{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-936","native_reference":{"book_number":90,"chapter_from":10,"chapter_to":10,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":27,"verse_to":27},"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>Gregory the Dialogist</b>: But because within the holy Church certain persons do not fear to despise their prelates, let them hear that those who despise the king are called sons of Belial. Through the vice of pride, indeed, they are begotten in imitation of him of whom it is written: 'He beholds every high thing, and he himself is king over all the children of pride' (Job 41:25). They aptly reveal the ways of the proud, because they say: 'Can this man save us?' For holy men, because they despise present things and seek eternal things, bring forth even in their outward conduct the contempt for the world which they hold in their mind; inwardly they are venerable, outwardly they appear contemptible. The proud, therefore, because they look only at what can be despised outwardly in the Saints, and do not deserve to perceive what is truly worthy of great veneration, say: 'Can this man save us?' As if they were asking scornfully: Are such great things to be hoped for from one so small? Are we to believe that one so lowly can save us who are so great, one so weak can save us who are so strong? For what else is the meaning of what they say — 'this man' and 'us' — except that the proud and arrogant, looking upon others, always believe them to be small and weak, but themselves to be great, strong, and wise? Rightly, therefore, they are called sons of Belial, because while they exalt themselves through pride, they conform themselves to him who is said to have fallen from heaven in the same manner. Of these same despisers of the king it is also said: 'And they brought him no gifts.'</p><p>42. If we examine these things according to the letter, they surely suggest that both lords of the lands and spiritual prelates of holy Church are to be honored with outward services. Hence the blessed Apostle Paul also addresses the proud Romans, saying: \"Render to all what is owed; to whom tribute, tribute; to whom tax, tax\" (Rom. 13:7). Hence the prince of the Apostles, exhorting, says: \"Be subject to every human creature for God's sake, whether to the king as preeminent, or to governors as sent by him\" (1 Pet. 2:13). We offer spiritual gifts to our rulers when we present to them the due reverence of honor and keep what they command with great devotion. For reverence of honor and humility of subjection are great gifts; because when we are both inwardly subject to our rulers through humility and outwardly display the reverence of honor through external services, we offer them one gift from the body, another from the heart. Therefore, to suggest the arrogance of the proud, the prophet does not say: \"They did not bring him a gift,\" but \"they did not bring him gifts\"; because when they despise the chosen preachers, they disdain to offer them both honor from the body and humility from the heart. But when the chosen preachers recognize the fault of their subjects, sometimes they eagerly hasten to correct it at once by rebuking, and sometimes they pretend not to know of it, so that they may seek a fitting time to remove it. Hence concerning that same despised king it is immediately added: \"But he pretended not to hear.\"<br/><i>— Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"bf3f39632f4e872ba78c03fd597ea3a9ecd4f669cc6592b9bcd4e83de9a2112d","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":936,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"1ba881e0e0588af0ca5bbb9dc732d8833de7410b9612b3f121b9853c51539fac","translator":null,"work":null}