Homily on 1 Samuel 1–2 1.1–1.8

God did not plant a paradise only at that time; rather, as long as the life of mortals endures, as long as the salvation of human beings is secured by divine instruction, what the voice of the righteous man prays in the Psalms is always being done, when he says: “Bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance.” Therefore we all pray to be God’s planting; for if anyone is not God’s planting, the sentence has been pronounced once for all by the judge of all, our Savior, who says: “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.” God, then, plants, and there is a husbandry proper to God; and the field that God cultivates and plants must not have a single kind of tree but, like the estate of a rich and powerful farmer, be filled with every kind of shrub. Let us consider how all things are found in God’s field from the fields of this earth that people cultivate. Does a farmer who owns his land have his field all vines, or all figs, or all apples or palms? No: the diligent and industrious cultivator has his field planted and filled with all of these. So let us understand that in the field God plants there is not one single species of tree which bears only sweet fruit, but some sweet, some harsh, and yet each of them has its use and its grace. So do not look in us for what you have in Pope Alexander. For we confess that he surpasses us all in the grace of gentleness. Of this grace I am not the only one to speak; you all … We can be, and wish to be, plants of the field, but not to give the same flavor. In our fruits, indeed, we confess that we have some bitterness of taste, or perhaps something that seems more bitter than it is; for a word of rebuke seems bitter while it rebukes, but becomes sweet when it corrects. Look also at the sayings of our Lord and Savior himself: not all of them contain blessing, nor do all of them declare pardon and forgiveness; there are also some harsh and sad things in his words. For as he says, “Blessed are those who do this and that,” so he says, “Woe to those who have done this and that.” I have examined this in the prophets too, and found that it was granted to few of the prophets never to say anything bitter or sad to the peoples, but always sweet and gentle things. Yet it has been observed by those before us that only in the Psalms entitled “for the sons of Korah” does nothing bitter or harsh seem to be brought in; this was granted to them as a divine gift, that the Psalms bearing their name always contain glad things. There is therefore much diversity even among the prophets: some announce sad things, others glad ones. And the apostle Paul himself, who is an imitator of Christ, says that he has a rod, for those, of course, who need discipline, and says that he comes in a spirit of gentleness, to those, surely, whose life was without fault. And so in one and the same letter of his a word both bitter and sweet is found. Thus to the Corinthians, in the first part of the first letter, he says that “in everything you were made rich in him, in all speech and in all knowledge, as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you lack nothing in any gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And see how, going on a little later, his speech grows harsh when he says: “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not found even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, so that the one who did this deed might be removed from your midst.” He wrote this because not all to whom his word was directed were worthy of praise, nor did all deserve to be refuted or rebuked; and so he mixes the bitter with the sweet, so that praise may go to the best and rebuke to the worst. We have said this by way of preface because I know that you are accustomed always to hear the sweet sermons of a most gentle father, while the little tree of our planting has something harsh in its taste, which, however, through your prayers, will become a medicine of salvation. For some medicines are sweet, some harsh, sometimes even bitter, and yet each in its place gives healing if taken in due measure and at the right time.

The story read to us is from the first book of Kingdoms, and it seems so difficult that its explanation cannot be set out without the grace of divine power. It is related there: “There was one man from Ramathaim-zophim, from Mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah.” And after listing his whole lineage it says: “And he had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the second Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no child. And that man went up from his city from year to year to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. There were Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, priests of the Lord. And the day came on which Elkanah sacrificed, and he gave portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters; but to Hannah he gave one portion. For she had no children, because the Lord had shut her womb.” Then Scripture relates that Hannah was grieved because Peninnah with her children received many portions while she herself received only one portion; that, struck with this grief, she entered the temple of the Lord, wept, and prayed in silence, so that her voice was not heard; that Eli the priest, thinking she was drunk, rebuked her, but she answered him humbly and satisfied the priest, and prayed to the Lord that she might conceive a son, promising to consecrate to God whatever she bore. And when she had received a son according to the promise, it is related that once he was weaned she offered him to the Lord; for she could not offer him to the Lord before she weaned him. So she offers him with a prayer marked out with prophetic mysteries. We have summarized the content of the reading as briefly as we could.

Let us now see what is signified by what we have set out. For perhaps someone who has recently come to hear our law will say to us: “The Christian religion professes chastity, so much so that, if possible, we should not touch a woman at all; for so says the Apostle: ‘It is good for a man not to touch a woman.’ But this righteous Elkanah of yours, whom Scripture sets before us as an example, is described as having had two wives at once. Of these, the one named first, that is, Hannah, has no son, while Peninnah is said both to have many sons and to have received many portions. The first received only one portion, because she is alone, and she complains of her barrenness. Must we too be grieved because we have no children, and must our virgins be grieved that they live without children?” I have said this taking the part of those who are not yet fully instructed in what is read in the old Scriptures and are apt to be overscrupulously troubled. But I beg you all, since we are trying to open up the sense of such difficult matters and to disclose to the ears of the Church what is covered with a veil (for in the reading of the Old Testament, as the Apostle says, a veil is laid), to ask the Lord in prayer that he may deign to take away the veil from us who have turned to him, also from this reading which we have in hand, and more fully to unlock what is covered, so that we too may with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord in what is covered.

“There was,” it says, “one man from Ramatha, from Mount Ephraim.” I am well aware, first of all, that in some copies it reads “There was a certain man,” but in the copies we have found to be more correct it reads “There was one man”; and in this even the Hebrews, who contradict us in other matters, agree with us. “There was, then, one man.” See whether this very thing does not belong to the praise of the righteous man, that it is said of him: “There was one man.” We who are still sinners cannot acquire this title of praise, because each of us is not one but many. Look at someone’s face: now angry, now sad again, a little later rejoicing again, then troubled, then mild again; at another time deliberating on divine things and the deeds of eternal life, but a little later striving after what belongs to avarice or to the glory of the world. You see how one who is thought to be one is not one; there seem to be as many persons in him as there are moods, for according to the Scriptures “the fool changes like the moon.” So the moon too, though it seems to be one, is, through the change of its substance, always other than itself and always different; and so it is evident in it too that one thing is many. So we also, who are still foolish and imperfect, because we always change our opinions and always desire and feel different things, cannot be called one. But of the righteous, not only is each one called one individually, but all of them together are fittingly called one. And why should they not all be called one, whose heart and soul are described as one? They all always meditate on one wisdom, think one thing, feel one thing, worship one God, confess one Lord Jesus Christ, and are filled with one Spirit of God. Rightly, then, they all are said to be not only one thing but one person, as the Apostle indicated when he said: “All run, but one receives the prize.” You see plainly that all the righteous are the one who receives the prize. For the righteous man who is such truly imitates the one Lord. For, as I think, in what is said through the prophet, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God,” he is not called one merely in number, he who must surely be believed to be above all number; rather, he is to be understood as called one because he never becomes other than himself, that is, he never changes and never turns into something else, as David also testifies of him, saying: “But you are the same, and your years will not fail.” And what is written also looks to this sense: “I am the Lord your God, and I do not change.” God is therefore unchangeable, and he is called one because he does not change. So also the righteous man, the imitator of God, who was made in the image of God, is himself called one when he has come to perfection, because he too, when he has taken his stand at the summit of virtue, does not change but remains always one. For while anyone is in wickedness, he is divided into very many and scattered in different directions; and while he is in many kinds of wickedness he cannot be called one. Therefore, since by this wonderful unity the righteous man is one, and indeed many righteous are one, the holy Apostle exhorts the whole Church, saying: “That you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you, but that you be perfect in the same mind and the same knowledge.” For this reason the Acts of the Apostles also says that the heart and soul of the believers were one. But if we wish to consider something more subtle, we can find another unity as well. For example, if I so mortify my members that the flesh no longer lusts against the spirit, nor the spirit against the flesh; if there is no longer another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind and leading me captive to the law of sin; if all that is within me is made perfect in one and the same mind and moved by one and the same judgment, then I too shall be “one man.”

