1 Samuel 10:1

We, however, he says, are spiritual, who, from the life-giving water of Euphrates, which flows through the midst of Babylon, choose our own peculiar quality as we pass through the true gate, which is the blessed Jesus. And of all men, we Christians alone are those who in the third gate celebrate the mystery, and are anointed there with the unspeakable chrism from a horn, as David (was anointed), not from an earthen vessel, he says, as (was) Saul, who held converse with the evil demon of carnal concupiscence.

Furthermore, whenever someone had to be chosen and anointed, the grace of the Spirit would wing its way down and the oil would run on the forehead of the elect. Prophets fulfilled these ministries.

1. This indeed is expressed by this anointing, which even now is materially displayed in the holy Church: because he who is placed in a position of authority receives the sacrament of anointing. Because indeed the anointing itself is a sacrament, he who is promoted is well anointed outwardly if he is strengthened inwardly by the power of the sacrament. Let us therefore first consider more attentively the very properties of oil. Oil indeed rises above other liquids, oil nourishes fire, oil is accustomed to heal wounds. By the first property, therefore, it signifies the good of mercy, because it is written of the Lord: His mercies are above all his works (Ps. 144:9). Because it nourishes fire, it designates the grace of preaching, which illuminates the minds of the elect. Because indeed wounds are healed by oil, this surely suggests that the wounds of sins must be cleansed. Let the head of the king therefore be anointed, because the mind of the teacher must be filled with spiritual grace. Let him have oil in his anointing, let him have abundant mercy, which is to be preferred above the other virtues. Let him have oil, so that while he nourishes within himself the ardor of the Holy Spirit, he may shine forth powerfully to others through the word. Let him likewise have the oil of medicine, so that he may wisely arrange how to cleanse the stench of sins and restore sick minds to health. But Saul is anointed with a small flask, not to prefigure doctrine, but to express things to come. A small flask indeed is a small vessel: what then does it mean that Saul is anointed with a small flask of oil, except that in the end he is rejected? For because he afterward refused to obey God, he heard from Samuel: Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king (1 Kings 15:26). For as it were he had but a small flask of oil, he who received spiritual grace only to be cast away. This is fittingly understood also of the rulers of the holy Church. For very often those receive the height of prelacy who are not perfected in the love of God and neighbor. For they have a certain affection of charity, but they do not have its fullness. What then is that rough and imperfect affection of the mind but a small flask of oil? For while it anoints the head, it does not fill it: it is indeed all poured out, but it provides little. On the contrary, however, when the chosen king is commanded to be anointed, the Lord says to the same prophet: Fill your horn with oil, and come, I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself a king among his sons (1 Kings 16:1). Hence it is that the same chosen king, ascribing the fullness of his anointing to the praises of God, says: You have anointed my head with oil, and my inebriating cup, how excellent it is (Ps. 22:5). He therefore who received the grace of anointing without being destined to persevere, by God's dispensation, is anointed with the liquid of that vessel by which the failure of the anointed one would be signified. And he kissed him and said: Behold, God has anointed you over his inheritance as prince, and you shall deliver his people from the hand of their enemies who are round about them.

