Gregory the Great, on 1Sam 9:12

“They answered and said to them: He is: behold he is before you, make haste now: for he came today into the city, for there is a sacrifice of the people today in the high place.”

“As if they were saying: We can point out his place because he comes there where we used to see him. For if he remained in the citadel of his own loftiness, no one could show him to you. For a teacher is in the city when he lingers in the instruction of the people subject to him through the ministry of preaching. A teacher is in the city when he leaves his own affairs to arrange what is common to all. For since the people, fortified and made strong through the exhortation of a good preacher, are protected when he lingers in their ministry, he is known to be in the city. Likewise, because among the multitude of the subject people some are simple and others are wise, the young women add: "Make haste now, today he has come into the city, because there is a sacrifice of the people on the high place. As soon as you enter, you will find him immediately, before he goes up to the high place to eat. For the people will not eat until he comes, because he himself will bless the offering, and then those who have been invited will eat." When Samuel came to the city, he went up to the high place: because the chosen preacher, in the instruction of his subjects, sometimes utters plain words, sometimes lofty ones. Therefore, when he commands plain and intelligible things, he is in the city; when sublime things, and those which are scarcely understood, he is in the high place. He is in the city when he sets forth examples for the simple; but he is in the high place when he utters to the perfect the lofty things of spiritual words. For he was, as it were, in the city, who said: "I judged not myself to know anything among you, except Christ, and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). Likewise, he was in the city when he showed remedies to the weak, saying: "Because of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband" (ibid., 7). But he went up to the high place, because not long after he adds: "But concerning virgins I have no commandment, yet I give counsel. I would that all men were even as myself" (ibid., 8). He also confesses that he often ascends to the high place of words, because he says: "We speak wisdom among the perfect" (ibid., 6). What then is the meaning of what the maidens say: "Hurry now, today he comes into the city," unless that he was rarely seen in the city, namely coming late and departing quickly? By this teaching indeed the doctor of the holy Church is instructed to be rarely in public and frequently in secret, so that the more slowly he is seen, the more devoutly he is revered. Then indeed he is received as though heavenly, because the more he has hidden himself in the secret of contemplation, the richer the treasures of the Word of God he brings to those who await him. For he is able to speak many good things about the lowest matters to whom it is granted through the secret gaze of the mind to see the highest things. And because those things which are spoken seem sweeter, the maidens say: "Hurry." As if they were saying: if he has completed that for which he came into the city, you will not be able to see him hidden away in his secret place. Which statement indeed is now not to be taken literally, but is an example for religious persons. For the holy man was of such strictness that he had appointed days and hours in which whoever desired could see him. They say therefore: "Make haste." As if they were saying: If the appointed time passes, during the hours of his rest, he does not attend to words or actions. We therefore who have taken up the rule of a secluded life ought to observe this more attentively. Hours of ministry must be appointed for us, so that we may persist briefly in work and be able to return hastily to the citadel of contemplation. Moreover, the periods of our secret silence must be guarded with such a strict rule that even those who are accustomed to approach may know that they do not have access to us contrary to our purpose.”

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