Commentaria in III Regum
Tropologically, see here and revere the wonderful providence of God for His faithful: for the ravens, God instigating them, brought bread and flesh daily twice to Elias, namely in the morning for breakfast, and in the evening for supper. The Angels prepared these loaves and flesh, and so they were better and more savoury than ours, which are prepared by bakers and cooks, according to that of Psalm 77:25: “Man ate the bread of angels:” then they gave the same to the ravens to carry to Elias, and restrained them from touching them, and urged them to bring them untouched to Elias. For as we read in the Life of St. Onuphrius, God and the Angels have a singular care of hermits, such as Elias was, because they have forsaken all things, and are forsaken by all, according to that: “To thee is the poor man left; thou wilt be a helper to the orphan,” Psalm 9:14. Wherefore St. Basil, homily 8 Against the Rich and Covetous: “Carmel,” he says, “a lofty and desert mountain, had Elias, whose provision and food was hope in God; and living thus, he was nevertheless not starved, but the most rapacious of birds, the ravens, brought him food, and those who were wont to seize other men’s food became ministers to the most just man: forgetting even their nature, they obeyed the command of the Lord in bringing him bread and flesh.”
AND FLESH.—God therefore sent to Elias not only bread necessary for life, but also flesh for luxury as his food. Abulensis asks what Elias ate on fast days, on which it is not lawful to eat flesh; and answers that he ate whatever the ravens brought: for God, by sending flesh to Elias, by that very act dispensed him in the fast, and wished him to eat it, and to enjoy His so liberal gift, lest He should seem to have sent it in vain.
Allegorically, St. Prosper, book 2 On Predictions and Promises, chapter 28: “The bread of Elias,” he says, “is the body of Christ, which the Jews, like ravens, ministered to the Gentiles, preparing for the Gentiles His flesh cooked on the wood of the cross, and, like ravens, crying out with one hoarse voice to Pilate: Crucify, crucify Him.”
Otherwise St. Augustine, sermon 101 On the Time, where he applies all the deeds of Elias allegorically to Christ and the Church: “Blessed Elias,” he says, “bore a type of the Lord Saviour. For as Elias suffered persecution from the Jews, so also the true Elias, our Lord, was rejected and despised by the same Jews. Elias left his nation, and Christ forsook the Synagogue. Elias went into the desert, and Christ came into the world. Elias in the desert was fed by the ministry of ravens, and Christ in the desert of this world is refreshed by the faith of the Gentiles. For those ravens, which ministered at the command of the Lord to blessed Elias, figured the people of the Gentiles. Therefore it is also said of the Church of the Gentiles: I am black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem. Whence black? Behold I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me. Whence beautiful? Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.” And presently: “Truly the Church of the Gentiles was like the ravens, when it despised the living Lord, and before receiving grace, like carrion-eaters among dead bodies, served idols.”
Symbolically the Author of the Wonders of Holy Scripture, in St. Augustine, book 2, chapter 17: “It is commanded,” he says, “that the prophet be ministered to by ravens, so that that bird might seem to purge the fault which it had committed on earth at the flood, when it becomes the faithful minister of Elias, which was negligent and deceitful before Noe. Besides, in this ministry this also is shown, how man, if he had not sinned, would also have used the service of unprofitable animals. But whence that raven brought that flesh and bread, let him see who committed such an office to it.
In this, however, it is to be considered that the ravens received these things through the industry of certain men, knowing or not knowing, who prepared cooked bread and any flesh in whatever manner.”
9. GO TO SAREPHTA OF THE SIDONIANS,—This city was situated between Tyre and Sidon on the public road, not far from the shore of the sea, and from the river Eleutherus, two miles distant from Sidon. It was called Sarephta, that is the smelting-place, from tsaraph, that is to smelt, because in it there were smelting workshops of vessels of brass, iron and other metals.
God therefore commands Elias to go beyond the borders of Israel and the dominion of Achab his persecutor, into the territory of the Sidonians, that there under a Gentile king he might live in security and quiet. Hence allegorically Elias signifies Christ, who, suffering persecution from the Jews, transferred His Gospel to the Gentiles, as Christ Himself explains, Luke 4:25.