Let us first of all see where this praiseworthy husband of two wives comes from: “From Mount Ephraim,” it says. So the righteous man is not from the valleys, nor from the plains, nor from any lower places, nor even from the hills; he is “from a mountain,” it says. From which mountain? From Mount Ephraim, which is interpreted “fruitfulness.” So he is from a fruitful mountain, and his place is fruitful. See also how Scripture praises mountains: “God,” it says, “is God of the mountains, and not of the valleys.” And the name of this righteous man is Elkanah, which is interpreted “possession of God.” It is certain that he of whom it is said that he was one man is God’s possession and not the possession of demons. For one whom demons possess is not one but many, as the demons themselves answered about the man they possessed, saying that his name was Legion. But Elkanah, who is God’s possession, is one, and he has as his homeland Mount Ephraim, the fruitful mountain. This so praiseworthy man, then, had two wives: “the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the second Peninnah.” He had sons by the second, Peninnah; the first, who was also the nobler, was barren. You will find something similar in Genesis, for divine Scripture is akin to itself. You will find there that Abraham’s first wife, Sarah, was the nobler, and the second, the Egyptian Hagar, of low birth, and that Abraham became a father by the low-born wife before the noble one. Afterward, however, he becomes a father by the noble wife as well. So now too this Elkanah, who is God’s possession, first becomes a father by the second wife, since God had shut Hannah’s womb. But after Peninnah’s many childbirths Hannah’s womb is opened by prayers and petitions, and she too becomes the mother of the son whom she offered to God. Let us see, then, what mystery these things contain. Peninnah is interpreted “conversion”; Hannah is interpreted “grace.” Each of us, then, who wishes to become God’s possession should join these two wives to himself and celebrate his marriage with them. Let him first join to himself the one who is nobler and of better birth, grace. She is joined to us first, through faith, as the Apostle says: “By grace you have been saved through faith.” Second, let him be joined to Peninnah, that is, to conversion; for after the grace of believing comes the amendment of morals and the conversion of life. But though this is the order of the marriages, the order of childbearing is different. For Peninnah bears children to us first, because we bring forth our first fruits from conversion, and beget the first shoots of righteousness from acts and works. For the first work of righteousness is to turn from sins; unless we first turn and depart from evil, we shall not be able to become fathers by Hannah, nor to beget children of grace. Let us see, then, the difference between them. Peninnah has sons, but such as do not stand before God; for the children of conversion cannot be such as to stand before God and cleave to him. Yet they are not empty or wholly strangers to the things of God, for they receive portions of the divine sacrifices and eat of God’s victims. Each of us, then, first turns from sin, and from conversion begets works of righteousness. But afterward Hannah, stirred up in us by zeal and an overflowing of good, pours out prayer to God that she too may beget children. What kind of sons, then, did Hannah, who is grace, beget? Those who sit before God. “For grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” He, then, is the son of grace who devotes himself to God and to the word of God. Do you want me to show you a still clearer form of this understanding in the Gospels, which in the law is foreshadowed through wives but in the Gospels is described as already present through sisters? Look at Martha and Mary. Of them Martha is troubled and busy about much serving, and fulfills the works of conversion, and through this begets, as it were, the sons of conversion. But Mary, attentive at the feet of the Word of God, is said to have chosen the best part, and through this is understood to bring forth, as it were, the shoots of grace. So now too Hannah begets a son. Which son? Samuel, it says, who stands before God, of whom it is said in the Psalms: “Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call on his name.” And Jeremiah says: “If Moses and Samuel stood in my sight, I would not forgive them.” If, then, the son of grace is so great, let us too hasten indeed to Hannah’s marriage, but let us act patiently, so that sons may first be born to us from conversion. Let us first please God in good works, and then afterward beget a son from grace and from the gift of the Spirit. And what kind of son? Such a son as this one, Samuel, which is interpreted “God himself is there.” Do you see what sons grace begets? For so it is written of those who have obtained the grace of the Spirit, as the Apostle says: “If an unbeliever or an outsider enters your assembly, he is convicted by all; the secrets of his heart are made manifest, and then, falling on his face, he will worship God, saying that God is truly among you.” This, then, is what Samuel is interpreted: “God himself is there.” For where the Spirit of grace is, there God himself is said to be. But such a son cannot be born to us unless the sons of Peninnah come first; for unless the works of conversion go before, we do not merit the grace of the Spirit, nor can we beget from it the gift of the Spirit.

Let us see also to what place Elkanah used to go with his wives. “To sacrifice,” it says, “to the Lord in Shiloh. And Eli was there,” it says, “and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, priests of the Lord.” Shiloh is the name of the place where sacrifices were offered to the Lord before the temple was built in Jerusalem. In this place called Shiloh, then, victims were offered for sins, and there the purification of sins took place. Shiloh is interpreted “tearing away” or “unshoeing,” that is, the loosing of a shoe, and both senses fit well. For the place where sins are purged is rightly named “tearing away,” where the heart of stone is torn away and a heart of flesh put in; or “unshoeing,” because all of us are shod until we come to the holy place, but when we have arrived there we are commanded to take off our shoes. So it is said to Moses: “Loose the strap of your shoe; for the place where you stand is holy ground.” And do we suppose that no mystery is hidden in these words, and that this was commanded because God loathed Moses’ bodily shoes? Or should we not rather think that when he came out of the land of Egypt he had shoes made from the skins of dead animals and was, as it were, bound by a kind of mortality; but when he began to advance toward virtue, to ascend the mountain of God and there to minister to immortal mysteries, then God tells him to throw off the marks of mortality, which are signified by shoes of skin? I think that for this reason the Savior too commanded his apostles not to have shoes on their feet, so that the feet of those who ran to announce eternal life might lack every mark of mortality, since they were walking on that way which says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” For no one walks the way of life with a mark of mortality. Such, then, is this place, where Eli is, a less praiseworthy man; for because of sin he fell backward and died. And let us not think that he alone fell backward and died: now too, if anyone falls backward, if anyone turns back from faith and truth, he must fall and die at once. In Deuteronomy too a threat is held over sinners when it says: “and an incurable opisthotonus.” Opisthotonus means a disease of the back and the hinder parts; and surely it is not without reason that, though there are so many kinds of human illness, this kind above all is assigned to one who is going to sin. For in Genesis too Lot’s wife, who turned back, is said to have transgressed the divine command by which she had been told not to look back nor to stop anywhere in all the region, and so she was made a pillar of salt. Our Lord and Savior also says in the Gospel: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Moreover, after teaching about many things, he adds this too, saying: “Remember Lot’s wife.” It is best, then, to forget what is behind, to forget what is past, so that opisthotonus, the incurable disease, may not seize us, and we may not fall backward like Eli and die.

