while the elect praise the good deeds of preachers, they illuminate the hearts of their hearers with great light. For that heavenly manner of life of the good teacher, which they proclaim, is a day. Let them say therefore: "Today you will find him." For the preacher is found on that day when his life is not less than his reputation: when he is praised by the voice of the elect, but those who hear the praises find and recognize in his praiseworthy manner of life everything that they hear. Against this, the Lord rebuking the Pharisees says: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, who are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful to men, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones" (Matt. 23:27). Hence again He compares the vainglorious to unbelievers, saying: "How can you believe, you who receive glory from men?" (John 5:44). Those who are of this kind are indeed praised in the day, but they are not found on that day: because those who hear their praises gaze, as it were, at the whiteness of the tomb from the outside; but when they seek the virtues that were praised, they find within the night of sins, like the grim and rotting bones of the dead. Let them say therefore, to signify the true glory of the righteous: "Today you will find him": because when the righteous are praised, they possess in the truth of their manner of life whatever shines forth brightly about them through the voice of praise. And because such a great man must be sought with eager devotion, there follows: (Verse 14.) "And they went up into the city. And as they were walking in the midst of the city, Samuel appeared, coming out to meet them, to go up to the high place."

4140. When we hear the praises of holy men, we ascend in the city, because we seek them where they descend, not where they are. But, as I said above, the place which preachers have for themselves is the secret contemplation of divinity, while the place for their subjects is preaching. Sometimes indeed they speak plain things, sometimes lofty things. They have therefore a common place for all, they have a sublime and special one for some, and they have a secret one for themselves. These three spiritual places are surely signified, because Samuel is said to go out, and to appear in the midst of the city, and to ascend to the high place. For he who went out in order to appear was somewhere where, before he appeared, he had been hidden. Priests therefore go out when they come from the secret of meditation to preaching. They appear in the city when they speak plainer things, that is, things for doing or for understanding. They ascend to the high place when they either command the wise to perform mighty works, or reveal the depths of mystery. Our ordered ascent is therefore shown by the fact that Saul is reported to ascend in the city. For the places of our Pastors, in which they are accustomed to pray or to be in seclusion, are to be venerated by us, not approached. This we can know not only by example but also by divine exhortation. In the Song of Songs indeed the bridegroom declares, saying: "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not cause the beloved to awaken until she herself wishes" (Song 3:5). For the minds of the perfect are brides, because while they place themselves in the secret of divine love as if in a bridal chamber, there through vision they find the one to whom they are joined by ineffable love. When therefore the bride sleeps in the bridal chamber, she is joined to the bridegroom, because while the chosen soul of the preacher is hidden away in secret contemplation, it is placed as it were in the bridegroom's chamber. Whoever therefore rouses her takes her from the bridegroom, because indeed the rest of the chosen soul is not only its own delight but also the delight of the bridegroom. Whence also it is said through the prophet: "The bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride" (Isa. 62:5). Rightly therefore the bridegroom adjures the daughters of Jerusalem that the bride not be awakened by them as long as she wishes to sleep, lest while she rises from the quiet of the chamber, he himself lose the enjoyment of love. Let the going forth of Samuel therefore be awaited, because holy men are to be venerated in the secret of their silence, not to be disturbed. Therefore one must ascend in the city, because the chosen teacher in the common place of teaching appears as so great a gain to his people, inasmuch as he is known to go out in order to be of benefit. In this place it should be noted that it is not said of Samuel, "Today he ascended in the city," but "today he came into the city"; but of Saul and the boy it is not said "they came," but "they ascended." For he came as if on level ground, while the other climbed as if to heights. What else is shown to us by this, except that the plain things which preachers speak are not plain to us? In the city therefore we do not come but ascend, when we either look with difficulty upon the plain things of preaching, or bear with labor the small things that are commanded to us. But because to stand in the city is to be fortified, therefore we ascend, because when great men teach us to do small goods, they vehemently forbid us from yielding to the counsels of evil spirits. And because it is very laborious to overcome all temptations, we strive to reach the words of the teachers who command this of us, as if through the labor of ascending. But because it is written that "each one shall receive his reward according to his own labor" (which indeed is understood not only of eternal retribution but also of the present), almighty God, according to the merit of the work, grants to his elect increases of virtue (1 Cor. 3:8). For also to Abraham, who did not spare his son, it is said: "By myself I have sworn: because you have done this thing and have not spared your son for my sake, I will bless you and multiply your offspring" (Gen. 22:16). For often those who labor faithfully in doing the things they know deserve through divine grace to know greater things to do. As a figure of these, Saul is rightly said first to ascend in the city, and afterward is reported to be led by Samuel to the high place. But to come to meet someone is to encounter the one coming by the same road. When therefore we wish to learn the way of salvation from holy preachers, they indeed come to meet us when they encounter us with the word of salvation that we seek. For they come as if by the same road when they hasten to teach us what we have resolved to learn. This indeed is the moral sense for all; but if we investigate what pertains spiritually to certain individuals, he comes to meet him because he foreknows that the king who is to be anointed is coming to him. But from where he knows this is added: (Verses 15, 16.) But the Lord had revealed to Samuel's ear one day before Saul came, saying: "At this very hour which now is, tomorrow I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him as leader over my people Israel, and he shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines."