Hear the Author of the Wonders of Holy Scripture, book 2, chapter 18: “Therefore the prophet is sent to Sarephta of the Sidonians to be filled, that through him a good and faithful widow might be fed. And let it not trouble anyone that the land of the Sidonians had suffered the same plague together with Israel, since Jezabel, the persecutor of the prophets and the cause of all the vengeance and crime, drew her paternal origin thence, being the daughter of the king of the Sidonians.”
FOR I HAVE COMMANDED A WOMAN THERE.—“I have commanded,” that is, I have ordained, disposed, provided: for God had not properly commanded the widow, since He had not spoken to her; nay, the widow, when Elias asked for a bit of bread, denied that she had it, verse 12. If anyone contends that God revealed to the widow the coming of Elias, and commanded her to receive and feed him in the way in which Elias would ask, I will not object. This woman was a Gentile, being a Sidonian, but religious and devout, says St. Chrysostom, homily 3 On Elias, and Abulensis, Question 24.
12. AND BEHOLD I AM GATHERING TWO STICKS, THAT I MAY GO IN AND DRESS (cook) IT FOR ME AND MY SON, THAT WE MAY EAT IT AND DIE,—as if to say: After we have eaten this little meal we shall die of hunger, because we have nothing else to eat.
Allegorically, St. Augustine, sermon 101 On the Time, notes that the “two sticks” signify the cross of Christ; for in it there are two pieces of wood, one upright, the other transverse. “Therefore,” says Augustine, “she gathered two sticks, because she was receiving Christ in the type of Elias. She wished to gather two sticks, because she desired to know the mystery of the cross. For the cross of the Lord Saviour is fitted together of two pieces of wood; therefore that widow gathered two sticks, because the Church was to believe in Him who hung on two pieces of wood. That widow therefore said: I am gathering two sticks that I may dress food for me and my son, and we shall eat it, and die. It is true, dearly beloved brethren, that no one will deserve to believe in Christ crucified unless he die to this world: for whoever wishes to eat the body of Christ worthily must die to the past and live to the future.”
AND MY SON,—so also the Chaldee; for this is libni. But the Septuagint, reading with other points lebanai, translate, my sons; they signify therefore that she had several sons, from whom she took bread to give to Elias. So much the greater was her virtue. So Eucherius.
13. BUT FIRST MAKE FOR ME OF THE SAME LITTLE MEAL A HEARTH CAKE,—which, namely, is baked quickly and in haste under the ashes, that it might at once relieve the present and urgent hunger of Elias. So Abraham baked hearth cakes in haste for the Angels, Genesis 18:6.
Mystically Eucherius: “The hearth cake,” he says, “is the satisfaction of penitents, according to that of Psalm 101: For I did eat ashes as it were bread, and mingled my drink with weeping; for with these satisfactions the Lord invites Himself to be fed.”
FIRST MAKE FOR ME.—St. Prosper gives the reason, part 2 On Predictions, chapter 29: “That mercy,” he says, “may take the first place, which Scripture testifies goes before the face of God; for from Him is all plenty.” So St. Louis, king of France, before he himself dined, gave dinner to a hundred poor men.
15. AND SHE WENT AND DID ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF ELIAS.—Wonderful was the faith, obedience and liberality of this widow, in giving to Elias, who had brought on this famine, the little meal necessary for her own life. Whence Eucherius exclaims: “O magnificent spirit of the woman, O unchangeable purpose of mind, O deed truly venerable through the ages! He asks for a cup, she at once offers it: and what perhaps was by now lacking to kings, what the rich did not have, this widow gave out of abundance. She feeds him with bread, she who with her son was to die the next day, and does not deny that she has it; but simply confesses, and fears not to disclose the truth, and lays open the whole case to one who asks, or rather in a manner demands: the quantity of food, and the number of persons, so that she wishes to have in him not so much a guest as a judge.” And below: