Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
18. BUT SAMUEL MINISTERED BEFORE THE FACE OF THE LORD, A CHILD GIRDED WITH A LINEN EPHOD.—The Ephod of many colours and set with gems, containing the Rational with twelve gems, on which were engraved the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, was proper to the Pontiff: but the linen Ephod was the garment of the Levites, such as Samuel was, and was like the surplice of linen with which choirboys singing in the temple are clothed. So St. Augustine, Question 41 on the book of Judges, and St. Jerome, book Against Jovinian, distinguish this double Ephod. Less rightly therefore Procopius and Theodoret judge that this Ephod of Samuel was a priestly one, conceded to him by the Pontiff Heli on account of the wonderful grace of God shining forth in him.
Tropologically Blessed Peter Damian, book 2, epistle 10:
“Linen,” he says, “arrives at whiteness laboriously, and clerics, now by toiling at the study of letters, now by ascending certain grades, are with difficulty promoted to the dignities of the sacred order.” And St. Gregory here: “Well is it reported that the garment of Samuel was of linen, that the glory of the new priest might openly show that he shone with the manners of new purity.”
20. THE LORD GIVE THEE SEED (offspring) OF THIS WOMAN, FOR THE LOAN WHICH THOU HAST LENT TO THE LORD, —that is, for the loan or gift which thou didst offer and give to God, namely thy Samuel, whom thou didst offer to me as to the Pontiff of God.
21. AND THE LORD VISITED ANNA, AND SHE CONCEIVED AND BORE THREE SONS AND TWO DAUGHTERS.—Behold, this was the fruit partly of the blessing of Heli the Pontiff, partly of the offering of Anna, who had offered her Samuel to God: for one Samuel God gave her back five children. Let parents learn here to dedicate some of their children to God; for these will obtain for them a blessing in goods both spiritual and temporal.
AND THE CHILD SAMUEL BECAME GREAT BEFORE THE LORD,—that is, he grew in age, wisdom and grace, not only before men but also before God, as verse 26 explains. Whence Samuel was a type of Christ, of whom Luke says, chapter 2, last verse: “Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men.” Tropologically St. Gregory: “It is to be noted,” he says, “that Samuel is called a child, and magnified. Why then a child, if not because humble? And why is he said to be magnified, if not because he was raised to the height of perfection?” And applying the same to the preachers of the new law: “Samuel,” he says, “is called a child, and magnified in the sight of the Lord, because the new order of preachers, though it has attained to the height of great conversation, has not lost the virtue of humility. To be magnified would not profit if he ceased to be a child: because, humility being lost, he could not please Almighty God by the loftiness of conversation.”
22. HOW THEY LAY WITH THE WOMEN THAT WAITED AT THE DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE.—The Chaldee: who came to pray at the door of the tabernacle. Josephus: “Who approached the worship of God, and persevered in it.” These were pious women who had dedicated themselves to God to serve Him in the tabernacle, among whom the Blessed Virgin was brought up, as our nuns are, of whom I spoke on Exodus 36. These words are wanting in the Septuagint. This is the third crime of the sons of Heli, namely lust, that is, adultery and sacrilege, in that they violated women dedicated to God, and that in a sacred place and the tabernacle: for gluttony is the companion of lust, and the belly seething with wine foams over into lusts, says St. Jerome, even sacrilegious ones. Whence the Chaldee, verse 32, says they sinned in the house of the Sanctuary. And St. Jerome in the Questions: “The place of the tabernacle,” he says, “was overturned, and on account of the vices of the priests the Sanctuary of God was left desolate.” The same Jerome on Ezechiel chapter 8: “After the example of Ophni and Phinees,” he says, “we work the crimes of idols in the tabernacle of God; and we commit fornication with those who have vowed themselves to the warfare and ministry of God.” The Hebrews in St. Jerome’s Questions extenuate this sin by saying that the sons of Heli did not lie with the women, but only persuaded them to intercourse with their husbands at the time of the monthly period; likewise before the time of purification of forty days after childbirth had been completed; but these are their fictions, by which they invert the words of Holy Scripture. Finally Scripture records these crimes of the priests, to show why God raised up Samuel to correct them.
