{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-903","native_reference":{"book_number":90,"chapter_from":1,"chapter_to":1,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":19,"verse_to":19},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Bede</b>: And they rose early in the morning, and worshiped, etc. The growth of the increasing Church is shown. At first, Anna rises alone to pray, and the hour at which she prayed is not expressed; now having received the blessing of the priest, she rises in the morning, not alone, but with her husband and her whole family, attending to prayer. At first, the Church sought the Lord with few, but when it had received from the faithful Jewish teachers the increase of faith, with the darkness of paganism already dispelled: From the ends of the earth, she says, I cry to you (Psalms 61); overflowing with such grace of heavenly gift, that the Lord himself, namely her husband, praying, has an advocate with the Father is not doubted to have.<br/><i>— Commentary on Samuel</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: And they returned, and came, etc. Ramatha is interpreted as height. Therefore, having completed prayer, to obtain what we ask for, so that after the grievous barrenness of an unfruitful mind, we may be able to bring forth the buds of virtues for consecration to God, not to be wasted outside on superfluous things, but let us strive to return to the exalted dwellings of our conscience with faith and truth. And let not our countenance be changed to different things anymore, but let it persist in the same ardor and devotion that it conceived in prayer, even after the tears of consumption.<br/><i>— Commentary on Samuel</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: Therefore, Elkanah knew his wife, etc. The Lord had mercy on enriching the Church of the nations through His grace, and having sent the seed of His word through preachers, He commanded all the ends of the earth to remember and turn to Him.<br/><i>— Commentary on Samuel</i></p><p><b>Gregory the Dialogist</b>: 37. But what does it mean that above it is said singularly of Anna alone: \"The woman went on her way,\" but now in the plural: \"They rose in the morning,\" unless that she is understood to descend with her husband? And because the husband of holy Church is the Redeemer of the human race, who had already ascended to heaven when he was leaving that same Judea overwhelmed by the darkness of its unbelief, how can what is said about Anna and her husband Elkanah now be understood as a type of Christ and the Church—that they rose together in the morning and returned equally to their city? But since we have already said that the city of Ramatha designates the heavenly homeland, how does this apply to holy Church, which did not ascend to the heavenly homeland immediately when it ceased from preaching to the Jews? But because the Lord, rising from the dead, speaks through teachers sent out in preaching, saying: \"Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world\" (Matt. 28:20), it is not absurd that holy Church is understood to rise and return with him. For he who never abandons his elect through spiritual presence both remains with those who stand and departs with those who go away. We said that Ramatha designates the heavenly homeland, but we did not say that it can signify nothing else. What else, then, does it signify in this place, except the fulfillment of prophecy in the calling of the Gentiles? For Ramatha is said to mean \"vision consummated,\" as we have already said. And what is the now-fulfilled calling of the Gentiles, except the consummated vision of the prophets? For he was asserting a vision, but not yet consummated, who was still proclaiming about the future what he had seen, saying: \"All nations whatsoever you have made shall come and shall adore before you, O Lord\" (Ps. 85:9). Hence again he promises, saying: \"All kings of the earth shall adore him, all nations shall serve him\" (Ps. 71:15). The consummated vision is therefore rightly called the promise of the prophets, because indeed, with God as author, according to their oracles, all nations have believed in the Redeemer of the human race. Now Anna is said to rise in the morning with her husband, because holy Church passed over to the Gentiles at the rising of the interior light with the word of preaching. Or she rises in the morning because she left Judea in the night of unbelief. She also rises in the morning because she found a prosperous journey in the conversion of the Gentiles. And she adored before the Lord, because in the rejection of the Synagogue she venerated the incomprehensible judgment of almighty God. She adored indeed and withdrew, because when she withdrew from preaching to her own nation solely by the ordination of almighty God, she complied through obedience with the divine judgment that she could not penetrate by understanding. But adoring she returned, because she proposed to fulfill the ministry of preaching in the calling of the Gentiles, but sought the manner of that same preaching only in heavenly contemplation. For to return, for preachers, is to have recourse to the light of divine contemplation. From there indeed they draw the light by which they may both shine for the veneration of the faithful and which they may pour into the minds of their hearers by speaking. For this reason the excellent preacher is first raised up to the secrets of the third heaven, and thus is shown to arrange earthly things, and entering the secrets of paradise he perceives words that it is not permitted for man to speak (2 Cor. 12:2), so that he might be able to discern and speak