Gregory the Dialogist — Commentary on Scripture

1 Samuel 2:29

Sometimes, though, greater evil ensues when in the case of wicked persons a policy of equality is adhered to rather than of discipline. Eli, for example, overcome by misguided affection and unwilling to chastise his delinquent sons, struck both himself and his sons before the strict judge with a cruel sentence, for the divine utterance was, “You have honored your sons rather than me.”

PASTORAL CARE 2.6

1 Samuel 5:6

And this explains how they died. It is said that each one died when he went out to purge his bowels and was bitten in the inner part of his buttocks by mice. Now this wound is shown here in a literal fashion, but it is united with an allegorical exposition. For in its literal meaning, it refers to the illness caused by the hand of the Lord and the bites of the mice, which led to the outcome of death. It is said that the hand of the Lord weighed heavily upon the inhabitants of Ashdod because they were being killed by the mouse bites. In giving this passage its spiritual meaning, however, we recognize two kinds of deaths: the first kind of death is that by which sinners die to righteousness when they sin; the second kind of death is that by which the righteous deliver themselves from the sins in which they had lived and repent of them. The first kind of death enters into human hearts whenever the devil persuades someone to sin. The second kind of death is effected by the virtue of almighty God. Therefore, we must give attention to both kinds of death in this place as they are alluded t…

And this explains how they died. It is said that each one died when he went out to purge his bowels and was bitten in the inner part of his buttocks by mice. Now this wound is shown here in a literal fashion, but it is united with an allegorical exposition. For in its literal meaning, it refers to the illness caused by the hand of the Lord and the bites of the mice, which led to the outcome of death. It is said that the hand of the Lord weighed heavily upon the inhabitants of Ashdod because they were being killed by the mouse bites. In giving this passage its spiritual meaning, however, we recognize two kinds of deaths: the first kind of death is that by which sinners die to righteousness when they sin; the second kind of death is that by which the righteous deliver themselves from the sins in which they had lived and repent of them. The first kind of death enters into human hearts whenever the devil persuades someone to sin. The second kind of death is effected by the virtue of almighty God. Therefore, we must give attention to both kinds of death in this place as they are alluded to spiritually. The one type of death, by which sinners arise when they repent of their sins is alluded to by the words “The hand of the Lord was heavy upon the inhabitants of Ashdod.” But that type of death by which the Gentiles offered themselves as slaves to impurity and sin is alluded to when the people of Ashdod were bitten by the mice and died. A mouse, after all, is an unclean animal and could not be eaten according to the law. Therefore, what else could the mice refer to except to demons? And what else is being bitten by mice except being wounded by the penalty for sin? But they were bitten by the mice when they went out to purge their bowels. Now what does it mean to purge one’s bowels other than to reveal the stench of a wretched reputation by one’s obedience to sin? Thus, whoever went out to purge his bowels died by the bites of the mice, for by his sinning in plain sight of others he showed them an example of depravity, and he himself was also detained for eternal death by his dire obligations to the demons.

SIX BOOKS ON 1 KINGS 3.78

1 Samuel 6:10-14

For it is not that holy people do not love their fleshly kin, to give them all things necessary, but they subdue this very fondness within themselves from love of spiritual things, in order so to temper it by the control of discretion, that they may be never led by it, even in a small measure and in the very least degree, to deviate from the straight path. And these are well conveyed to us by the representation of the cows, which going along towards the hilly lands under the ark of the Lord, proceed at one and the same time with fondness and with hardened feeling; as it is written, “And the men did so: and took two milk cows and tied them to the cart and shut up their calves at home; and they laid the ark of the Lord upon the cart.” And soon after: “And the cows took the straight way to the way of Beth-shemesh, and they went along by one way, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.” For observe, when the calves were shut up at home, the cows, which are fastened to the wagon bearing the ark of the Lord, moan and go their way, they give forth lowin…