2. The ruler is led to the height of holy Church so that he may hold this office by which he establishes peace between God and men. For by sinning, we incur the enmity of our Creator. Therefore, when a ruler is appointed for the correction of sinners, he removes from our midst that which has made us enemies of God. Rightly, then, Samuel is reported to have kissed Saul on the head. For that one bears the prophet's kiss fixed upon his head who bears in his mind the support of our reconciliation: namely, when he who strives in his mind to restore the discordant to peace cherishes in himself no fuel for divine discord. Therefore, after the prince has been kissed, it is said: "God has anointed you as prince over His inheritance." As if he were admonishing him by these things, saying: You who know yourself appointed for this purpose—that you ought to dissolve the enmities of sin—what you destroy in others you must not retain in yourself. For some are indeed anointed yet do not receive the kiss; they busy themselves with liberating the people of the Lord, but do not shrink from subjecting themselves to the yoke of His enemies. For he who preaches to others the good things he does not practice gives, as it were, a kiss that he does not receive. For he seeks to make others friends of God, yet he himself does not cease to be His enemy. He builds up in himself the enmities of sin that he attempts to destroy in others by his word. Since, therefore, only he rules with benefit who is a friend of God through the disposition of great charity, Samuel is said to have kissed the head of the king. Hence Truth itself first kisses those whom it appoints, and then sends them to set others free. "You are my friends," He says; then He added, saying: "I have appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:14). Hence also, rising from the dead, He says: "Peace be with you"; then He adds: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained" (John 20:23). So that He might, as it were, fix the kiss of peace in the minds of those whom He had commanded to loose the hatreds of sin. The king, therefore, having been kissed, is established over the inheritance of the Lord, because the chosen teacher is selected so that he may stand preeminent in dignity over the faithful committed to him, yet from his position of authority he may seek not his own gain but the Lord's. For this reason he is declared appointed for this purpose: that those who are under him may be freed from the hands of their enemies. The inheritance of the Lord is the multitude of the faithful. Therefore every worldly intention is set aside when the king is declared anointed over the inheritance of the Lord. The fruit of anointing, then, is the cultivation of the divine inheritance. He therefore fulfills the office of his anointing who seeks only the gain of souls. He who remembers that he was anointed as prince over the inheritance of the Lord seeks from his earthly dignity only what Christ sought through His own ministry. By this word, therefore, the intention of negligent rulers is condemned.

3. For they hear that they have been anointed over the inheritance of the Lord: that the Lord seeks from the earth none but the elect; they know that He calls not the breadth of land, not abundance of gold, not the overflow of riches, but His faithful ones His inheritance, and yet they do not cease to seek earthly things and to gather what perishes. They direct all their care toward that which the Lord does not seek; and what He alone seeks, they neglect to seek. Therefore it is said, so that the negligent may see themselves in it; it is said, so that the good may become better: God has anointed you, he says, as prince over His inheritance. As if to say: He has made His inheritance yours; see that you do not rule in it otherwise. You shall therefore deliver the people from the hand of the enemies who are round about them. A great labor is enjoined upon the preacher by this, that the enemies are said to be round about. For the battle would be grave enough if they endured the fury of evil spirits on one side alone. Hence, declaring through the prophet, He says: The wicked walk round about (Psalm 11:9). Hence blessed Peter, exhorting, says: Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour; resist him, steadfast in the faith (1 Peter 5:8). Our enemies therefore are round about us, because unclean spirits always lie in wait against our thought, word, and deed. For when they seek to suggest evil things to us, they are on one side; when they drag us toward evil, we are struck by their assault from another side; when they invite us to evil works, they stir up war from yet another side. We therefore have enemies round about us, since in everything that we think, speak, and do, we suffer the wars of evil spirits. But because it is said not to free the people from war, but from the hands of the enemies, great marks of virtue are ascribed to preachers: because they ought not only to protect the free lest they be captured, but also to free the captives from their servitude. This moreover is accomplished by our kings when those who through the boldness of transgression have been subjected to the yoke of diabolical power come to their senses through their preaching. Which indeed only those preachers can accomplish who arrive at the summit of governance by divine appointment. For those whom almighty God appoints, He sends to endure the battles of the ancient enemy, but He does not abandon them amid those very wars, because He protects His soldiers and makes them victorious. But when holy men are raised to the primacy of the holy Church, they greatly tremble lest the burden of so great an office has been imposed upon them by the judgment of men, not by the appointment of the Creator. Therefore, for the strengthening of the humble, signs are given by which they may know that they have been chosen by God, not by men.

(I Kings X) Samuel took a flask of oil, etc. John took the grace of the Holy Spirit to be preached, and testified that all its fullness rests in Christ, saying: "I saw the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven, and it abode upon Him" (Matthew III; Mark I). And well did he pour it out, for "your name is oil poured out" (Song of Solomon I).

And he kissed him, etc. And he united the figures of prophecy to the truth of the gospel and the grace of faith to the decrees of the long-desired peace of the law, and said: Behold, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of exultation above your companions, to ask of him, and he will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession (Psalm XLIV).