Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
Tropologically St. Gregory: “The Lord,” he says, “gives a voice (that is, thunder), because he rouses the hearts of sinners, that they may recognize the wickedness of their depravity. He gives rains, because he helps the roused hearts by the infusion of heavenly grace, that each may not only forsake the evils he has done, but also strongly do the good he desires.” And a little after: “The change of heart,” he says, “is no less a miracle than the disturbance of the air. It is no less a miracle that dry hearts revive than that rains in unusual manner should flood in summer heats. For it is a greater miracle to shake an insensible mind with an inward sound than to make thunder resound by clouds struck together by the wind.”
AND YOU SHALL SEE HOW GREAT EVIL YOU HAVE DONE TO YOURSELVES IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD, IN ASKING FOR YOURSELVES A KING,—both because God by thunder will testify that he was angry with you: for he thunders against sins and sinners; and because, as Lyranus says from R. Solomon: “God stirred up this thunder to confute the stubbornness of the people; for if the strength of Samuel was so great that he could move the heavens and call down thunder, how could he not rout the enemy and preside over the Commonwealth?”
18. AND THE LORD SENT THUNDER,—thunders mixed with lightnings and hail, says Josephus, book 6 of the Antiquities, chap. 6.
Furthermore St. Gregory, hom. 27 on the Gospel, citing that of Jerem. 15:1: “If Moses and Samuel shall stand before me, my soul is not towards this people. What is it,” he says, “that Moses and Samuel are preferred to the other Fathers in intercession, except that these two alone in the whole series of the Old Testament are read to have prayed even for their enemies? One is assailed with stones by the people,” Exodus 17:4, “and yet prays to the Lord for his stoners. The other is ejected from the headship, and yet, asked to pray, declares, saying: Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.”
20. DEPART NOT FROM AFTER THE LORD.—In Hebrew, from after the Lord; in Chaldee, from after his worship, as if to say: Cease not to follow the Lord, and to love and worship him. Morally St. Gregory: “The mind of the penitent,” he says, “is then well directed, if it fears the divine judgments and trusts in the mercy of almighty God. Fear without hope indeed precipitates into despair; but when it is joined with hope, it works the salvation of the mind. Wherefore the best Doctor ought to watch with the greatest zeal to terrify the sinner, and the terrified to lead back to the hope of pardon. That by fear he may cease to sin, and by hope of obtaining indulgence may seek the harbor of divine mercy.”
Tropologically the same St. Gregory: “The just,” he says, “stand in the sight of the Lord, because by the testimony of a good conscience they presume on the love of the Creator. Sinners, however, when they commit evils, flee from the face of the Lord; but when they resolve to return by penance, they are as it were behind the back of the Lord, because they are unwilling to depart farther from him, and yet cannot presume on God as friends. Hence it is that the sinful woman is said to have stood behind, Luke 7:38. Behind also stood she who touched the hem of his garment, Matt. 9:20. She stands behind indeed for shame of sin; but touches by the power of hope. Since, therefore, we ought always to blush for iniquities committed, and to avoid those things in which we are confounded; Samuel commands sinners not to depart from behind the Lord.”
21. TURN NOT ASIDE AFTER VAIN THINGS,—that is, idols; and St. Gregory says: “Compared with eternal goods, all things are vain, even temporal goods. For whatever in this world is seen to be joyful, delightful, lofty or prosperous is surely vain; because it is hard to get, and quickly lost. Suddenly indeed the heights of the world fall, beautiful things pass, joyful and prosperous things vanish. For when the world is seen to stand flattering in its flowers, it is disturbed by sudden fortune, or is brought to an end by hastening death that overturns all things. Vain, therefore, are the joys of the world, which flatter as if lasting, but by quickly passing deceive their lovers.” And below: “To decline after them is to flow down into the desire of them; to prefer love of them to divine love. Deservedly, therefore, vain things do not profit them; because they were unwilling to have them in the order in which they were established.”
22. AND THE LORD WILL NOT FORSAKE HIS PEOPLE FOR HIS GREAT NAME’S SAKE.—First, “the name of God” is the fame of God, which was great among all nations: namely that God had delivered and defended Israel his people from Pharao and other enemies through so many prodigies. So Abulensis, Vatablus, Dionysius.
Second, “the name of God” is his omnipotence, mercy and fidelity.
Third, “the name of God” is God himself named and invoked; for God is best and greatest.
Mystically, “for his great name’s sake,” that is, for the sake of “Christ”; for he is the “name”
jubilation in the heart.” And a little after, showing the excellent fruits of this name: “It restrains,” he says, “the onset of anger, calms the swelling of pride, heals the wound of envy, checks the flow of luxury, extinguishes the flame of lust, tempers the thirst of avarice, and puts to flight the itch of all indecency.” And it is due to pray for the people subject to oneself, such as this Israel was. St. Gregory adds: “If this is examined according to the precept of the law, it would not be a sin if he did not pray for those who cast him out; for the law of Moses commands, saying: Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and shalt hate thy enemy. What then is it that he says? Far be it from me this sin, except that the holy man, raised to the summit of charity, not only loved friends, but embraced even enemies? instructed indeed by the command of the old law; but illumined by the splendors of the new grace, he reproves the license of the old by evangelical perfection.”
Furthermore the Fathers extol with wonderful praises this voice of Samuel, as one burning with charity toward those adverse to him: nay they propose him, as a mirror of kindness and charity, to be imitated by all. Hear St. Gregory, hom. 15 on Ezechiel: “Do we desire to enlarge the mind in kindness? Let Samuel be brought to mind, who, cast down from the headship, when the same people asked that he pour out prayers to the Lord for them, answered, saying: Far be it from me this sin against the Lord, that I should cease to pray for you. The holy man indeed believed he committed a fault if to those whom he had borne as adversaries even to ejection he did not render the kindness of grace in prayer.”
“Samuel,” he says, “who had been set aside, who was despised, says: Far be it from me to sin by ceasing to pray the Lord for you; he thinks it a sin to pray less for enemies.”
Blessed Antiochus, hom. 2, calls Samuel an admirable man, because he prayed for those who had cast him down from the headship. Hence St. Gregory infers, hom. 27 on the Gospel: “The power of true prayer, therefore, is the loftiness of charity. And then each obtains what he rightly asks, when his mind in prayer is not darkened by hatred of an enemy.”
25. BUT IF YOU WILL STILL DO WICKEDLY, BOTH YOU AND YOUR KING SHALL PERISH TOGETHER,—because king and people are politically as one person: wherefore as they become as one thing in guilt, so also they become as one thing in punishment. Furthermore St. Gregory sagaciously, book 6: “So,” he says, “the merits of rulers and people are connected with one another, that often from the fault of the presidents the life of subjects becomes worse, and often from the merit of the people the life of the Pastors falls into fault.” [the Word] of the Father; because it speaks, that is, manifests itself to the world, says Hugo. Here also “Jesus,” that is, “Saviour of the world.” A great name, therefore, is “Jesus.” Hear St. Bernard, serm. 15 on the Canticle: “Dry is all food of the soul, if it be not sprinkled with this oil. If you write, it does not taste to me, unless I read Jesus there: if you dispute, it does not taste to me, unless Jesus sound there. Jesus is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear,”