Again, to show the holiness of Samuel, who, brought up among such wicked men, nevertheless turned out so upright. Hear St. Cyprian, book On the Singleness of Clerics: “Evil conversation,” he says, “sows corruption, conceives cupidity, bears ignominy, stirs up rage, stretches out fury, feeds wantonness, nurtures petulance, exalts falls, builds ruins, rejoices in perdition, fosters destruction, trades in confusion, treasures up reproach, heaps up accusations, inflames charges, and, gathering into a bundle in crowds the numerous snares of traps, through infinite disgraces draws simple morals to the ruin of the lost.”
And St. Bernard, epistle 24 to Hugh: “Among the good,” he says, “to be good has safety; among the wicked, praise as well: the former is of as great ease as of security, the latter of as great virtue as of difficulty.” Such as is that “to touch pitch and not be defiled by it? to dwell in fire without harm, and to be in darkness without gloom?” where he alludes to those three places of Scripture: “In the midst of the fire I was not burnt,” Ecclesiasticus 51, 6. “And there came horrible darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days: but wheresoever the children of Israel dwelt, there was light,” Exodus 10, 22.
Moreover this lust of the sons of Heli proceeded partly from gluttony, partly from disobedience, by which they rebelled against God and their father. For, as St. Gregory says, book 35 of the Morals, chapter 13: “Adam, because he would not be subject to his Author, lost the right of the flesh which he ruled, so that in himself the confusion of his disobedience should overflow, and, overcome, he should learn what, exalted, he had lost.”
And St. Bernard, sermon 4 on the Feast of All Saints: “The soul,” he says, “if it desires to reign over its members, must needs itself be subject to its superior, since it will find its inferior such as it has shown itself to its superior. For the creature is armed to avenge the injury of its Creator. And therefore let the soul know, which finds its flesh rebellious to it, that it is itself also less than it ought to be subject to the higher powers.” The cause is given by St. Augustine on Psalm 143: “Acknowledge,” he says, “the order. Thou to God: the flesh to thee (namely let it obey) what is more just, what more beautiful? Thou, the lesser, to the greater: to thee, the lesser. Serve him who made thee, that what was made for thee may serve thee. But if thou despisest to serve God, thou shalt never bring it about that the flesh serve thee: he who obeys not the Lord is tormented by his servant.”
24. DO NOT SO, MY SONS.—Heli rebukes his sons, but only once, and too gently. He sinned, therefore, first, because for such great crimes he ought to have reproved them sharply and often; secondly, having reproved them, if they did not amend, to remove them from the sacrifices and deprive them of the priesthood, says Theodoret, Question 3; to disown them (disinherit them) and punish them with blows, says St. Chrysostom, book 3 On the Monastic Life, chapter 4; and he sinned most of all in that he did not from boyhood bend them to better things, chastise and correct them: for the minds of boys are pliable to anything; but those of the aged unbending, being rooted and hardened in evil habit. Well-worn is that saying:
The soft indulgence of fathers makes their sons slothful.
Moreover the manner of correcting, that severity be seasoned with gentleness, St. Gregory teaches, part 2 of the Pastoral Rule, chapter 6: “It is necessary,” he says, “that when the wound of sin ... of disobedience, is bound up in subjects by correction, even the stricter ruler himself be tempered with great care of solicitude: so that thus the rights of discipline against offenders exercise, that he lose not the bowels of piety.” And presently: “Care must be taken,” he says, “that piety show the ruler to his subjects both mother, and discipline father.” And a little after: “Care must be provided with solicitous circumspection that neither the severity be rigid nor the piety lax, etc. Toward their subjects there ought to be in rulers both a justly consoling mercy and a piously raging discipline.” He gives the example of the Samaritan, who bound up the wounds of the hurt man, pouring in oil and wine, Luke 10, 34: “That by the wine,” says St. Gregory, “the wounds may be bitten, by the oil soothed. For it is necessary that whoever is set over the healing of wounds apply in the wine the bite of pain, in the oil the softness of piety, so that by the wine the putrid matter may be cleansed, by the oil the wounds to be healed be soothed. Gentleness must be mixed with severity, and a certain temperament made of both, that the subjects be neither exasperated by too much harshness, nor loosened by too much kindness.”