Gregory the Great, on 1Sam 16:11

“And Samuel said to Isai: Are here all thy sons? He answered: There remaineth yet a young one, who keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said to Isai: Send, and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hither.”

“Therefore the boy who tends the sheep is sought in the pastures, because He submits Himself to the Father in obedience even unto death; yet who shall declare His generation (Isa. 53:8)? He is called the little one because the grace of His humility is commended. He is therefore called the little one, who is declared by the Psalmist to have been made lower than the angels (Ps. 8). But the little one tends the sheep, because through humility He is lowly, and through majesty He is exalted. Here He labors and hungers, but there He feeds the angels from the glory of His majesty. For while all receive from the fullness of His glory, they are, as it were, satisfied in those most blessed pastures by the boy. The little one is also declared to be the shepherd, because over the assumption of His flesh the heavenly citizens rejoice ineffably. For that ineffable joy of the blessed citizens is, as it were, the food of the sheep. He is therefore commanded to be brought forward urgently; until He comes, the reclining at table must necessarily be postponed. For they would have reclined at table before He came, if the people had believed in another. Therefore He had to be awaited, who was the singular and unique food of blessed souls. Whence He also says of Himself: I am the living bread which came down from heaven (John 6:51). But because He who ascended is the same one who descended (Eph. 4:10), He is sent there so that He may be brought forward. For to send to the pastures is to extend the mind above the angels even to the equality of the eternal Father. And to find Him is to believe Him equal to the supreme Father in all things. But he brings Him forward who already declares that He came for the Redemption of the human race through the humanity He assumed. For he had sent and brought Him forward—he to whom one is sent in His type—when he said: He who comes from heaven is above all (John 3:31). Isaiah was bringing forward the little one tending the sheep when he said: A little child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God, Mighty, Father of the age to come, Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6). But because the faith of a teacher profits only himself for salvation and not also his hearers, He is commanded to be sent and brought forward, so that each one may have faith in Him through which he may deserve to be saved. For each one must go and bring Him, because they must firmly believe Him to be equal to the eternal Father through His divinity, and a partaker of our nature through His humanity.”

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