Gregory the Great — on 1Sam 2:5 (Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 2, Chapter 1)

“13. Those are filled first who, while they receive the foods of pride as refreshment for the mind, cannot take in the delights of holy virtues, as though already full of food. But nevertheless they hire themselves out for bread, because in the Scriptures which they understand they think they receive spiritual gifts of virtues according to the greatness of wisdom. But they cannot be satisfied, because they can in no way add the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the fullness of arrogance. For the spirit of discipline itself flees from what is feigned, and does not dwell in a body full of sins (Wisdom 1:5). Hence it is also written: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5). In vain, therefore, do they eagerly desire to receive the things of God, who by the very fact that they are proud make the bestower of gifts their adversary. Therefore they cannot be satisfied, because they do not obtain the gifts of spiritual graces. But who are the hungry, if not those empty of the foods of vices, fasting from pride? The hungry, therefore, are satisfied, because holy men, endowed with the stronghold of humility, while they do not think highly of themselves, merit the lofty gifts of virtues. For through the good of humility they become seats of the Holy Spirit, and while they receive him abiding in them, they are more fully filled with his gifts. Whence the Lord also says through the Prophet: "Upon whom does my spirit rest, if not upon the humble, and quiet, and the one trembling at my words" (Isaiah 66:2)? Greatly, therefore, are the hungry satisfied, because in the fullness of gifts the Holy Spirit rests upon the humble. 14. This, however, can not unfittingly be said against negligent ministers of the sacred altar and presumptuous receivers of the Lord's body. For those who hire themselves out for bread were filled beforehand and saturated with the food of vices, because they do not prepare their body for the reception of the Eucharist. They indeed eat and cannot be satisfied, because even though they receive the sacrament with their mouth, they are in no way filled with the power of the sacrament. They therefore fast from that power of the sacrament precisely because they had been filled beforehand. For they do not receive the fruit of salvation in the eating of the saving host, who carry in their mind the sins with which they had filled themselves. Therefore none are satisfied except the hungry, because those who perfectly fast from vices receive the divine sacraments in the fullness of their power. And because even the elect cannot be without sin, what remains except that they strive to be emptied daily of the sins with which human frailty does not cease to stain them? For he who does not daily drain off what he commits in transgression, even if the sins he heaps up are small, little by little the soul is filled, and they rightly take from him the fruit of interior satisfaction. Paul, urging us to empty ourselves of this fullness, says: "Let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup" (1 Cor. 11:28). For what does "prove" mean in this passage, except, having emptied out the wickedness of sins, to present oneself approved and pure at the Lord's table? Concerning those who are full he also adds: "For he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment upon himself." Therefore, since we sin daily, let us daily run to the laments of repentance, because that alone is the power which empties out what guilt accumulates in the belly of the soul. And then the hungry are truly satisfied, because the more diligently we are cleansed by the lament of repentance, the more abundant the fruit of divine grace we receive in spiritual refreshment. Because this satisfaction of the elect extends all the way to the end of the world, she adds and says: "Until the barren has borne many, and she who had many children has grown feeble." 15. Who therefore is signified by the name of this barren woman, if not she of whom Paul speaks, saying: "The Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother" (Gal. 4:26, 27)? Whence also shortly after he fitted to her the prophecy of Isaiah, saying: "For it is written: Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry out, you who do not travail, for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband" (Isa. 54:1). But how is Jerusalem understood as barren—namely, the holy society of the blessed angels—when according to the meaning of its name it is fruitful with everlasting joy from the eternal vision of peace? But if she is the mother of the elect among men, she was indeed barren when the human race had perished in Adam. For she was as though unable to bring forth, since she lost through the persuasions of the fallen spirit him in whom she ought to have extended the bosom of her fruitfulness. The weak are girded so long until the barren one gives birth, because we have need of the powerful ministry of the humble angels until as many as are predestined to life from the human race are gathered together, even to the end of the world. For the Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather His elect from the four winds (Matt. 24:31; Mark 13:27). For they are to be sent then to gather those for whose salvation they are sent daily, because they will not gather into the kingdom any except those to whom they now offer assistance through the strength of their girding. Even until the end of the world the hungry are filled. But rightly is this barren woman said to bear very many, because not all men, but only the elect, are led to eternal joys. Fittingly therefore she is also said to give birth, because through the ministry of angels we are taught to seek heavenly things, so that we may be able to attain their goods. But when this barren woman gives birth, she who had many children is weakened, because the fuller the gains of the elect that the heavenly kingdoms receive through the ministries of angels, the more the children of this Babylon are diminished. For she is as though weakened in her childbearing, who through the disordered love of passing things cannot, as she was accustomed, bear children. For everywhere the heavenly kingdoms are now preached, and indeed while the minds of the faithful love what they hear, while they also seek those things through good conduct, Babylon is as though constricted in her childbearing, because our mother Jerusalem brings forth throughout the world for God those whom Babylon was accustomed to bear for hell from her exhausted womb of perdition. Yet the strength of those who are girded is ascribed not to themselves, but to Him by whom they are girded.”