4241. He went out therefore to meet him, in order to lead him to the high place: because he who is sought for the governance of the holy Church must both be shown forth by divine gift and called to a lofty manner of life. The ear of Samuel, because it is said in the diminutive, what does it signify if not the humble understanding of the spiritual teacher? The ear therefore is opened by the Lord, when the humble understanding of the preacher is instructed by the Holy Spirit, so that he may hear what he is to do, and arrange what he has heard. But we must carefully consider what is said: "The day before." For the day is the life of the just, as Paul attests when he says: "You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord" (Eph. 5:8). When the life of the chosen one is revealed, the hidden day is made known. For man sees the outward show of good works, but God sees the light of the heart. Because therefore both the elect and the reprobate are hidden as regards the intention of the heart, the Lord makes known the coming king the day before; when through his grace the holy preachers recognize in those who are to be promoted that the testimony of good works is preceded by purity of intention. For there is no light of works that is not preceded by rightness of intention. Rightly therefore the king who is to be appointed is recognized the day before. But they do not perceive the following day unless it is born from the preceding one: so that they may consider the day before the day, that is, the intention before the action, and may perceive as sent by God in the light of holy works the one whom divine grace shows to shine through the purpose of the heart. And because at the very hour when he is promised, he is presented: what does this give us to understand, if not that he who is chosen must be perfect, not only in body but in mind? For when God speaks to holy men, it is the full light of day. For a day has its beginning, and it has its end. At the end he reproves sinners, saying: "Adam, where are you?" (Gen. 3:9). And because neither those who merely begin good things, nor those who grow sluggish in good works, are to be promoted, the preacher is sent at the hour of perfect speech, when such a one is presented who shines with the full light of good works and gleams with the full splendor of truth. He is also described as a man coming from the land of Benjamin. He is called a man on account of the strength of his works; from the land of Benjamin, on account of his right confession of faith. Benjamin indeed means "son of the right hand." Who then is called this son of the right hand, if not he of whom it is written: "He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father" (Mark 16:19)? The land of Benjamin therefore is the holy Church. Because therefore the heretics have been expelled from this land, the king comes from the land of Benjamin, when one who is not polluted by any heresy but is catholic in faith receives the primacy of the holy Church. He enjoys the title of "man" if he is firm in faith and strong in action. He indeed is commanded to be anointed as leader over the people of the Lord: because the outward sacraments profit those priests who are not unworthy of the gifts of those same sacraments. Or priests are anointed when through the ministry of those who ordain them they receive an increase of spiritual graces. Whence it also follows: "He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines." As anointed ones they can save others, because they have received spiritual graces more abundantly. For those who save the people are anointed over the people: because those who are appointed by the Lord to govern others receive the spiritual gifts of charisms by which they can benefit them; and they are superior in merits also to those whom they precede in rank. And because often a good pastor is chosen on the merit of a good people, it is well added: (v. 16) "Because I have looked upon my people." Likewise, because a good pastor must be sought from the Lord with great prayers, it is added: (v. 16) "Their cry has come to me."

4342. But perhaps some are troubled, because what is said here and what was said above seem contradictory. For there he says: 'They have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them, according to all their works which they have done from the day I led them out of the land of Egypt even to this day' (1 Kings 8:7). But now he says: 'You shall anoint him leader over my people Israel, and he shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have looked upon my people, for their cry has come to me.' Above, a king is permitted to be appointed as if by one who is angry; now he is appointed as if by one who is merciful and kind. And who does not see how much these words of kindness differ from that sentence which was pronounced upon him by Samuel? 'Because,' he says, 'you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king' (1 Kings 15:26). This we certainly resolve quickly if we examine carefully the force of the words themselves. For all these words of divine kindness are ascribed to the merits of the people: 'He shall save my people;' and, 'I have looked upon my people;' and, 'their cry has come to me.' Therefore a king is decreed to be appointed for those whose cry is heard. For even though Saul was to be cast from the kingdom for his future wickedness, nevertheless he had in himself, as long as he reigned, that by which he could benefit the people subject to him. He was certainly to be valiant in war, yet proud in mind. He would have that by which he would fall for himself, and that by which he would stand for others. Therefore, foreseeing that by which he could benefit his subjects, the Lord says: 'He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines;' and, 'their cry has come to me.' Yet still it seems very contradictory that he should be believed to hear the cry of that people who are rebuked for having rejected him. To which it must be answered: that in that people there were both the reprobate and the elect. There, then, the reprobate are accused of having rejected the Lord; here the desires of the elect reach the ears of almighty God. From which what is to be gathered, except that it is often good for the elect that wicked rulers are appointed? It is therefore not surprising if God is angered, as it were, at his own rejection, and yet appoints a king: because the very office of the future king was both bad and good. Bad, indeed, because proud; but good, because vigorous in the defense of his subjects. And we see all of this happening now in the holy Church: because very often the one who receives her primacy is one who is useful to others in word, yet swollen with pride in his own mind. By preaching virtues, he destroys vices as if by standing firm, but by thinking highly of himself, he falls. Thus by preaching he saves the people of God, but by swelling with pride he casts himself down headlong. Like a mighty king, by his word he crushes the hidden adversaries of God's people, but through pride he falls from the height of the kingdom. Therefore a king is not appointed for his own sake, but only for the people; when one is permitted to preside in the holy Church who tramples upon the good things he preaches, either by being proud or by living wickedly.

4443. In this passage it must be noted that when a pastor is chosen in the holy Church, sometimes he is ordained for himself and for the people; sometimes neither for the people nor for himself; sometimes for himself, not for the people; and sometimes indeed for the people, not for himself. For himself and the people, when a chosen preacher is given to chosen subjects: because from the very thing by which the multitude of subjects is led to the eternal homeland, gifts of merits are heaped upon the good pastor. A pastor is given neither for himself nor for the people when a reprobate populace is permitted to have a reprobate pastor, since he presides in such a way and they obey in such a way that neither he who teaches nor those who are taught deserve to arrive at eternal goods. Of whom the Lord says through Hosea: "I will give them kings in my wrath" (Hosea 13:11). For a king is given in the wrath of God when one worse than the wicked is appointed to preside over them. Such a pastor is given when such a people is taken on to be governed, who may equally be condemned by eternal punishment. A pastor is given for himself, not for the people, when a good man is placed over the wicked; as the Lord says to Ezekiel: "I am sending you to the children of Israel, to an apostate nation that has departed from me" (Ezekiel 3:3). A pastor is given for himself indeed, not for the people, when even if a chosen preacher cannot convert his hearers to God, he himself nevertheless does not lose the eternal rewards of his labor. But for the people, not for himself: when a pastor is granted to good subjects who possesses gifts by which he benefits them but does not benefit himself. Such indeed were those about whom the Lord commands the disciples, saying: "What they say, do; but what they do, do not do" (Matthew 23:3). As if He were saying: What they have received that is useful for you, take from them as though it were yours; and leave in them as though it were theirs what they possess not for your gain but for their own destruction. Saul, therefore, with the Lord rejected, is chosen, and yet is declared to be one who will free the people of the Lord from the hand of the Philistines, because Almighty God often benefits His good faithful ones through those prelates who do not please Him in the exercise of that same prelacy. There follows: (Verse 17.) And when Samuel looked upon Saul, the Lord said: "Behold the man of whom I spoke to you; this one shall rule over my people."

