1 Samuel 13:1

1. Above, when the matter of ordaining a king was being discussed, it was said of him who by divine judgment was to be preferred over the rest, that he was chosen and good. Likewise, concerning him already chosen for the kingdom and set in the midst of the people, Samuel said: "Surely you see whom the Lord has chosen, for there is none like him among all the people" (1 Sam. 9:24). Of this same king it is now said: "Saul was a son of one year"; so that while he is attentively praised, it may be understood that he was chosen by the Lord as good. Why then is he said to have been one year old when he began to reign, unless to proclaim his innocence? For taken literally, how could he have been a son of one year, he who stood above the entire people from the shoulder upward? What therefore cannot be understood according to the letter must be understood through the reasoning of interior understanding. The king is thus described as being one year old, so that the gift of childhood in the person of the king might signify the good of innocence. Hence it is also commanded to the children of the eternal kingdom: "Do not become children in understanding, but in malice be little ones" (1 Cor. 14:20). And certainly the Truth itself warns this to the pastors of the churches, saying: "Unless you are converted and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3). Of the king, therefore, who was first good and afterward became wicked, it is said that he was one year old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years. For although he reigned many years, he is said to have reigned only in those years in which he is reported to have been innocent and humble. For afterward, proud and disobedient, he heard: "Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king" (1 Sam. 15:26). He knew indeed that he had been cast from the kingdom, and yet, cast out, he did not fear to reign. How many things he did boldly afterward! But behold, all those times were not reckoned to him as his reign. Let us therefore rejoice that we have lived only in that time in which we lived innocently and humbly. For those times that we consumed in the vanity of the world and the fleeting life of the flesh are scarcely remembered, as though lost. There are moreover still those who thrust themselves forward to seize the summit of holy Church, about whom the Lord complains through the prophet, saying: "They have reigned, but not from me; they became princes, and I did not know it" (Hos. 8:4). These men, when they do certain things boldly, suppose that the plunder of the summit they have seized is consigned to oblivion by God. They count their own works in their favor, and what they do apart from God they think will be rewarded by God. Let them, so that they may more rightly reckon the things they do, count up the many bold deeds of rejected Saul, which the divine reckoning by no means holds. Let Saul therefore say: "He reigned two years over Israel," so that concerning all it may be understood that what we live for ourselves is emptied of reward; and to rule wickedly is not the truth of preeminence, but the recklessness of presumption deserving punishment. But now let us hear what the king of one year did. And Saul chose three thousand men from Israel, and two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel; but one thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin.

Saul was one year old when he began to reign, etc. The sense is this: after Saul was elected, and anointed by the blessed Samuel with holy oil as king, he remained humble and similar to a private person for the whole first year, nor did he care to dress in royal attire and take up the other insignia of the kingdom: which was also proven above at the time of the Ammonite war where he was driving oxen from the field as a rustic, the beginning of which war Josephus reports happened after a month of all his honor. However, in the second and third years, he indeed assumed a royal mindset and ruled the people with royal care. Yet, he did not choose soldiers from the people who would adhere more familiarly to his side until the beginning of the fourth year. Allegorically, the son of one year represents the people of the faithful, whether in the Synagogue or in the Church, when they begin to reign, because anyone becomes associated with the kingdom of faith, and can be incorporated into the members of the eternal king, when they have first learned that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. He reigns for two years and thus chooses three thousand soldiers for himself from Israel: because when he has learned to unite hope and love with the unity of faith, he immediately chooses teachers for himself who diligently teach that same faith, hope, and charity to him and his own, and protect them from the enemy's raid. This is to be understood in two ways; namely, we choose both the ancient teachers of the Church, who reigned with Christ long ago and are now masters to us, whose writings or examples we follow, and we appoint new ones daily in place of those who preceded, whom we deem worthy to defend the believers, the hopeful, and the loving from the enemy.