profitably outwardly. Therefore Anna is mentioned as having returned, because holy Church, while arranging earthly things, is instructed in the contemplation of God—to which she often returns—as to how those same earthly things are to be arranged. And then finally she came into her house, because she was able to establish herself in the devotion of her hearers when she learned the manner of approaching them by returning above. For the devotion of the Gentiles built the house of the holy primitive Church, which, while she established it for herself among them, she inhabited with the solicitude of guardianship. This house is described as situated in the consummated vision, because it could not be built before the time of its calling predicted by the prophets arrived. There follows: (Verses 19 and 20.) And Elkanah knew Anna his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And it came to pass after a cycle of days, Anna conceived and bore a son.</p><p>38. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah at that time when our Redeemer looked upon the appointed time for calling the Gentiles, so that while he poured the grace of heavenly love into the bosom of his new bride, namely the holy Church, he might beget from her a new offspring of the faithful. For it was as if he did not yet know her when the preachers wishing to cross into Asia were forbidden by the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6). Hence it is that when he sent his disciples to preach to Judea, Truth himself forbids them, saying: \"Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter into the cities of the Samaritans\" (Matthew 10:5). But when Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, then the Lord remembered her, because the Gentile world was seen to have come into God's memory when the holy Church, joined to the Word of God through the grace of love, is visited with salvation. What is the circle of days in this passage but the manifestation of the divine will shown through the innumerable rays of the Holy Spirit? This manifestation, while it displays to the minds of its preachers, suspended in contemplation, the innumerable brightnesses of heavenly disposition, indeed holds enclosed, as it were many days, a circle of times. For the circle of days preceded Hannah's conception, because the Word of God is not poured into the holy Church for teaching until the rays of heavenly disposition are more fully recognized by her. She, conceiving, bore a son, because those whom she brings forth in the faith of the Redeemer are strong in their new way of life. (Verse 20.) And she called his name Samuel, because she had asked him from the Lord.<br/><i>— Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 1, Chapter 1</i></p><p><b>Gregory the Dialogist</b>: (Moral Exposition) After the multiplication of prayers with his wife Anna, to adore in the morning is among the great gifts of virtues to preserve the virtue of humility; and because the soul which is still weighed down by this burden of corruption cannot stand longer in that sublime vision, they are fittingly reported to have returned to their own city. The elect soul, when it is repelled from the contemplation of God by overwhelming weakness, in order to be able to return to the same height of vision, ought to have constructed buildings of fortification, so that, having fallen back upon itself, it may hold itself on high, from where it may again rise to the same height of intimate charity. This is also said under the type of Jerusalem to the elect soul through the Prophet: Stand on high and see the joy that will come to you from your God (Baruch 4:36; 5:5). As if to say, even if you cannot remain continually in the contemplation of God, lest you be cast down to the lowest depths, you may be able to ascend without difficulty from the high towers of your watchfulness to contemplate him whom you desire. Indeed, he returns to Ramatha his own city, if when he is repelled from the vision of the Divine Majesty, he is retained in the contemplation of the holy angels. But when he is unable to think about that more subtle nature, that is, the angelic, if he returns by meditating to the blessed martyrs, or other elect who have already been received into eternity, because he thinks about their perfect glory, he is doubtless then received in his own city, who is forbidden to dwell in the heights. Moreover, the same Ramatha is rightly called his own city, because what he loves familiarly, he believes without doubt to be his own, for he had recognized this city to be his own, who said: We know that if the earthly house of this dwelling is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1). Hence again he says: The Jerusalem which is above is our mother (Gal. 4:26). But he who cannot return to that sublime city, let him nevertheless return to his own city Ramatha; and he who is cast down from that highest height, let him be held by the vision of this Church still wandering below, but radiant with the splendor of sublime life. For from here he will be able to return again to revisit the brightness of the high light, inasmuch as he does not cast down to the lowest depths of earth that sense which the burden of flesh withdraws from the secret of the inner light.<br/><i>— Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 1, Chapter 2</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"be4eb09e73ec4e604158bf2230b05d5971df1fc77769c66c6f28f1bf37b969bc","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":903,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"85659d76631adcb18d219f236af66c41709b9df2f909ca5d410b8cd6d5194bd2","translator":null,"work":null}