For it is not that holy people do not love their fleshly kin, to give them all things necessary, but they subdue this very fondness within themselves from love of spiritual things, in order so to temper it by the control of discretion, that they may be never led by it, even in a small measure and in the very least degree, to deviate from the straight path. And these are well conveyed to us by the representation of the cows, which going along towards the hilly lands under the ark of the Lord, proceed at one and the same time with fondness and with hardened feeling; as it is written, “And the men did so: and took two milk cows and tied them to the cart and shut up their calves at home; and they laid the ark of the Lord upon the cart.” And soon after: “And the cows took the straight way to the way of Beth-shemesh, and they went along by one way, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.” For observe, when the calves were shut up at home, the cows, which are fastened to the wagon bearing the ark of the Lord, moan and go their way, they give forth lowings from deep within, and yet [they] never alter their steps from following the path. They feel love indeed shown by compassion but never bend their necks behind. Thus, they must go on their way, who, being placed under the yoke of the sacred law, henceforth carry the Lord’s ark in interior knowledge, so as never to deviate from the course of righteousness which they have entered upon, in order to take compassion on the necessities of relatives. For Beth-shemesh is rendered “the house of the sun.” Thus to go to Beth-shemesh with the ark of the Lord placed on them is in company with heavenly knowledge to draw near to the seat of light eternal. But we are then really going on toward Beth-shemesh when, in walking the path of righteousness, we never turn aside onto the adjoining side-paths of error, not even for the sake of the affection we bear for our offspring.

MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 7.30

1 Samuel 6:10-14

We know that when the ark of the Lord was returned from the land of the Philistines to the land of the Israelites, it was placed on a cart. They yoked cows that had recently borne young to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. “And the cows went straight on over the way that leads to Beth-shemesh, keeping to the one road, lowing as they went; they turned neither to the right nor to the left.” What do these cows represent but the faithful of the church? When they ponder the sacred precepts, it is as if they are carrying the ark of the Lord placed upon them. We should also notice that they are described as having recently borne young. Many who are inwardly set on the way toward God are externally bound by their unspiritual feelings, but they do not turn aside from the right road because they are carrying the ark of God in their hearts.The cows were going to Beth-shemesh, a name meaning “house of the sun.” The prophet says, “For you who fear the Lord, the sun of righteousness shall rise.” If we are moving on toward the dwelling place of the everlasting sun, we do right not to turn…

We know that when the ark of the Lord was returned from the land of the Philistines to the land of the Israelites, it was placed on a cart. They yoked cows that had recently borne young to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. “And the cows went straight on over the way that leads to Beth-shemesh, keeping to the one road, lowing as they went; they turned neither to the right nor to the left.” What do these cows represent but the faithful of the church? When they ponder the sacred precepts, it is as if they are carrying the ark of the Lord placed upon them. We should also notice that they are described as having recently borne young. Many who are inwardly set on the way toward God are externally bound by their unspiritual feelings, but they do not turn aside from the right road because they are carrying the ark of God in their hearts.The cows were going to Beth-shemesh, a name meaning “house of the sun.” The prophet says, “For you who fear the Lord, the sun of righteousness shall rise.” If we are moving on toward the dwelling place of the everlasting sun, we do right not to turn aside from the route toward God on account of our unspiritual feelings. We must consider with all our energy that the cows yoked to God’s cart moan as they go, lowing from their depths, but do not turn aside from their road. So surely must God’s preachers, so must all believers within holy church do. They must be compassionate toward their neighbors through their love, while not deviating from God’s way through their compassion.

FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 37

1 Samuel 7:2

Because we relate the perfection of the ark to the perfection of the contemplative life, the ark of God remained in Kiriath-jearim, since the learned minds of those who contemplate achieve with delight the gift of their very learning, namely, the brightness of above revealed to them. For twenty years the ark of God remained there, for the elect souls are transported to the pinnacle of innermost exaltation. Thus, they have the number ten, which stands for the perfection of knowledge, but then the number twenty for the delight in things above. For the multiplication of days can be related to the increase of spiritual virtues. Since this is the reason why the days were multiplied and it was expressly stated and asserted that it was the twentieth year: the more richly the elect minds of those who contemplate grazed on the thoughts above, the more fully they would be adorned with the glories of the spiritual virtues.Now what does it mean when it is said that all Israel “lay at rest after the Lord in the twentieth year,” except that the height of the perfection of the elect does not consis…

