Gregory the Great, on 1Sam 2:31

“Behold the days come: and I will cut off thy arm, and the arm of thy father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in thy house.”

“For the arm of the scorner is temporal strength. And because he departed from the household of the supreme Father by transgressing, the fallen angel began to have him as a father, now cast out from heavenly glory. Therefore the house of his father is that society of subjects which favors him in evil. Of whom indeed it is said above: "You have honored your sons more than me." The arm of the scorner, therefore, and the house of his father is cut off when, with the intervention of the death of the flesh, both the prelate and his subjects alike lose the violence of their tyranny. For then he is without an arm, when he can in no way exercise violence in the oppression of the little ones. Whence it is also decreed by the equity of the eternal Judge: "Bind his hands and feet and cast him into the outer darkness" (Matt. 22:13). In whose house also there shall be no old man. For the house of a condemned man is hell. But true old age is the maturity of wisdom. Therefore in his house there shall be no old man, because in hell no counsels of salvation can be found. Whence also sacred Scripture stirs us to works of true wisdom, saying: "Whatever your hand is able to do, do it earnestly, for there is neither reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge in the underworld, where you are hastening" (Eccles. 9:10). Hence Paul says: "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2). Therefore in the house of the scorner there shall be no old man, because whoever rightly has wisdom has prepared a dwelling for himself not in hell but in heaven.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.