1 Samuel 2:17

The sin of the boys was therefore exceedingly great, etc. The sin of the scribes and Pharisees was exceedingly great before the Lord, although before men they justified themselves through hypocrisy (Luke 11); because they, being men, annulled the commandment of God through their traditions; or certainly taking away the key of knowledge, they themselves did not enter, and they prohibited those who wished to enter. If, however, the boys committed exceedingly great sin before the Lord, who unworthily handled the flesh of sacrificial victims, what do you think those deserve of punishment who, with childish foolishness, have trampled underfoot the Son of God and considered the blood of the eternal covenant polluted (Hebr. 10)? Who receiving, do not discern the body of the Lord (1 Cor. 11), that is, from the perception of common and mean foods, they by no means discern the mystery of heavenly life.

8. The sin is recognized to be exceedingly great which is not washed away by the tears of repentance. For the prophet, beholding this exceedingly great sin of the Synagogue, says: "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond" (Jeremiah 17:1). Or certainly the sin was exceedingly great before the Lord because it was dragging others into sinning. Wherefore it is also added: "Because they were drawing men away from the sacrifice of the Lord." They were indeed drawing men away from the sacrifice, because they were preventing the hearts of the weak from advancing to the confession of the true faith. And it should be noted that those who are drawn away from the sacrifice are called "men," because surely if they had persisted in the true confession of our faith, the divine word would have marked them with the title of sons of God. To whom indeed the Lord says through the Psalmist: "I have said, you are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High; but you shall die like men" (Psalm 82:6–7). ...

And to reveal the causes of his reproof, the priest's servant is recorded as coming with a three-pronged fork to every one who was sacrificing, and violently demanding raw flesh. By these words, indeed, three species of gluttony are noted in the greediness of their rapacity. For he whose servant came to inflict violence on their behalf before the flesh was cooked could not endure the lawful hour of refreshment; and he for whom flesh was sought did not know how to use simple foods; and because, refusing what was cooked, he demanded raw flesh, he disdained to eat that flesh prepared in the common manner. But since the perversity of the servants served the pleasure of the priests, why is it recorded that the sin was exceedingly great before the Lord, not of the priests themselves, but of the servants? Yet by these same words the greater guilt of the priests is shown; for he who asserts that the sin of the lesser ones was exceedingly great before the Lord recognized to what a heap of condemnation the iniquity of the greater ones had grown. This magnitude of guilt, however, is asserted not only on account of the appetite for unlawful eating, but also on account of the violence of their rapacity.