4544. For this was done on the following day, which the Lord had promised on the preceding day, saying: "Tomorrow at this same hour I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him over my people Israel." He is therefore seen on the second day, who was promised on the first: because the preachers of holy Church search out the virtues of the elect in their hidden life. For those who are to be promoted, when they bring forth good things, promise something great from themselves. On the first day, therefore, a king is promised; because preachers behold the great works of the elect, and, as if the Lord were speaking, they recognize inwardly those whom they wish to appoint as rulers of holy Church. Samuel therefore sees on the following day, when the preacher beholds the one who is to be promoted in the great light of his manner of life. And then indeed, as if by the Lord's indication, he recognizes the one who must be appointed king: because the one who stands preeminent on the lofty height of holiness, he sees as worthy to be set above others. And because those who are great in merits are small through humility, there follows: (Verse 18.) Saul approached Samuel in the middle of the gate, saying: "Tell me, I pray, where is the house of the Seer."

4645. If a preacher is in the city when he speaks plain and common things that are understood, what is the gate of this city if not humility? For the knowledge of the divine word is hidden from the proud and revealed to the humble. Hence also in the Gospel he speaks to the Father, saying: "I confess to you, Father, King of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to little ones" (Matt. 11:25). By the wise he meant the proud and those who think highly of themselves, but by the little ones he meant the humble. Of these another Scripture certainly makes mention, saying: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (1 Pet. 5:5). For he resists the proud, lest they understand eternal goods, but he gives grace to the little ones, so that they may know those same eternal goods through his own revealing. The elect, therefore, because they come to spiritual understanding through humility, go to hear the preachers as if through a gate. The chosen preacher also, because he speaks spiritual things humbly, Samuel meets Saul at that same gate. For it is as though both are at the gate when the things that the chosen preacher speaks are humbly heard by another who is chosen.

4746. But he who had newly arrived had found the one he was seeking, and did not know it. Therefore Saul himself says to Samuel: "Tell me, I pray, where is the house of the Seer." For this is characteristic of great men, that they are recognized with difficulty by the least. In the flesh indeed they are despised, but in mind they are exalted. They desire to appear contemptible outwardly, but they do not cease to do venerable things. Because, therefore, those who greatly desire to advance through their examples admire them not only in outward matters, but in their inmost qualities. They see in them outwardly what can be despised by carnal people, but they equally observe that inwardly, spiritual men ought to be venerated with great admiration. When they hear that these men are exalted by fame, they desire to know them in the loftiness of their way of life. According to the historical sense, therefore, Saul was seeing Samuel and did not recognize him, so that what was happening to them in figure might signify spiritual things for us. For when we are little ones, we as it were see perfect men when we hear of their virtues from those who report them; but those whom we see, we do not recognize, because we cannot know through experience what we perceive by hearing and hold in the eyes of the heart. When therefore we seek from them the secrets of their way of life for imitation, we are indeed asking them as it were about their own home. For their home is their way of life. This home the disciple of John wished to know, when he asked the Lord, saying: "Master, where do you dwell?" (John 1:38). He indeed, because he was to be led to intimacy with Him as one of the household, heard: "Come, and see." This home Philip had seen but did not recognize, to whom He says: "I have been with you so long a time, and you have not known me. Philip, he who sees me sees also my Father" (John 14:9). Of the Lord also it is written that He spoke to Moses as with His friend; but the same Moses, seeing and not recognizing, was asking, saying: "If I have found grace in your sight, show me your face" (Exodus 33:13). But the spiritual way of life of the saints, because it is revealed to none but the devout and the suppliant, Saul similarly begs that the house of Samuel be shown to him. Holy preachers also, when they hear great things about themselves, cast themselves down through humility; they do not become puffed up. They know how to show to those who ask great things which they may imitate; they know how, among the great things which they show, not to appear great through boasting. Therefore it is also added: (Verse 19) "And Samuel answered Saul, saying: I am the Seer. But go up before me to the high place today, that you may eat with me, and I will send you away in the morning."

4847. What does it mean to say, "I am the Seer," except to show himself humble, as he appeared to their eyes? As if to say: In your estimation, the one you seek is great, but the one you see is small. For in this word, "Seer," it is not a title of praise, but "I am." As if to say: That Seer is I—not what you suppose, but what you behold. But he who knew how to humble himself knew how to give gifts not as one who is lowly, but as one who is exalted. For this reason he also commands him to go up before him to the high place, so that he might eat with him. He ascends to the high place who raises his mind to know higher things. Indeed, to ascend to the high place is to prepare the heart for understanding lofty matters. Hence Peter too is taken up on the mountain, so that he might deserve to see the glory of the transfigured Redeemer (Matt. 17:1). For in that ascent of the mountain, the lofty preparation of the mind is expressed: because he who does not fix his mind on high things through earnest attention will not be able to see exalted things. Since, therefore, we better understand sublime things when we are prepared, Saul is commanded to go up to the high place before Samuel. For we ascend, as it were, to the high place before the preacher when we first direct our mind to know lofty things, and they afterwards speak to us of those very things to which we have directed our attention. But what does it mean when he says, "That you may eat with me today"? When holy preachers speak of heavenly things, they refresh the hearts of their chosen hearers: for as the Truth attests, the food of the soul is the word of God: "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). For bread is the nourishment of the body; the word is the nourishment of the mind. But those who refresh the body without the mind are dead in mind, alive in flesh. Hence Paul also says of the self-indulgent widow: "She who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives" (1 Tim. 5:6). For the widow would not die through the delights of food if she satisfied her soul with the food of God's word, since Paul himself says: "Nothing is unclean that is received with thanksgiving" (1 Tim. 4:4). But the living widow dies when she nourishes the body with food and kills the soul with hunger (Matt. 4). Therefore man does not live by bread alone: because since man consists of soul and body, just as he lives in one way through the body, so it is necessary that each part be nourished by different foods. Therefore we ascend with the prophet in order to eat, when we raise our mind to the heights of the divine word, so that we may be satisfied by its heavenly flavor through devotion.