Because we relate the perfection of the ark to the perfection of the contemplative life, the ark of God remained in Kiriath-jearim, since the learned minds of those who contemplate achieve with delight the gift of their very learning, namely, the brightness of above revealed to them. For twenty years the ark of God remained there, for the elect souls are transported to the pinnacle of innermost exaltation. Thus, they have the number ten, which stands for the perfection of knowledge, but then the number twenty for the delight in things above. For the multiplication of days can be related to the increase of spiritual virtues. Since this is the reason why the days were multiplied and it was expressly stated and asserted that it was the twentieth year: the more richly the elect minds of those who contemplate grazed on the thoughts above, the more fully they would be adorned with the glories of the spiritual virtues.Now what does it mean when it is said that all Israel “lay at rest after the Lord in the twentieth year,” except that the height of the perfection of the elect does not consist in the might of a good work but in the virtue of contemplation? To rest after the Lord is to cling to the imitation of our Redeemer with invincible love. And, if someone contemplates those inexpressible joys of our citizenship above but does not learn to love mightily—for often he can be diverted to love of the world—he by no means rests for the Lord. Thus, when the ark remained in Kiriath-jearim and the days were prolonged, all of Israel rested after the Lord. Surely, while the knowledge of the mind of the elect was raised up into the experience of divine delight, and while the lights of the spiritual virtues gathered beneath the light of restored glory, Israel was able to hold on all the more tenaciously to the imitation of our Lord, to the degree that they, illuminated by the immense lights of virtue, were not able to perceive those shadows by which they were divided from the light. Thus Israel is said to be well off as they rested after the Lord, for they saw God. The higher the contemplative individual was carried into divine matters, the further they departed from human affairs. They held those mightily in check and so by no means could they be conquered.

SIX BOOKS ON 1 KINGS 3.141-142

1 Samuel 9:24-25

Whoever is received into the eminent office of dispensing pastoral care ought to have in the very sublimity of his rank both the true loftiness of his own life and compassion for the weaknesses of others. Therefore, Saul went with Samuel into the heights and then descended into the town. Let the ruler know how to conduct lofty things, but let him also know how to manage ordinary things. Let him say with Paul, “Our manner of living is in the heavens.” But let him also say with us, “Wretched man that I am! Who will free me from this mortal body? For I see another law in my members that fights against the law of my mind and takes me captive by the law of sin.” He is a true ruler, when he speaks wisdom among the perfect; he descends into the town when he arranges carnal matters and says, “Because of fornication let each man have his own wife and each woman her husband.” He is in the heights when he says, “No creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus,” but he descends into the town when he says, “I became weak to the weak that I might win the weak…

Whoever is received into the eminent office of dispensing pastoral care ought to have in the very sublimity of his rank both the true loftiness of his own life and compassion for the weaknesses of others. Therefore, Saul went with Samuel into the heights and then descended into the town. Let the ruler know how to conduct lofty things, but let him also know how to manage ordinary things. Let him say with Paul, “Our manner of living is in the heavens.” But let him also say with us, “Wretched man that I am! Who will free me from this mortal body? For I see another law in my members that fights against the law of my mind and takes me captive by the law of sin.” He is a true ruler, when he speaks wisdom among the perfect; he descends into the town when he arranges carnal matters and says, “Because of fornication let each man have his own wife and each woman her husband.” He is in the heights when he says, “No creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus,” but he descends into the town when he says, “I became weak to the weak that I might win the weak. I became all things to all people.” Therefore, Samuel brought Saul to the heights and led him down into the town. For when the greatest men put in order the pinnacle of the holy church, namely, those whom they place at the very pinnacle of the church, they teach them to live in a distinguished manner, to preach clearly, to be strict with themselves but more gentle with those under their care, to attend to their own salvation so that they can be weak with the weak. I meant that they are weak by letting their mind feel compassion on the weak rather than by being idle due to some internal malady. For if a teacher suffers from idleness of mind, he is not able to encourage the spiritually feeble and bedridden.

