Bede : Samuel slept until morning, etc. The Lord remained in secret rest with the Father, with whom he ceaselessly arranged and governed all things invisibly, waiting for when, with the night of vices dispelled by the host of virtues, the lights of evangelical truth would reveal themselves, when the shadow of the law departed. And immediately, wherever he saw the dawn of faith rising in anyone's heart by the breath of the Sun of righteousness, opening the more abundant gifts of his Spirit, he promised the hope of entrance to the eternal house in heaven. This happens not only then among the Jews but also among us to this day; for whoever has not yet received the grace of Christ, or having received it, has cast it away by the merits of sins, to this person placed in the night of blindness, Christ, who always watches in the saints, sleeps, and the entrance of the heavenly kingdom is closed to him. But when he receives the light of hoped-for and sought-for forgiveness, immediately the Lord, as if awakened from sleep, opens the doors of virtues, which he had closed at the coming of the evening of faithlessness. This sense agrees beautifully with another trope, that while the Lord sleeps, the sailors are in danger; while he awakens, they are freed (Matthew 8). — Commentary on Samuel Gregory the Dialogist : 21. For he sleeps until morning who rests in the conduct of a good work begun until the splendor of the coming Redeemer appears. He sleeps until morning who throughout the whole night of the present life waits through the purpose of justice begun, so that the brightness of the promised Redeemer may shine forth for him unto the joy of a merited reward. For he heard the word promised in Israel, about which his ears do not cease to ring, because from the observed severity of divine justice he drew in a spirit of fear, under whose weight he will not be able to awake to the love of the world. But perhaps he is said to sleep until morning on account of the ringing of the right ear. For the right ear rings, because while the perfect lover of the interior life doubts about the perfection of contemplation, he desires more and more to advance in that sublimity of life which he has begun. But as long as we are in this mortal flesh, evil spirits lay snares for those striving toward the heights; and in order to draw them back from the vision of interior glory, they gather together phantoms of foolish thoughts, which they set before their interior eyes. Well therefore is it said: 'Samuel slept until morning.' The temptation of unclean spirits is night; but he who sleeps until morning does not open his eyes the whole night. He therefore sleeps in the night who disdains to look upon the phantoms of demons in temptation. He also sleeps the whole night, because he is not overcome by the darkness of temptation, but manfully endures, until he is visited by the light of heavenly brightness through the coming of grace. And then indeed he awakens as at morning, because he is gladdened by the delight of light poured back upon him after the darkness. For as one awakening he then opens his eyes, because he joyfully beholds the light with which he is bathed, he who did not care to look upon the darkness brought against him. From the ringing of the right ear indeed he obtains that he who rests upon heavenly things disdains to behold wicked things, and it suggests the certainty of his progress, since what he gains in peace he does not lose through open and violent wars. There follows: (Verse 15.) 'And he was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.' 22. For he feared to reveal to him what the Lord had shown to him, so that he might restrain the recklessness of human boldness with the force of discipline. For some are so reckless that they easily rush forth to rebuke their superiors, and do not tremble to threaten them with future punishments for their errors. These indeed, because they do not know the manner of Holy Scripture, have in no way heard the Lord speaking to them. For those to whom Almighty God, speaking, reveals the punishments of their superiors, dread to tell them what they have heard. From this, therefore, let those who rebuke their superiors consider with how great thoughtlessness they cast themselves headlong, and let them greatly fear the depths of their fall. For if those to whom Almighty God speaks fear to speak to their superiors, those to whom God has in no way spoken — with how great terror ought they to have hidden themselves under the silence of their tongue? Therefore Samuel's fear does not suggest a servile dread, but the reverence due to the eminence of pastoral authority. For even if a negligent preacher deserves rebuke and threats on account of his own guilt, the loftiness of his order demands the fear of reverence. There follows: (Verse 15.) And he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. 