4948. And because the preachers themselves greatly love the heavenly things of which they speak, we eat together, as it were, when they devoutly bring forth in speaking what we devoutly place in the belly of the soul by hearing. For we eat together, because we hear the Word of God equally. For Truth says to the preachers: "It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you" (Matt. 10:20). Which Paul also proves when he questions his hearers, saying: "Do you seek proof of Christ who dwells in me?" (2 Cor. 13:3). Since, therefore, Christ and His Spirit speak in the holy preachers, the preachers themselves hear the One speaking all the more clearly inasmuch as they are nearer to Him whose seat they deserve to be. Therefore they can be more fully refreshed by the nourishment of the word, inasmuch as they already have within themselves the chamber of refreshment. For they are friends of the bridegroom, and they stand and rejoice with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom. When, therefore, the holy preachers speak divine things, they hear; but because they know by certain experience when the Spirit speaks in them, they hear themselves, yet not in themselves, because they themselves also speak, but having spoken in themselves, they venerate another who speaks. In this, therefore—that they hear and speak—they both refresh and are refreshed. They refresh their hearers when they bring forth the word with their own voice; they themselves are refreshed when the word they bring forth is brought forth to them by divine revelation. Yet those are more devoutly satisfied who have experienced the delights of the mind in the speaking of the Spirit. Is not the experience of the speaking Spirit this: to perceive themselves unprepared and unpremeditated, and suddenly to be prepared and ready? To know what they had not known; to have what they had not had; to lose the torpor of the mind; to suddenly burn with wondrous devotion; to be wondrously filled at once and in a moment with fullness of knowledge; to bring forth with wondrous eloquence of speech the things they have understood? The elect preachers, therefore, have experience of the Spirit speaking in them in the sudden revelation of truth; they have the sudden ardor of charity; they have it in the fullness of knowledge; they have it in the most eloquent preaching of the word. For they are suddenly instructed, and at once they grow fervent, and in a moment they are filled, and they are enriched with a wondrous power of speech. For concerning that sudden experience the Lord says: "It will be given to you in that hour what you should speak" (Matt. 10:19). Concerning that sudden fervor of charity, Cleopas says: "Was not our heart burning within us on the way, while He spoke and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32). Concerning the experience of being filled and of eloquence, Luke also recalls, saying: "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty spirit, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting" (Acts 2:2). For in that same Spirit they were both filled and spoke, so as to signify what we assert: that namely, by speaking they feed others, who are themselves fed by hearing what they say. And because they recognize the sound of the mighty Spirit as ardor, or as speech, or as filling, they feast all the more sweetly on spiritual gifts inasmuch as they have been more worthily taken up to His table. He says, therefore: "Come up, that you may eat with me today"; because the good teacher, when he sweetly receives in the devotion of his mind the things he speaks, feeds both himself and those who hear him at the same time.

5049. On the other hand, reprobate teachers, because they do not love what they say, fast while they feed others with their word. For since the Lord said that the word of God is the refreshment of the soul, and the word of God in a full mind is complete learning and complete devotion, those who do not devoutly hear what they speak are not fed by the word of God. Indeed the Apostle, as if already filled with that sweetness of the word, says: "Of his fullness we have all received" (John 1:16). The fullness of the word is one thing, the fullness of a book is another. From the fullness of the word, only the elect can receive; but from the fullness of Scripture, even the reprobate can receive. For the book of the blessed apostle John and the book of the blessed apostle Paul are indeed fullnesses, which are contained in them. Paul or John wrote their words, to be sure, but what each one wrote, the Word speaking in them inspired. Therefore, whoever receives the word of Scripture not in love but in knowledge receives from the fullness not of the word but of the book. And because he receives a dead thing, he himself does not live in its reception. But what am I saying—that Scripture is dead? It is not only dead but killing. For it is written: "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:6). Indeed every divine letter does this. For the letter is the body, and the life of this body is the spirit. He who reads the letter and refreshes his mind in the love of understanding receives a body that has been vivified and is vivifying. Therefore the reprobate, who search the Scriptures they do not love, who boldly speak outwardly of that whose savor they do not inwardly understand—while others perceive with devout mind the refreshment of the Scriptures they expound, it is as though others are filled from what they themselves give, but not they themselves. Let Samuel therefore say: "Come up, that you may eat with me today," because from what the elect teachers bestow upon their subjects from the word, they both hear together and are filled together. For behold, this is demonstrated in the very word we are speaking. For who doubts that Samuel wrote this Scripture we are expounding? And yet he who wrote it says this: "Samuel answered"—so as to show clearly that what he himself was writing, another was imparting. Therefore, because the Holy Spirit, who speaks through him, says through him about him: "Samuel answered Saul: Go up before me to the high place, that you may eat with me today." He says what he hears, and he simultaneously hears and says. Therefore, while the elect preacher hears and speaks with great veneration of love, and good hearers receive with great devotion what is said, Saul and Samuel are said to eat together at the high place. Likewise, because preachers are worthier and more fervent than their hearers in the refreshment of the same word, it is not Samuel who is said to be about to eat with Saul, but Saul with Samuel. But also because such splendid instruction of the mind exists in the great light of the spiritual life, he does not say: "That you may eat with me this night," but "today." He also dismisses him in the morning. "Morning" means the beginning of the following day. The following day is the serene light of holy conduct. He therefore says: (Verse 19.) "I will send you away in the morning."

5150. He is indeed sent forth in the morning from the height, who, when he advances to the light of higher knowledge, proposes to dwell in the great light of good work. Or he is sent forth in the morning, who intends to preach to others the word of great knowledge which he learned from the mouth of a preacher. For when we propose good things, we are as it were in the morning at the beginning of the day, because we have already begun to behold the brightness of good which we may follow. But this morning grows into full day when he who has proposed to do great goods or to preach the lofty joys of eternity displays what he has proposed in the great light of virtue. In the morning, therefore, Saul is sent forth from the height, because the hearers of good preachers do not delay to practice sublimely what they hear as sublime from them. But the elect know both how to hide and how to manifest the goods they possess. They hide them indeed, lest they perish through pride; but they manifest them, lest they remain unfruitful. While they hide them, they guard them; but while they manifest them, they bring forth fruit. For there follows: (Ver. 19, 20.) 'And all things that are in your heart I will show to you; and as for the donkeys which you lost three days ago, do not be anxious, for they have been found.'

5251. How preachers strive to conceal themselves is shown above in the word of Samuel, where it is said: "I am the Seer." But now, because he says, "All things that are in your mind, I will declare to you," what else do we understand except that holy men often both hide and bring forth the virtues which they have? But, as I said, they hide them lest they appear great on account of their great virtues; they bring them forth so that the elect may imitate them. And so they declare that they excel in the word of wisdom or the spirit of prophecy, not that they may be venerated, but that they may be heard. Wherefore also the Psalmist, intimating that he possesses the grace of the word, says: "I have understood more than all my teachers" (Ps. 118:99). Therefore, certain of the skill of the spirit, he confidently invites us, saying: "Come, children, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Ps. 33:11). For Micah was affirming himself to be a prophet when he said: "Would that I were not a man having the spirit, and that I rather spoke a lie" (Mic. 2:11). Hence Elisha says concerning Naaman the Syrian: "Let him come to me, and let him know that there is a prophet in Israel" (4 Kings 5:8). Hence Paul says: "They are Hebrews, so am I; they are the seed of Abraham, so am I; they are ministers of Christ, so am I—I speak as one less wise—I am more so" (2 Cor. 11:22–23). But on the other hand, Amos says: "I am not a prophet, but a herdsman plucking sycamores" (Amos 7:14). Hence also Paul, when he wishes to hide himself for the sake of safeguarding, says: "I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God" (1 Cor. 15:9). Hence John the Baptist, when questioned, said: "I am not a prophet" (John 1:21). For he was not a prophet unto self-exaltation, but he was a prophet and more than a prophet unto ministry. Samuel therefore, in order to guard himself, says: "I am the Seer"; and in order to present himself for the profit of others, says: "I will declare all things to you." And if anyone wishes, he can understand it in the same way: that when he says, "I am the Seer," if he declares himself to be a seer, he says this so that he may share the good that he has with the elect. Therefore, in order to prove what he asserts, he subsequently adds: "I will declare all things to you." This is what the doctors of holy Church do; for while they behold the virtues and vices of minds, they clearly know how to heal vices and to promote virtues. He therefore declares all things that are in the heart when he deigns to set forth by the instruction of manifest teaching the way of virtue which the good hearer desires to hold. And if he is great and has resolved not only to do good things but also to preach them, preachers declare all things that are in his heart when they open to their minds whatever they desire concerning doctrine. But because he signifies to the one to whom he speaks the one who strives for the gains of preaching, he adds and says: "And as for the donkeys which you lost three days ago, do not be anxious, for they have been found."

5352. This was explained above in the person of Saul, how it applies to inexperienced preachers. For he lost the donkeys, because he by no means drew to repentance the sinners to whom he offered the word of life. He would indeed have found them, if those who had hidden themselves in the night of wickedness had returned to the light of justice, in which they could have been found as men. Why then does he say, "They have been found," unless because often the great men of salvation consider that good can easily be found in those about whose life the unlearned despair? For even skilled physicians of bodies often presume to cure those whose health the unskilled cannot presume to restore. So indeed, sinners are often drawn to repentance and satisfaction by learned teachers who could not be drawn by unlearned and inexperienced ones. Since therefore, both by the preaching and by the example of the perfect, those return to the Lord through repentance who could not be converted through the ministry of others, Samuel rightly says that the donkeys have been found which Saul could not find. This saying can also be understood with respect to the advancement of the ruler being ordained. As if to say: As you advance in learning and life, you will also be able to win for the Lord those whom you have not yet been able to win. So certain indeed is the virtue of advancement that its fruits, which do not yet stand firm in reality, stand firm in the certainty of hope. And because by these words he is invited to endure the labors of holy preaching, he explains what rewards of gain he should expect, saying: (Verse 20.) And for whom shall be all the best things of Israel? Shall they not be for you and for all your father's house?

5453. Israel, which is interpreted "seeing God" — whom does it more fittingly signify in this place than that blessed society of eternal citizens who, from the toil of this life, have arrived at the eternal vision of almighty God? What then are the best things of Israel, if not the gifts of eternal recompense? Paul indeed says: "Each one shall receive his reward according to his own labor" (1 Cor. 3:8). Likewise he says: "There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and of the stars. For star differs from star in brightness" (1 Cor. 15:41). Therefore the recompenses and rewards of all the faithful are the good things of Israel. But because the reward of the elect preachers is the highest, theirs are the best things of Israel. Concerning these best things of Israel the Lord promises to his faithful servant, saying: "Amen I say to you, he will set him over all his goods" (Matt. 24:47). For he who is set not among all things but over all things is declared to possess not merely the good things of Israel, but even the best. Let Samuel therefore say: "To whom shall all the best things of Israel belong, if not to you and to all the house of your father?" As if to say: Even if the labor of preaching is great, it ought to be borne with all the more devotion, the greater the gains of its reward. The teacher of holy Church ought therefore to weigh with anxious mind that not only the good things but even the best things of Israel are his, so that he who awaits things so supreme and excellent may always do what is greater and more excellent. For indeed those supreme rewards are owed not to the supreme rank, but to supreme labor. For the distinguished teacher did not say: "Each one shall receive his reward according to his dignity," but "according to his labor." When therefore the best things of eternal life are assigned to preachers, great toil in this life is enjoined upon them: because surely he who does not strive to be better than the rest cannot prevail in having better things than the rest. And because this is common to all preachers of holy Church, the best things of Israel are said to belong not only to Saul, but to the whole house of his father. For as sons are born from a father, so in the order of preachers new ones are successively raised up in place of others, resplendent with the same nobility of holiness. The house of the preacher is also his spiritual manner of life. Therefore the best things of Israel belong to the whole house of his father: because wherever there is a priestly manner of life, there assuredly it is, and it is so exalted that from the loftiness of its merit, its rewards in eternal life are the very best. In this, therefore, let preachers examine themselves carefully: because the best things of Israel will belong not only to themselves but to his whole house — because if they depart from the house, they will not have the best things. For if they hold only the eminence of preaching, they will not have the best things, because they do not maintain the loftiness of life. But every elect person, when he hears great things about himself, brings his own weaknesses to mind, so that he may guard himself against pride, lest he lose the good things he has. Hence it is added: (Verse 21.) Saul answered and said: "Am I not a son of Gemini, of the least tribe of Israel, and is not my kindred the last among all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken this word to me?"

