Gregory the Great, on 1Sam 3:1

“Now the child Samuel ministered to the Lord before Heli, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there was no manifest vision.”

“1. Since we were diligently seeking how the meaning of the sacred history might correspond to the conduct of the elect, we deferred revisiting the order of allegory by exposition. Therefore, to supply what we are seen to have omitted, the question is asked: What does it mean that while Samuel is recorded as ministering to the Lord before Eli, the word of the Lord is described as being precious? But, as was said above, by Samuel the preachers of holy Church are signified, and by Eli the elect fathers of the Old Testament are also designated. The boy Samuel therefore was ministering to the Lord before Eli, when the new order of teachers was preaching the faith of the Redeemer. Of which ministry Paul indeed speaks, saying: "As long as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I will honor my ministry" (Rom. 11:13). Again he says: "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? So am I" (2 Cor. 11:22). To minister to the Lord, therefore, is to proceed into the labor of preaching. Which ministry Samuel is indeed said to have rendered to the Lord before Eli, because whatever the new order of preachers asserted concerning the religion of the new faith, it confirmed by the authority of the ancient Fathers. For Samuel was ministering to the Lord when the new preacher was asserting, saying: "For I say that Christ Jesus was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy" (Rom. 15:8). And indeed, so that he might render the ministry he was performing for the Lord also before Eli, he added, saying: "As it is written: Praise the Lord, all you nations, and let all peoples praise him together" (Ps. 116:1). And so that he might more closely confine himself before Eli in the ministry of the Lord, he added: "For Isaiah says: There shall be a root of Jesse, who shall rise to rule the nations; in him shall the nations hope" (Rom. 15:12; from Isa. 11:10). The boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord when Peter was asserting the glory of the Lord's Resurrection, saying: "Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God among you by signs and wonders, delivered up, you killed by the hands of the wicked; this Jesus God raised from the dead on the third day by his predetermined plan, since it was impossible for him to be held by the pains of hell" (Acts 2:22ff.). 2. But this ministry, which he performed for the Lord, he also performed before Eli, because he added, saying: For David says: "Because You will not abandon my soul in hell, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption" (Acts 2:27; Psalm 15:10). Therefore Samuel is fittingly said to have ministered to the Lord before Eli, because the chosen preachers of holy Church, while they were raising up the structure of the new faith by preaching, confirmed by the authority of the ancient Fathers what they had endeavored to assert by reason. 3. And at that time the word of the Lord is said to have been precious. For indeed a precious thing cannot be bought at a small price. Now the price by which the word of God is bought is the labor of holy work. For we buy, as it were, with a price the thing we wish to have, when through the word of preaching which we receive we put forth the labor of work. But at that time the word was precious, when it was not given for any amount of labor of work, when everyone who killed a buyer of the word thought he was rendering service to God. Therefore at that time the buyer of the word needed a great price, because without great labor he could not preserve the word of faith, since he who believed arrived at torments on account of what he believed. For it was then a time when the word that was being bought exhorted not by a figuratively shaped type of morality, but by the precept of open speech, saying: "Whoever wishes to come after me, let him take up his cross daily and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). Hence likewise he says: "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me" (Matt. 10:37). And: "Whoever does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). And so when the ministry of Samuel is set forth, the word of the Lord is said to have been precious, because assuredly in the beginnings of the faith, those who believed the teachers preaching eternal life must be believed to have expended works of great labor for the word of faith they received. And because the Jewish people had already lost the light of divine knowledge, there follows: (1 Kings 3:1) "In those days there was no open vision."”

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