1 Samuel 10:3

And when you depart from there, and go further, etc. Increasing the course of his teaching, the Savior arrived at the point of revealing to the disciples the secret of his passion, signifying that he was to bestow the gifts of the highest light on the world. Indeed, Thabor, which is a very high mountain and is interpreted as the coming light, in both name and position, smiles upon the mysteries of the life-giving cross, whose sacraments the Lord, revealing them, sought devoutly, and found all the mighty confessors of the Holy Trinity ascending to God in the Church with devout progress, which is Bethel, that is, the house of God; who, according to the grace given to them, some offered the richest remedies of penance for thought, speech, and action; others offered strengthening provisions of Sacred Scripture for the heart of man, revealed by divine gift in a threefold manner; others brought the most fervent cups of compunctive love in earthen vessels of the heart to be dedicated to God. While each in their own rank recognized Christ the Savior and wished for his incarnation to bring about the world's salvation, they gave him a double interpretation of the Scriptures; that after the first reading of the history, which was completed before his incarnation through the law, he might also open the allegorical and anagogical sense, which either pertains to the truth of present grace or to the beatitude of future life, through the act of the assumed dispensation. Surely, he also accepted these loaves from the hand of those who offered when he revealed to the disciples a worthy operation according to merits, so that they might understand the Scriptures. To this, if I am not mistaken, the interpretation of the three loaves rightly resonates; because in the Gospel, the importunate petitioner, urged by necessity, equally seeks and receives three loaves from a faithful friend (Luke 11). And in Leviticus, the loaves to be offered as a sacrifice are commanded to be prepared in three kinds of baking: namely, in the oven, in the pan, and on the griddle (Leviticus 2). We are nourished with the bread baked on the griddle when we receive those things which are openly and literally said or done without any cover to safeguard the soul's health. But with the bread fried in the pan, we seek what is often reviewed and reconsidered in the surface of the letter, to see what in it…

6. When we wish to make good progress in holy conduct, it is necessary for us to gather for ourselves the examples of very many of the elect; for bees too cannot produce honey if they do not gather it from various flowers. Well therefore does Saul pass from some men to others, because the more abundantly we observe the examples of the saints, the better we are instructed. Indeed the flowers of eternal fruits are the works of the saints, which, when they are drenched with the dew of heavenly love, from them we gather that by which we may be filled for our own instruction and for the benefit of others. For Saul goes from there and passes on beyond, when the untrained preacher advances through the examples of the elect, and from the observed virtue of one, goes to explore the conduct of another. Often it delights him to admire in some the labor of preaching, often in others the strength of good works; he venerates those who speak and strives to imitate those who act. He looks at some to see with what beauty they shine outwardly, while the splendor of others he examines not in their outward conduct but in their innermost being. Hence it is also well said that when he passes on, he is reported to come to the oak of Tabor. For the oak is a shady and strong tree. In this tree indeed the more hidden conduct of the saints is expressed. For the men of this manner of life, since they do not go out to the exterior works of the active life, are as if in shadow, because they cannot feel the fires of temptations. For since they rest in heavenly desire, the farther removed they are from the love of the world, the more peacefully they remain in the shadow of refreshment. But this shadow is of a strong tree, because the conduct of the saints despises earthly things all the more powerfully as it rises more purely into the love of heavenly things. It is also strong, because those who love only the heavenly things which they see powerfully endure the adversities of the world. And because those who disdain to look upon earthly things through love are in the great light of interior splendor, the oak itself is said to be of Tabor. For Tabor is interpreted as "coming light." For light comes when the inner brightness of the Creator opens itself to the chosen mind. Therefore it is called the oak of Tabor, because hidden conduct, by despising earthly things, acts so that it may more…