5554. As if he were saying: Why do you ascribe such great things to me, when I am nothing? For he is a son of Gemini who imitates the negligent in the care of himself and in the example of his neighbor. He is indeed a twin, because while he neglects the care of himself, he does not bestow examples of good work upon others. Therefore whoever imitates such people is called a son of Gemini. He is said to be from the smallest tribe of Israel, because the last order of the holy Church is that of converted sinners. Rightly therefore, he who confesses himself to be a sinner is said to be from the smallest tribe of Israel. His family is also reported to be the last among the others, because according to the voice of Truth: "Whoever breaks the least commandment shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:19). For Benjamin means "son of the right hand." By this name indeed the people of the holy Church are designated, who, while being born in the faith of the Redeemer, are prepared through good works for the goods of the heavenly fatherland. The right hand of God is indeed that strength of eternal life. The families of the tribe of Benjamin are the diverse ways of life of the elect. For just as diverse families come from one principle of generation, so from the one origin of orthodox faith, many ways of life of the faithful arise. Therefore holy men, when they cast themselves down through humility, because they confess themselves to be sinners, and yet rightly believe in God, assert themselves to be, as it were, both sons of Gemini and of the last family of Israel. But because the more they humble themselves, according to the voice of Truth, the more they are exalted (Luke 14:10–11), there follows: (Verse 22.) So Samuel, taking Saul and his servant, brought them into the dining hall, and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited.

5655. Samuel takes up Saul when the preacher of holy Church opens the heights of his preaching to a chosen hearer. For a subject is taken up when he is elevated to the knowledge of heavenly things through the word of a teacher. And because he desires to know spiritual things not with carnal intention, he took up not only Saul himself but also his servant. For it was as though he had remained below without a servant, he who said: "My heart has forsaken me" (Ps. 37:11). For our heart forsakes us when we are so overcome by carnal desires that we place the intention of our heart on earthly, carnal, and bodily things, and not on heavenly and spiritual ones. He had found this lost servant, who said: "Your servant has found his heart" (2 Kings 7:27). For we find our heart when we seek spiritual things through the intention of the heart; when we tear it away from earthly things so that we may direct it toward heavenly ones. The chosen preacher, therefore, to those who are still carnal, neither commands difficult things nor reveals spiritual ones. For Paul also says to the Corinthians: "I could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal ones, as to little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not solid food" (1 Cor. 3:1). As if by these words he were saying: I therefore did not lead you to the heights, because you did not have a spiritual sense with you, as Saul did not have his servant. Wherefore, also indicating the reason, he says: "For you are still carnal." Rightly, therefore, Samuel is said to have taken up Saul and his servant, because the teachers of holy Church command difficult things and reveal lofty ones to those whom they consider to be spiritual. They are also led into a dining hall, because the breadth of charity is shown to them. For one is placed as it were in a dining hall who, through what he has learned on high, dwells in the breadth of charity. Or certainly our entrance into the dining hall is love; the dining hall is the beauty of the spiritual life. Whence John says: "He who does not love remains in death" (1 John 3:14). For if he who does not love remains in death, then he who loves remains in life. We are therefore led into the dining hall when we rise to the affection of heavenly conversation through the affection of charity. In this breadth of dwelling, holy preachers indeed hold the higher place, because blessed John the Evangelist says: "And around the throne were twenty-four seats, and upon the seats twenty-four elders" (Rev. 4:4). For the elders are holy preachers, mature in understanding, grave in character, who surround the throne of God with seats placed nearby, because those who love the Creator above all others rest closer to him through the loftiest manner of life. Rightly therefore Saul with his servant receives a place at the head of those who had been invited, because in them the type of pastors to be chosen is shown. The ruler is indeed placed at the head when, through the force of great love, he receives the singular resolve of the heavenly life; while he holds the catholic faith in common with the rest, he possesses a sublime virtue above the rest. Whence it also follows: (Verse 22.) "For there were about thirty men."

5756. Three times ten makes thirty. The number three suggests faith in the holy and undivided Trinity. The number ten, through the ten commandments of the law, signifies the perfection of good works. The number thirty, therefore, designates those who hold that faith which works through love. Saul is placed at the head of these, because through divine grace he who is to be the future shepherd of the Church is made more exalted in merit than those over whom he ought to be superior in dignity. Samuel bestows this exalted place upon him, because he who deserves such greatness of life advances to it through the instruction of his elders. And since great things, and not small ones, are now shown to him to accomplish, it is added: (Vers. 23, 24.) Samuel said to the cook: Give the portion which I gave to you, and which I commanded you to set aside with you. So the cook took up the shoulder and placed it before Saul. And Samuel said: Behold what remains, set it before you and eat, because it was purposely kept for you when I called the people. And Saul ate with Samuel on that day.

5857. What is signified by the shoulder of the breast, if not the strength of action? This is bestowed by Samuel's cook, when it is demonstrated to lesser ones by the greatest preachers. For the cooks are priests, because while they speak to the chosen faithful in the fervor of the spirit, they cook the foods of the mind, as it were through fire. But the portion that is given is said to have been set apart, because the strength of good work in a preacher ought to be singular. Saul places this before him, when he commands the one to be ordained as pastor of holy Church to consider how great a strength he ought to possess. But concerning what the cook had set aside, Samuel says to Saul: 'Behold that which is left, set it before you.' It remained indeed, because Christ did not fulfill all things that are ours; through His cross He indeed redeemed all, but something remained, so that whoever strives to be redeemed and to reign with Him must be crucified. He who said the following had surely seen this remainder: 'If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him' (2 Tim. 2:12). As if to say: What Christ fulfilled avails nothing unless one also fulfills that which remained. Hence the blessed apostle Peter says: 'Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps' (1 Pet. 2:21). Hence Paul says: 'I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh' (Col. 1:24).