The two sons of Eli were there. Eli is interpreted “Arab” or “outsider.” For he is an outsider to God who does not keep discipline, who does not chastise his sinning son nor rebuke him so as to correct him, who indulges vices and does not punish offenses; as the Apostle also says: “But if you are without discipline, in which all have shared, then you are illegitimate and not sons.” This, then, is Eli, who is rightly punished by God. Let us see also who his sons are. “Hophni,” it says, “and Phinehas.” Hophni is interpreted “departure from conversion.” Of Peninnah we said a little earlier that she was conversion; but this one departs and goes far from amendment, does not want to be converted to the Lord, and therefore remains ungodly. And whoever he may be whom we see, after sin, not turning to the Lord and doing penance, nor taking to heart the reward of the future judgment and the divine word that commands, “Shall he who falls not rise again? Or shall he who has turned away not return?”, of him too we rightly say that he is Hophni, one who departs from conversion. His other son is called Phinehas. We know two men in the Scriptures called by this name: that righteous Phinehas, son of Aaron, and this unrighteous one, son of Eli. Hence we fittingly find two interpretations of this name. For in our language Phinehas means “stopping of the mouth” or “sparing the mouth.” The sinner, who has no confidence to speak, has his mouth stopped; but the righteous man spares his mouth. Today too, among the priests of the Lord, each Phinehas is found; and Eleazar is found too, who is the first in the Scriptures to be called “bishop,” as is written in Numbers. There are, then, today too among the priests those who spare their mouths, and no evil word at all proceeds from their mouth. There are priests from whose mouth no scandal, no lie, no deceit, and no falsehood is brought forth, and these are rightly compared with that Phinehas, son of Aaron. But there are also some priests after the pattern of this Phinehas, son of Eli, who have their mouths stopped, whether through the fault of ignorance or through consciousness of their sins. But this is what I beg: if anyone sees himself admitted to the priestly order, let him take pains to apply himself to learning and to amendment, and hasten to become one of that number of the blessed, lest he be found among those priests who are rejected and punished by God.

But it is time now to recall a few things about Hannah’s prayer, which she poured out when offering to God Samuel, whom she had weaned. In it we first say this: the child who is offered to God could not be offered before he was weaned. This shows that no one can be consecrated to God who is still fed on milk, is a child in understanding, and has no experience of the word of righteousness; nor can he administer the priestly sacraments unless he leaves childish things behind and rises from the number of those to whom the Apostle says: “I gave you milk to drink, not food; for you were not yet able.” Otherwise, according to the letter, what value have we seen in a little boy just weaned being offered to God, where his mother will not be present, nor nurses provide for him, nor any help for bringing up a child be at hand? But see how the word of Scripture is so fitted that it teaches figuratively that everyone who is first converted to the faith is fed on milk and not on solid food, those of whom it is said in another place: “And you have become such as need milk and not solid food. For whoever is fed on milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the perfect, who because of their capacity to take it have their senses trained to distinguish good and evil.” Whoever, then, is not yet weaned but is a little child cannot go up to the temple of the Lord, cannot go up to the ministries of the priests, nor take part in the sacrifices; indeed not even his mother goes up, though she could. For his mother is Hannah, grace, who keeps him, guards him, and nourishes him, so that at the proper time she may go up together with him. When she sees that the time has come for him to leave milk behind and take solid and strong food, so that he can take part with the priests and eat of the sacrifices of the altars, then she consecrates him to God. See whether you find anyone in another place in the holy Scriptures described as weaned. I, at least, as far as my memory suggests at present, remember Isaac, of whom it is written that Abraham made a great feast on the day his son Isaac was weaned. Among people of this world parents usually celebrate their children’s birthday; but Abraham does not celebrate his son Isaac’s birthday. He keeps that day as a feast, counts it a day of joy, and holds banquets when he weans him and brings him to strong and solid food, as if Isaac were saying through this: “When I became a man, I put away the things of a child.” Such, then, must the one be who is offered to God to dwell in the holy places, who can eat the holy meats, of which it is written: “Sanctify yourselves, that you may eat meat.”