SIX BOOKS ON 1 KINGS 4.141

1 Samuel 10:21-23

It is common experience that in the school of adversity the heart is forced to discipline itself; but when one has achieved supreme rule, it is at once changed and puffed up by the experience of his high estate.It was thus that Saul, realizing at first his unworthiness, fled from the honor of governing but presently assumed it and was puffed up with pride. By his desire for honor before the people and wishing not to be blamed before them, he alienated him who had anointed him to be king.

PASTORAL CARE 1.3

1 Samuel 10:24

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

MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 32.13

1 Samuel 11:11

The people were divided into three parts, so that we might not strike the serpent Nahash in one battle line alone. The people were divided into three parts so that they might reveal the fruit and dignity of sacred fasting. By fasting we are called back to the contemplation of the holy Trinity, which we lost by eating the forbidding fruit. The people were also divided into three groups because this act commended the fasts of the law, the prophets and the gospel. When Moses was deemed worthy to receive the law, he twice fasted for forty days. When Elijah escaped the hand of Jezebel, he came to Mount Horeb on the strength of one meal that sufficed him for forty days. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ fasted for forty days in the wilderness and did not eat any food of any kind. Therefore, Saul divided the people into three parts in order to promote the fasts of the law, the prophets and the gospel as an example for those abstaining from food.

SIX BOOKS ON 1 KINGS 5.20

1 Samuel 12:23

Hence the Truth says: "When you stand to pray, forgive if you have anything in your hearts." We show the virtue of forgiveness more clearly if we bring forward one testimony from the Old Testament. Certainly when Judea had offended the justice of its Creator through its demanding sins, the Lord, forbidding His prophet from prayer, says: "Do not take up praise and prayer for them. If Moses and Samuel stood before me, my soul would not be toward this people." What is it that, with so many fathers passed over and left aside, Moses and Samuel alone are brought forward, whose wondrous power of obtaining is shown, while even they are said to be unable to intercede? As if the Lord were saying openly: I do not even hear those whom I by no means despise on account of the great merit of their petition. What then is it that Moses and Samuel are preferred to the other fathers in petition, except that these two alone in the entire sequence of the Old Testament are read to have prayed even for their enemies? One is assailed with stones by the people, and yet he entreats the Lord for the one who st…

Hence the Truth says: "When you stand to pray, forgive if you have anything in your hearts." We show the virtue of forgiveness more clearly if we bring forward one testimony from the Old Testament. Certainly when Judea had offended the justice of its Creator through its demanding sins, the Lord, forbidding His prophet from prayer, says: "Do not take up praise and prayer for them. If Moses and Samuel stood before me, my soul would not be toward this people." What is it that, with so many fathers passed over and left aside, Moses and Samuel alone are brought forward, whose wondrous power of obtaining is shown, while even they are said to be unable to intercede? As if the Lord were saying openly: I do not even hear those whom I by no means despise on account of the great merit of their petition. What then is it that Moses and Samuel are preferred to the other fathers in petition, except that these two alone in the entire sequence of the Old Testament are read to have prayed even for their enemies? One is assailed with stones by the people, and yet he entreats the Lord for the one who stoned him; the other is cast down from leadership, and yet when asked to pray, he confesses saying: "Far be this sin from me against the Lord, that I should cease to pray for you." "If Moses and Samuel stood before me, my soul would not be toward this people." As if He were saying openly: I do not even now hear those on behalf of friends, whom I know by the merit of their great virtue to pray even for enemies. Therefore the power of true prayer is the loftiness of charity. And then each person obtains what he rightly asks, when his mind in petition is not darkened by hatred of an enemy.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 27

1 Samuel 12:23

Why is it that Moses and Samuel are preferred to all the other fathers in this matter of making requests if it is not that these two alone in the whole history of the Old Testament are said to have prayed earnestly even for their enemies? One of them the people attacked with stones, and yet he prayed to his Lord for those who were stoning him. The other was deposed from his position of leadership, and yet when he was asked to make supplication he yielded, saying, "Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you."