23. What does it mean that he who feared to speak opened the doors of the Lord's house, except that he who dreaded announcing sorrowful things was not ashamed to obey? For it was said above: Samuel slept in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. For the boy, who is said to have slept in the temple of the Lord and now to open its doors, is shown to have had an assigned ministry, so that at the proper hours he would open and close the doors. He therefore who dreaded revealing the vision and yet opened the doors of the Lord's house, showed double reverence to his master: namely, the care of his ministry and the guarding of his speech. How strictly he maintained this guard over his speech is shown, if what follows is carefully considered. For it is immediately added: (Verses 16-18.) So Eli came to Samuel and said: Samuel, my son. He answered: Here I am. And he asked him: What is the word that the Lord spoke to you? I beg you, do not hide it from me. May God do this to you and add this, if you conceal from me any word out of all the things that were said to you. So Samuel told him all the words and hid nothing from him. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 2, Chapter 4 Gregory the Dialogist : 22. What is it that Samuel's sleep is described so attentively through sacred Scripture? And since he is said to have repeated his sleep four times already, anyone who does not believe this was spoken spiritually by the Spirit of God is greatly foolish. For even if he is rightly understood to have slept so many times according to the truth of history, it is written for this purpose: that from the truth of the letter, meanings of allegory may be brought forth. What then does this fifth sleep of Samuel signify? But since we referred the first sleep to the pursuit of truth, the second to the testing of true work, the third to the exploration of true joy, the fourth to the full enjoyment of perfection found, proven, and known, the fifth kind of sleep is referred to the effort of arranging one's speech. Samuel therefore slept a fifth time, because the order of preachers, even though through the counsel of the heart it learned the truth, through the will of the mind chose good things, through the affection of virtue received true joy, and through the certainty of beatitude found and known rested in the security of sublime virtues, nevertheless could not preach to those under its care what it had come to know within itself without the great ordering of counsel. For very often a teacher both possesses within himself what he should preach, and yet cannot preach what he possesses as he ought, because even if he has already learned by the Lord's revelation what to say, he does not know the manner in which it should be brought forth to the people. Samuel therefore slept again, because the order of preachers disposed within itself with great intent of quiet lest by preaching it scatter uselessly the seed of God's word that it had gathered by profitable contemplation. For while a preacher is compelled to consider what and how much, or when, he speaks, what he should say to all together, how he should admonish some separately — because he employs the great quiet of holy meditation — Samuel is quite fittingly said to sleep again as a type of the new preacher. For to sleep then is for him to arrange in a tranquil mind the manner of speaking. And to awake is for him to go forth from the quiet of meditation to speaking. And because he does not reasonably awake before he has arranged what must be said, there follows: "Until morning." For morning is the perfected knowledge of pronouncing the word in the mind of the teacher. Whence the Prophet also rebukes hasty teachers, saying: "It is vain for you to rise before the light" (Psalms 126:2). For those rise before the light who do not sleep until morning, but awake in vain, because they utter the word uselessly, having learned by no meditation how it ought to be uttered. Whence he also shows them counsel, saying: "Rise up after you have sat down," so that through the quiet of meditation they may gather the word, which through the labor of speech they may scatter not in vain, but for the profit of their hearers. There follows: (Verse 15.) "And he was afraid to tell the vision to Eli." 23. What was it that he feared, if not because he had learned this while sleeping? For he who arranges a word by meditating, determines by reason when he should also speak the word. For Samuel saw a vision and feared to tell Eli, because the order of the doctors of the Holy Church both perceived the deserved rejection of Judea and dreaded casting it in her face before the times of her rejection. Whence he rather exhorts her to the remedy of repentance, saying: "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized" (Acts 2:38). Wherefore it is also added: (Verse 15.) "He opened the doors of the house of the Lord." 24. What other house of the Lord is there but the holy Church? And what are the doors of this house, if not spiritual virtues? For Samuel opened the doors of the house of the Lord when, as people were running together to the unity of the true faith, the order of preachers laid open the gifts of spiritual virtues. For it was as though the doors of the house were closed when the virtues of the holy Church were unknown. And fittingly, when Samuel feared to reveal the vision to Eli, he is recorded as having opened the doors of the house of the Lord, because before the order of preachers would declare the open rejection of Judea, while it admonished them to repentance, it unlocked the hidden things of spiritual virtues to the elect who were running to the faith. For he who in the time of mercy feared to speak of the things he had seen, in the time when justice was to be sought, declared the vision of justice, saying: "Because you have made yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:45). — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 3, Chapter 1