Gregory the Great, on 1Sam 3:2

“And it came to pass one day when Heli lay in his place, and his eyes were grown dim, that he could not see:”

“4. For his vision would have been clear, if he had believed in the Redeemer whom he had heard had come to visit him. Concerning this blindness of his, it is added: (Verse 2.) Now it came to pass that Eli was lying in his place, and he could not see the lamp of God before it was extinguished. For the vision of Eli is not clear, because the priesthood of the Jews is buried in the blindness of its own faithlessness. Eli therefore lies in his place, because he both possesses the letter of the law, and yet in the law and the prophets he does not have the standing of light, but the fall of blindness. For the place of Eli, that is, of the Jewish preacher, is the sacred law. Because therefore the Jewish priesthood still possesses Sacred Scripture, it is in its place. And because, not knowing the power of Sacred Scripture, it is not raised up to the standing of faith, it is rightly said not to stand in its place, but to lie down. Because likewise it has been cast out until the end of the world, it is recorded as being unable to see the lamp of God. Hence also, when they daily receive so many exhortations of preaching from holy Church, when the Jews, overcome by so many assertions of the sacred faith, still do not believe, what else is this but what we read about them in Sacred Scripture, and also hold through experience — namely, that they have been cast out, not only so that they do not see, but so that they cannot even see? Hence also the apostles, reckoning as futile the labor spent on those who could not see, say in their Acts: "Because you have made yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:46). But he who is reported as unable to see is called the lamp of God. For the ministry of the Synagogue was the lamp of God, when in the chosen Patriarchs it shone both through the light of true preaching and through the promise of the coming Redeemer. Which lamp indeed could not be seen while Samuel was ministering, because at the time of the new preaching, the authority of the Synagogue incurred the punishment of perpetual rejection. 5. And it should be noted that it is not said that it could not give light, because indeed it still carries the light of Holy Scripture for us, but it does not know what it carries. Hence it is also said that before it was extinguished, it could not see. For it is not yet extinguished, and it cannot see, because certainly, as I have already said, it bears a light that it does not heed; for before it is extinguished, it exists as long as it shines. And because Holy Scripture is not taken away from it all the way until the end of the world, if before it is extinguished it does not see, it extends in blindness until the end of the world. But if its lighting is referred to the zeal of its unbelief, it cannot see precisely because it is not extinguished. For if it were to extinguish the fire of unbelief from its mind, with the zeal of impiety removed, it would open the eyes of the mind to the light of the pleasure of true faith. But since it is said to be unable to see, it is declared an unworthy lamp, and the one that is worthy is sought for seeing those things.”

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