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 27

1 Samuel 14:31-32

It is also the custom of the arrogant to not let their self-esteem keep quiet whenever the tongues of others grow silent in praising them. Indeed, while all the others keep quiet, the arrogant shouts aloud, for in his heart he carries around one who broadcasts his great worth. Therefore, the following words are readily applied to such people: “And the people turned to the spoils and brought sheep, cows and calves. They slaughtered them on the ground, and the people ate them with their blood.” If anyone cultivates many reasons for his innocence and boasts about them, he takes sheep. When someone thinks about his labors of preaching and collects in his memory whatever has been useful as he spoke to others or cultivated the earth, he takes cattle as booty. When he is elated from the fact that the impulses of wantonness upon the mind have been restrained and reduced, he takes calves. For there are two commandments that bring great praise to the just: the splendor of chastity and the light of good works. When an arrogant individual is exalted in his own estimation, he is said to have stol…

It is also the custom of the arrogant to not let their self-esteem keep quiet whenever the tongues of others grow silent in praising them. Indeed, while all the others keep quiet, the arrogant shouts aloud, for in his heart he carries around one who broadcasts his great worth. Therefore, the following words are readily applied to such people: “And the people turned to the spoils and brought sheep, cows and calves. They slaughtered them on the ground, and the people ate them with their blood.” If anyone cultivates many reasons for his innocence and boasts about them, he takes sheep. When someone thinks about his labors of preaching and collects in his memory whatever has been useful as he spoke to others or cultivated the earth, he takes cattle as booty. When he is elated from the fact that the impulses of wantonness upon the mind have been restrained and reduced, he takes calves. For there are two commandments that bring great praise to the just: the splendor of chastity and the light of good works. When an arrogant individual is exalted in his own estimation, he is said to have stolen sheep and calves. Sheep refer to the innocence of good works, calves to the mortification of bodily passion. Clearly, he added cattle to these, for he is not perfectly exalted if he thinks that he is in any way weak or powerless. He had already been great in his own opinion as far as he estimated his chastity and good works, but he raised himself in the arrogance of even fuller exaltation when he thought himself perfect in the labor of preaching.But afterwards he wrote about the end to which all these things lead: “And they slaughtered them on the ground.” To slaughter sheep, cows and calves on the ground is to exult with carnal joy and a conscience bereft of virtues. Thus God spoke about the proud and arrogant in the book of Hosea: “He turned away their sacrificial offerings into the deep.” Indeed, they plunge their victims into the deep when they do not raise up the heavenly offerings of virtues to the heavens in gratitude, but they yield their sacrifices to the earth through their quest for vain praise. Therefore, these words are well applied to them: “The people ate the sacrifices with their blood.” The food of the mind is its own internal joy. What, then, does eating with blood signify except to refuse to remove by any means striving for vain praise from the internal appetite of the mind? The blood is removed when the mind removes the striving for vanity from the joy of a good work. For the mind of a godly sort knows to rejoice in a good work, since he rejoices to draw near to the heavenly beings through his good works, but he avoids letting those works be seen at the time as he carries out those works. Then to eat with blood is to take the joy of a good work and mix it with a longing for vanity. Clearly, when praise is offered by others, then it is sincere food even for the arrogant. But when no one else praises them, the conscience of the haughty swells up, it violently snatches as loot the praise nobody else voluntarily offers.

SIX BOOKS ON 1 KINGS 5.143-144

1 Samuel 14:43-45

It should also be known that the vice of gluttony tempts us in five ways. For it sometimes anticipates the seasons of want, but sometimes [it] does not anticipate them but seeks for daintier food. Sometimes it looks for those things, which must be taken, to be prepared more carefully; but sometimes it agrees with both the quality of, and the season for, its food, but exceeds, in the quantity of what is to be taken, the measure of moderate refreshment. But sometimes that which it longs for is even of a baser kind, and yet it sins more fatally through the heat of unbounded desire. For Jonathan deserved in truth the sentence of death from the mouth of his father, because in taking honey he anticipated the time which had been fixed for eating.

MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 30.18

1 Samuel 15:17

Thus Saul, after merit of humility, became swollen with pride, when in the height of power: for his humility he was preferred, for his pride rejected; as the Lord attests, who says, "When you were little in your own sight, did I not make you the head of the tribes of Israel?" He had before seen himself little in his own eyes, but, when propped up by temporal power, he no longer saw himself little. For, preferring himself in comparison with others because he had more power than all, he esteemed himself great above all. Yet in a wonderful way, when he was little with himself, he was great with God; but, when he appeared great with himself, he was little with God. Thus commonly, while the mind is inflated from an affluence of subordinates, it becomes corrupted to a flux of pride, the very summit of power being pander to desire.

PASTORAL CARE 2.6

1 Samuel 15:17

Hence against the proud Saul it is said: "When you were little in your own eyes, you were made head among the tribes of Israel." As if it were openly said: When you saw yourself as little, I made you great above others. But because you now see yourself as great, you are esteemed little by me.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 7

1 Samuel 16:1

We have touched on these things as they pertain to the literal meaning; now let us see the election of our nobles as we look at the meaning beneath the literal one. When Samuel was told to fill the horn with oil, what else could it mean than this: he who is to be selected as a pastor in the holy church must not be someone clearly known as a transgressor but must be commended by wondrous praise as an example to others. The horn, you see, is the spear of an animal. But the authority and rebuke of even the highest bishop is nothing but his weapon. Indeed, they strike with their horn, whenever they lock horns with sinners as they issue their rebukes. They strike with their horn whenever they sharply confute sinners. The horn is filled with oil, then, whenever the loftiness of preachers does not have the harshness of threats but the allurements of grace. Or the horn is filled with oil when both the sublimity of the heights and the virtue of unction are given to a chosen pastor at the same time, that is, when he both ascends to a high degree, but the one who is taken into the heights is fi…

We have touched on these things as they pertain to the literal meaning; now let us see the election of our nobles as we look at the meaning beneath the literal one. When Samuel was told to fill the horn with oil, what else could it mean than this: he who is to be selected as a pastor in the holy church must not be someone clearly known as a transgressor but must be commended by wondrous praise as an example to others. The horn, you see, is the spear of an animal. But the authority and rebuke of even the highest bishop is nothing but his weapon. Indeed, they strike with their horn, whenever they lock horns with sinners as they issue their rebukes. They strike with their horn whenever they sharply confute sinners. The horn is filled with oil, then, whenever the loftiness of preachers does not have the harshness of threats but the allurements of grace. Or the horn is filled with oil when both the sublimity of the heights and the virtue of unction are given to a chosen pastor at the same time, that is, when he both ascends to a high degree, but the one who is taken into the heights is filled with the riches of merits. The priests were anointed with a full horn of oil, inasmuch as they arrived at the highest degree with a full possession of graces. When a fire is lit in a lamp of oil, the oil of the teacher is the love of the heart. A fire is lit in it, for the virtue and grace of the Holy Spirit burns in the richness of the mouth. Since a teacher ought to have the richness of great love, the king is said to have been anointed with a full horn of oil when he was ordered to be anointed. The fullness of the horn refers to the perseverance of the graces. For those who fail before they reach the end are not worthy to be anointed with a full horn of oil.

