John Cassian

In his own words on 1 Samuel

• 1 Samuel 3:4-9

  And therefore by no means let the ignorance or shallowness of one old man or of a few deter you and cut you off from that salutary path about which we have spoken and from the traditions of our forebears. The clever enemy misuses their gray hairs to deceive the young. But everything should be revealed to the elders without any obfuscating embarrassment, and from them one may confidently receive both healing for one's wounds and examples for one's way of life. Thanks to them we shall experience the same assistance and a like result if we strive to aim at nothing whatsoever by our own judgment and presumption.Finally, it is evident that this understanding is greatly pleasing to God, for not without reason do we find this same instruction even in holy Scripture. Thus, the Lord did not desire of himself to teach the boy Samuel through divine speech, once he had been chosen by his own decision, but he was obliged to return twice to the old man. He willed that one whom he was calling to an intimate relationship with himself should even be instructed by a person who had offended God, because he was an old man. And he desired that one whom he judged most worthy to be selected by himself should be reared by an old man so that the humility of him who was called to a divine ministry might be tested and so that the pattern of this subjection might be offered as an example to young men.

  CONFERENCE 2.13.12-2.14

• 1 Samuel 15:11

  These texts declare that we should not cling stubbornly to our promises, but that they should be tempered by reason and judgment, that what is better should always be chosen and preferred and that we should pass over without any hesitation to whatever is proven to be more beneficial. This invaluable judgment also teaches us above all that, although each person's end may be known to God before he was born, he so disposes everything with order and reason and, so to say, human feelings, that he determines all things not by his power or in accordance with his ineffable foreknowledge but, based upon the deeds of human beings at the time, either rejects them or draws them or daily pours out grace upon them or turns them away.The choosing of Saul also demonstrates that this is so. Although, indeed, the foreknowledge of God could not be ignorant of his miserable end, he chose him from among many thousands of Israelites and anointed him king. In doing this he rewarded him for his deserving life at the time and did not take into consideration the sin of his future transgression. And so after he became reprobate, God as it were repented of his choice and complained of him with, so to speak, human words and feelings, saying, "I repent that I set up Saul as king, because he has forsaken me and not carried out my words." And again: "Samuel grieved over Saul, because the Lord repented that he had set up Saul as king over Israel."

  CONFERENCE 17.25.14-15

• 1 Samuel 15:19-21

  Finally, because he never had this eye of discretion, he who by God's judgment first deserved to rule over the people of Israel was cast out of his kingdom like something dark out of a healthy body. Having been deceived by the darkness and error of this light, he decided that his own sacrifices were more acceptable to God than obedience to Samuel's command, and in the very act by which he had hoped that he would propitiate the divine majesty he committed sin instead.

  CONFERENCE 2.3.1

• 1 Samuel 17:38-40

  We sometimes see a bad example drawn from good things. For if someone presumes to do the same things but not with the same disposition and orientation or with unlike virtue, he easily falls into the snares of deception and death on account of those very things from which others acquire the fruits of eternal life. That brave boy who was set against the most warlike giant in a contest of arms would certainly have experienced this if he had put on Saul's manly and heavy armor, with which a person of more robust age would have laid low whole troops of the enemy. This would undoubtedly have imperiled the boy, except that with wise discretion he chose the kind of weaponry that was appropriate for his youth and armed himself against the dreadful foe not with the breastplate and shield that he saw others outfitted with but with the projectiles that he himself was able to fight with.

  CONFERENCE 24.8.1-2

• 1 Samuel 21:2

  No wonder that these dispensations were uprightly made use of in the Old Testament and that holy men sometimes lied in praiseworthy or at least in pardonable fashion, since we see that far greater things were permitted them because it was a time of beginnings. For what is there to wonder at that when the blessed David was fleeing Saul and Ahimelech the priest asked him, "Why are you alone, and no one is with you?" he replied and said, "The king gave me a commission and said, Let no one know the reason why you were sent, for I have also appointed my servants to such and such a place"? And again: "Do you have a spear or a sword at hand? For I did not bring my sword and my weapons with me because the king's business was urgent"? Or what happened when he was brought to Achish, the king of Gath, and made believe that he was insane and raging, and "changed his countenance before them, and fell down between their hands, and dashed himself against the door of the gate, and his spittle ran down his beard"? For, after all, they lawfully enjoyed flocks of wives and concubines, and no sin was imputed to them on this account. Besides that, they also frequently spilled their enemies' blood with their own hands, and this was held not only to be irreprehensible but even praiseworthy.We see that, in the light of the gospel, these things have been utterly forbidden, such that none of them can be committed without very serious sin and sacrilege. Likewise we believe that no lie, in however pious a form, can be made use of by anyone in a pardonable way, to say nothing of praiseworthily, according to the words of the Lord: "Let your speech be yes, yes, no, no. Whatever is more than these is from the evil one." The apostle also agrees with this: "Do not lie to one another."

  CONFERENCE 17.18.1-2

• 1 Samuel 25:34-35

  Further, we are taught at considerable length by other texts of Scripture, too, that we neither should nor can fulfill everything that we decide upon whether with tranquil or upset mind. In them we frequently read that holy men or angels or even almighty God himself altered the things that they had promised. For blessed David determined with the promise of an oath and said, "May God do this and add more to the enemies of David if, of all that belongs to Nabal, I leave one male until morning." But when his wife, Abigail, interceded and entreated on his behalf, David immediately ceased his threats, softened his words, and preferred to be considered a transgressor of his own intention than to be true to his oath by cruelly carrying it out. And he said, "As the Lord lives, unless you had come quickly to meet me, there would not have been left to Nabal one male until the morning light." As we do not at all consider the promptness of his rash vow, which proceeded from an upset and disturbed mind, as something to be imitated, so likewise we judge that the cessation and correction of the thing that was decided on is to be pursued.

  CONFERENCE 17.25.5-6