Jonathan’s name means gift of the dove. His armor bearer refers to the teachers endowed with the grace of the Spirit, the disciples who obediently carry arms not made of flesh but arms made mighty for God. Their youth is renewed like that of an eagle. A certain day to begin their battle represents the sudden inspiration of supernal light against the trials of the enemy. On a certain day Jonathan urges his armor bearer to join him in crossing over to the Philistines and their garrison, since every perfect teacher, suddenly regarded by heavenly grace, urges the hearts of his pious hearers to conquer the onslaughts of vices.

For a person of virtue comes to the conclusion that he tarried in Gibeah, that is, on the hill, that he tarried under the pomegranate tree and that he had six hundred companions. As we already noted before, the hill portrays the height of the virtues, the shade of the pomegranate tree the protection of the cross of our Lord, the number of the six hundred soldiers those made complete in hope and work. But the fact that he sat at the outskirts of the hill and that the tree by whose shade he was protected was located in Migron, that is, in the throat, are signs of a less than perfect mind. That is to say, his mind had not yet scaled the walls of virtues, although he much desired them. His mind confessed with his mouth the mystery of the Lord’s passion, but he was not yet strong enough to imitate it. But if we follow the ancient translators and read Megiddo (Tempter) instead of Migron, we still come to the same meaning. There are those who are endowed with the right faith and ablaze with the desires of just works but who do not cease to undergo harsh struggles against vices that tempt them.

In these circumstances [with few weapons and Saul’s fearful army], Jonathan, with an audacious design and with his armor bearer as his only companion, entered the camp of the enemy, and having slain about twenty of them, [he] spread a terror throughout the whole army. And then, through the appointment of God, taking themselves to flight, they neither carried out orders nor kept their ranks but placed all the hope of safety in flight. Saul, perceiving this, hastily drew forth his men, and pursuing the fugitives, obtained a victory.

Saul, as it is written in the first book of Kings [Samuel], pronounced a curse on him who ate bread before the evening, and until he had avenged himself upon his enemies. So none of his troops tasted any food while all the people of the land ate. And so binding was a solemn fast once it was proclaimed to the Lord, that Jonathan, to whom the victory was due, was taken by lot and could not escape the charge of sinning in ignorance, and his father’s hand was raised against him, and the prayers of the people barely saved him.

It is also the custom of the arrogant to not let their self-esteem keep quiet whenever the tongues of others grow silent in praising them. Indeed, while all the others keep quiet, the arrogant shouts aloud, for in his heart he carries around one who broadcasts his great worth. Therefore, the following words are readily applied to such people: And the people turned to the spoils and brought sheep, cows and calves. They slaughtered them on the ground, and the people ate them with their blood. If anyone cultivates many reasons for his innocence and boasts about them, he takes sheep. When someone thinks about his labors of preaching and collects in his memory whatever has been useful as he spoke to others or cultivated the earth, he takes cattle as booty. When he is elated from the fact that the impulses of wantonness upon the mind have been restrained and reduced, he takes calves. For there are two commandments that bring great praise to the just: the splendor of chastity and the light of good works. When an arrogant individual is exalted in his own estimation, he is said to have stolen sheep and calves. Sheep refer to the innocence of good works, calves to the mortification of bodily passion. Clearly, he added cattle to these, for he is not perfectly exalted if he thinks that he is in any way weak or powerless. He had already been great in his own opinion as far as he estimated his chastity and good works, but he raised himself in the arrogance of even fuller exaltation when he thought himself perfect in the labor of preaching.

But afterwards he wrote about the end to which all these things lead: And they slaughtered them on the ground. To slaughter sheep, cows and calves on the ground is to exult with carnal joy and a conscience bereft of virtues. Thus God spoke about the proud and arrogant in the book of Hosea: He turned away their sacrificial offerings into the deep.^[1] Indeed, they plunge their victims into the deep when they do not raise up the heavenly offerings of virtues to the heavens in gratitude, but they yield their sacrifices to the earth through their quest for vain praise. Therefore, these words are well applied to them: The people ate the sacrifices with their blood. The food of the mind is its own internal joy. What, then, does eating with blood signify except to refuse to remove by any means striving for vain praise from the internal appetite of the mind? The blood is removed when the mind removes the striving for vanity from the joy of a good work. For the mind of a godly sort knows to rejoice in a good work, since he rejoices to draw near to the heavenly beings through his good works, but he avoids letting those works be seen at the time as he carries out those works. Then to eat with blood is to take the joy of a good work and mix it with a longing for vanity. Clearly, when praise is offered by others, then it is sincere food even for the arrogant. But when no one else praises them, the conscience of the haughty swells up, it violently snatches as loot the praise nobody else voluntarily offers.