SIX BOOKS ON 1 KINGS 6

1 Samuel 16:18

It is agreeable to lift up eyes of faith to the power of this Worker, and to look here and there at our ancestors in the Old and New Testaments. With the eyes of faith open on David, Amos, Daniel, Peter, Paul and Matthew, I wish to analyze the nature of the workman, the Holy Spirit. But I fail in my analysis. The Spirit filled a boy who played upon a harp and made him a psalmist, a shepherd and herdsman who pruned sycamore trees and made him a prophet, a boy given to abstinence and made him a judge of mature men, a fisherman and made him a preacher, a persecutor and made him the teacher of the Gentiles, a tax collector and made him an evangelist.What a skillful workman this Spirit is! There is no question of delay in learning. It no sooner touches the mind in regard to anything it chooses than it teaches; its very touch is teaching. It changes a human mind in a moment to enlighten it; suddenly what it was it no longer is, suddenly it is what it was not.

FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 30

1 Samuel 16:23

Indeed, we should not disregard the fact that whenever the evil spirit possessed Saul, David took his harp and soothed his madness. What is symbolized by Saul but the pride of the mighty and what by David but the lowly life of the saints? As often, therefore, as Saul was possessed by the unclean spirit, his madness was soothed by David’s singing. So, too, whenever the disposition of people in power is turned to raving anger by pride, it is proper that we should recall them to a healthy frame of mind by gentle words, sweet tones of the harp, as it were.

PASTORAL CARE 3.2

1 Samuel 25:36-38

It is better, however, that in correcting these people we shun them when their anger is actually seething; for when they are aroused, they do not perceive what is being said to them. But when they have been restored to their senses, they the more willingly accept words of counsel, as they blush for having been peacefully borne with. For to the mind that is intoxicated with frenzy, everything said that is right appears to be wrong. Wherefore, Abigail laudably did not speak to Nabal about his sin when he was intoxicated, and as laudably told him of it when he became sober. For it was precisely because he did not hear of his fault when drunk that he was able to recognize it.

PASTORAL CARE 3.16

1 Samuel 30:11-17

The poor and the feeble, the blind and the lame, are called and come because the weak and the despised in this world are often quicker to hear the voice of God, as in this world they have nothing to delight them.The Egyptian servant of the Amalekites is a good example of this. When the Amalekites were plundering and moving about, he was left behind on the road sick and fainting from hunger and thirst. When David found him, he provided him with food and drink, and as soon as he revived he became David’s guide, found the celebrating Amalekites, and with great bravery overthrew the people who had left him behind sick. Amalekite means “a people that laps.” What does “a people that laps” signify but the hearts of the worldly? Going about after the things of earth, it is as if they are lapping them up when they take delight in temporal things alone. A lapping people takes plunder, so to speak, when out of its love for earthly things it heaps up profit from others’ losses. The Egyptian servant is left behind on the road sick, because all sinners, once they begin to grow weak from the situat…

The poor and the feeble, the blind and the lame, are called and come because the weak and the despised in this world are often quicker to hear the voice of God, as in this world they have nothing to delight them.The Egyptian servant of the Amalekites is a good example of this. When the Amalekites were plundering and moving about, he was left behind on the road sick and fainting from hunger and thirst. When David found him, he provided him with food and drink, and as soon as he revived he became David’s guide, found the celebrating Amalekites, and with great bravery overthrew the people who had left him behind sick.
Amalekite means “a people that laps.” What does “a people that laps” signify but the hearts of the worldly? Going about after the things of earth, it is as if they are lapping them up when they take delight in temporal things alone. A lapping people takes plunder, so to speak, when out of its love for earthly things it heaps up profit from others’ losses. The Egyptian servant is left behind on the road sick, because all sinners, once they begin to grow weak from the situation of this world, soon come to be despised by worldly minds. David found him and provided him with food and drink, because the Lord, who is “brave in hand” (if we attribute to him the meaning of David’s name), does not despise what the world has cast aside. Often he directs to the grace of his love those who are not strong enough to follow the world, and who are, so to speak, left behind on the road, holding out to them the food and drink of his word. It is as if he chooses them as guides for himself on the road when he makes them his preachers. When they bring Christ to the hearts of sinners, it is as if they are leading David upon the enemy, and, like David, they strike the celebrating Amalekites with the sword, because by the Lord’s power they overthrow all the proud who had despised them in the world.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 36