5958. But it should be noted that the cook placed the shoulder before Saul, and yet Samuel instructed Saul to place it before himself. What does this mean? A steward usually places a dish on the table before those reclining; and when the one reclining draws it toward himself, he places closer before himself what was a little farther away. The cook, therefore, places the shoulder before Saul; Samuel instructs Saul to place it before himself: because what is enjoined upon a new preacher concerning the strength of good work, he ought to draw closer to himself, as it were, through the zeal of contemplation. And after he has drawn it to himself, he eats it: because what he has long contemplated, he resolves to carry out. Indeed, to eat the shoulder is to store away inwardly through purpose of mind what is outwardly commanded concerning strong action. For it was as if urging every chosen one to place the shoulder before himself and eat it, he who said: "If you sit down at the table of a mighty man, wisely consider what is set before you, for you must prepare similar things" (Prov. 23:1). At the table of the mighty one, he indicated the strength of the shoulder. And when he said, "Wisely consider what is set before you," he taught the one to whom he spoke to place the shoulder before himself. But he suggested that he ought to eat it, because he said, "You must prepare similar things." For by preparing similar things, we eat; because when we resolve to perform the mighty deeds we hear, we store away the food of life, as it were eating, in the stomach of the heart. But the vessel of election commands even the highest teachers under the instruction of a single disciple, saying: "Lay hands hastily on no one" (1 Tim. 5:22). For since those who are to be raised to the heights must be chosen with great deliberation of counsel, what follows is fittingly added: "Because it was kept for you by design, when I called the people." As if to say: Place before yourself what, before it was set out, I placed before myself; consider what I considered. For the portion of the shoulder is kept by design, because the strongest action of a preacher is rightly entrusted to the one who is judged worthy of so great a ministry by the highest men with great consideration. This portion was kept by design when the people are called, because when faithful subjects come to undertake the ministry of preaching, what is enjoined upon good preachers is not weak things upon the weak, but strong things upon the strong. But those who progress well strive above all to maintain the good of obedience in their lofty way of life. Therefore what follows is fittingly added: "And Saul ate with Samuel on that day." As I have already said, for a teacher being advanced, to eat is to prepare himself to do what is commanded him concerning virtue. And he is rightly said to have eaten with Samuel, because when those who newly arrive resolve to do great things, the highest men become more fervent in the strength of good work. In this eating can also be signified that of which he promised above, saying: "Go up before me, that you may eat with me today." Saul therefore eats with Samuel, because when the preacher inwardly hears the heavenly sweetness of the word of God, what the subjects outwardly hear as he speaks, they are both assuredly satisfied from the divine refreshment. There follows: (Verse 25.) "And they went down from the high place into the town, and Samuel spoke with Saul on the rooftop. And Saul made his bed on the rooftop, and slept."

6059. Whoever is raised to the height of pastoral care must have in that very sublimity of his office both loftiness in his own life and compassion for the weakness of others. Therefore let Saul ascend with Samuel, and let him descend into the town. Let the ruler know how to conduct lofty matters; let him know how to arrange common ones. Let him say with Paul: "Our conversation is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20); let him say with us: "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? I see another law contradicting the law of my mind and leading me captive under the law of sin" (Rom. 7:24). The ruler is on the height when he speaks wisdom among the perfect. When he arranges carnal matters, he descends into the town, saying: "On account of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and each woman her own husband; let the husband render to his wife what is owed, and the wife likewise to her husband" (1 Cor. 7:2). He is on the height when he says: "No creature shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ" (Rom. 8:39). But he descends into the town, for speaking, he says: "I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak; I became all things to all men, that I might save all" (1 Cor. 9:22). Samuel therefore brought Saul up to the high place and set him down in the town, because great men, when they appoint someone to the summit of holy Church, teach those whom they place on that summit to live sublimely, to preach plainly, to be strict with themselves but temperate with their subjects — to attend so to their own salvation that they can yet be weak with the weak. I say "be weak" through the affection of the mind, not through the languor of inner sickness. For if the teacher lies prostrate through languor of mind, he cannot heal the sick or raise up those who are fallen. It is well, therefore, that Saul is reported to have descended with Samuel into the town and to have spoken with him on the rooftop. For the town is on the plain, but the rooftop is on high. Compared to the high place, the rooftop is on the plain; compared to the town, it is not on the plain but elevated. So indeed, when chosen preachers show compassion to lesser members, they seem to leave the height behind; but descending into the town, they are on the rooftop, because they come down from the height, yet they take on the weakness of their subjects by pitying and counseling them, not by acting out and sharing in that weakness. For though they show compassion to the weak and command them to take wives, they themselves do not take wives by becoming weak. Therefore, descending into the town, they are on the rooftop, because even though they command plain things, they do not retain what is weak in themselves. And since Samuel is said not merely to be on the rooftop but to speak with Saul there, this surely signifies that the future teacher must be taught to show compassion to his weak subjects in such a way that he himself nevertheless maintains the height of his way of life.

6160. And because the new preacher needs much consideration for carrying out these things, Saul is said to have made a bed for himself and to have slept. For the new preacher to sleep on the rooftop is to arrange in his lofty contemplation how he ought to bear the burdens of those subject to him. For if he stays awake for worldly pursuits, he assuredly brings it about that he does not seek so great a good of discernment in his inmost depths. He ought therefore to sleep, so that he thinks of no worldly things, because one who is weighed down by secular concerns can never order spiritual matters. But neither can he sleep who does not make a bed for himself, because indeed if he does not reflect on the examples or sayings of good men, it is impossible for him to find rest from outward things. We lay soft things beneath ourselves, as it were, when we reflect on the teaching or life of the elect. We also sleep upon those same coverings, because we can then rest well in contemplation when we are occupied with spiritual matters. Let him therefore say, "Because Saul made a bed for himself and slept," to suggest to the chosen soul that if she carelessly occupies herself with outward things, she will not acquire the grace of inward rest. But he who wishes to arrange spiritual matters well through contemplation, until he has perfectly ordered them within, ought not to awake to those things which are outside. Fittingly, therefore, there is added: (Verse 26.) And when they had risen in the morning, and it was now growing light, Samuel called to Saul on the rooftop, saying: "Arise, and I will send you on your way."

6261. Indeed, morning dawns when the splendor of truth opens itself to the quiet mind. For the human mind becomes dark through ignorance and bright through the illumination of truth. Therefore, one who is ignorant is in night; when illuminated, in day. Moreover, one rises in the morning who sleeps at night: when he rouses himself to carry out those things which he arranged through deliberation. And because the business of ordaining the king was being conducted, both are said to have risen. The supreme preacher rises in order to ordain his hearer for the ministry of that same preaching. He who is to be ordained rises, so that he may not presume that so sublime an order is to be received with anything less than the deepest affection of the heart. Indeed they rise together, because a sublime office is given and is received as sublime. In this passage another thing must be noted: that both first rose, and then Samuel called Saul, saying: "Arise, and I will send you on your way." But according to the historical sense, if both rose, Saul is admonished to prepare himself for the work, because he is commanded to rise from sleep. Because indeed both the high priests and he who is taken up into the order of preaching attentively consider the burden of so great a ministry, they sleep as it were together and rise together. But he who is newly to be ordained, rising from sleep, is commanded to rise again for the work: because although he has striven to weigh the height of the order by meditating, he must nevertheless attain it through the merit of his way of life. Therefore, having risen, he is commanded to rise, so that he may resolve to match with his merits the sublime order which he deliberates to undertake. Hence he is also called on the rooftop: because he is commanded to strive for lofty things. He also says: "And I will send you on your way." He rises, of course, so that he may be sent forth: because that man will be able to be free in the ministry of preaching who has grown in the height of a great way of life. Indeed, he who had already risen rose again: because he who by contemplation had learned the height of the dignity took care to raise himself up in that same height of dignity through the sublimity of his life. Hence it is added: (Verse 26.) "And Saul rose." Then it is added: (Verse 26.) "And they both went out; he, namely, and Samuel."

6362. The pastor goes out when he comes from the secret of meditation to the public sphere of action. For when he arranges what he wishes to do, he is within; but when he outwardly carries out what he has thought, he as it were goes out. Saul also went out, because in the outward dignity, the one who is promoted undertakes that which he had long considered whether it should be undertaken. Both therefore are said to have gone out, because both had been within: while the one with anxious mind foresaw what he should give and to whom; the other likewise more attentively considered what manner of man he was who would receive such high things. Because therefore the ministry of holy preaching must be bestowed and received with the utmost discernment, while the king of Israel is anointed, both the king and the prophet about to anoint him are reported to have gone out. However, many manuscripts have: "And when they had risen early in the morning, before dawn," which can indeed be fittingly understood. It is morning, before dawn, when in a certain way the day begins to breathe, and yet the full light of day has not arrived. Now when the holy preachers of the Church consider the good manner of life of those whom they intend to ordain, it is as it were morning. But because they cannot know their future, it is morning, but before dawn. This is fittingly said in the ordination of him who is afterwards recorded to have displeased almighty God. For as it were at morning, before dawn, the prophet saw this man who appeared to him in the light of good conduct. But the full brightness of day had not yet come, because he could not see through the present light of knowledge the future darkness in him. This indeed happens in the holy Church as often as those who are chosen are good in the present but will not persevere in the same goodness. For he as it were goes out at morning and before the light, who displays the present light of good works but conceals the darkness of his future life. But what was done next follows: (Verses 27ff.) "And as they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul: Tell the servant to go ahead of us and pass on; but you stand still for a moment, that I may make known to you the word of the Lord. Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed him."

6463. For what does it mean that the king is led to the farthest part of the city and anointed? But the farthest part of the city is the lowest part of the subject people. Those who therefore hold the last place in the holy Church are, as it were, in the farthest part of the city. Moreover, in the lowest part of the Church itself, converted sinners appear to be. For all the righteous are in the upper or first part. Or perhaps virginity holds the first place, continence the second, the married life the third, and the conversion of sinners the last. In the farthest part of the city, therefore, the king is anointed: because the ruler of the holy Church is ordained for sinners, not for the righteous. For hence Truth says of Himself: 'I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance' (Matt. 9:13). Hence again He says: 'They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick' (ibid., 12).

6564. But we have said that the boy of Saul designates the spiritual sense. What then does it mean that Samuel commands him to go ahead and pass on? The boy goes ahead when what is done is what the spiritual sense suggests to us, not what the carnal impulse commands. But he goes ahead of some and passes by, while he goes ahead of others and does not pass by. Indeed the boy going ahead does not pass by the arrogant, but passes by the humble: for while the arrogant do great and spiritual things, they are great in their own eyes. They have the boy with them, as it were, whom they follow, who glory in being spiritual in the spiritual things they do. To these the prophet surely reproaches, saying: "Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight" (Isa. 5:21). The elect therefore, in all that they do, take care to be spiritual, yet avoid considering themselves spiritual. They are indeed great in merit, but humble in self-estimation: because they always do great things, yet in those same great things they never regard themselves as great. They make the boy whom they send ahead pass on, as it were, when they have the spiritual sense present in their work, but far from their self-estimation. But what does it mean that he is commanded to stand still for a moment, so that the word of the Lord might be shown to him? He stands still for a moment, having sent the boy ahead, who for the time withdraws himself from his own judgment and does another's will. Therefore he makes the boy pass on and stands still for a moment, who at the command of his superior abandons even those things he considers spiritual: he abandons them so that he may be able to carry out fittingly what is enjoined upon him. This certainly befits the one being ordained as a preacher: for when he considers the weight of pastoral care and his own weakness, the spirit going before him says this to himself: that being so weak, he unworthily takes up so great a burden. Let him therefore not only send the boy ahead, but make him pass on: so that he does not follow his own judgment, but accepts what is determined for him by the provision of one who is better. And about him standing still, it is immediately added.