Commentaria in III Regum
The second, a physical cause, was, says Abulensis, that Elias, by this lying upon the child and breathing into him, wished to warm his body chilled by death, and so dispose it to receive soul and life, as a mother disposes the body of the embryo in the womb, that God, the body being now warmed and disposed, may then infuse the rational soul; for this is the work of God alone, but the mother’s work is to dispose the matter. So a hen warms eggs by brooding them, that they may then be formed into chicks and animated.
The third, symbolic, to show how arduous and difficult a thing it is to raise the dead from death to life. Whence Eliseus did the same, imitating Elias; it is asked how great was the distance between the miracles of Elias and of Christ: for Elias raised the dead with labour, wearying himself and sweating; but Christ most easily by His command and word alone, as being Lord of death and life.
The fourth, theological, that by the touch of his holy body he might commend the corpse of the boy to God, says Serarius. For the bodies of the saints are not only alive, but also life-giving; so that the body of Eliseus, already dead, once raised a dead man who had been slain by robbers, who, being cast into the sepulchre of Eliseus, when he touched his sacred bones, revived by divine power, as is related in 4 Kings 13:21. Abulensis gives another and nearer cause: Elias, he says, lay upon the child three times: for the first time he lay upon him praying God to raise him: but seeing that it was not done, the second time lying upon the child he prayed more fervently. But when even then the child did not rise, the third time lying upon him he prayed most ardently, and so at last obtained life for the child, as Eliseus does likewise. It becomes us also to imitate and do the same, for God in arduous matters wishes to be asked oftener and more ardently, so that by fervent prayers, armed and inflamed as it were with zeal, we may extort it from Him. For the matter deserves it, and so our devotion, virtue and merit grow. And this is the fruit of perseverance and of persevering prayer, stretching itself and burning.
The fifth, mathematical; for as a greater body, to follow a smaller, must embrace it, so conversely the smaller must submit itself to the greater. This is plain in a smaller circle enclosed in a greater. For it submits itself to the greater: whence the greater embraces it and proportionally equals itself to it, because both encompass the same centre and revolve round it, so that no diametral line can be drawn from the greater circle to the centre unless it first cut and pass through the smaller circle between. Wherefore no part can be assigned in the greater circle to which a like and proportionally equal part does not correspond in the smaller. Hence we are taught that, in order that inferiors may be united with superiors and as it were made equal, it is necessary that superiors should incline themselves to inferiors through love and embrace them; and that inferiors should submit and lay themselves under superiors with due obedience and subordination. These are therefore the two sublime virtues which level, equalise and unite all things, namely charity and humility. As Elias in charity embraced the boy, and the boy naturally submitting himself to Elias as it were made himself equal to him, so he received from him soul, spirit and life. St. Prosper gives the allegorical and chief cause, part 2 On Predictions, chapter 31, namely, that Elias by his gesture might represent the mystery of the Incarnation, by which the Son of God measured His divinity and as it were made it equal to our human nature, which He assumed, that through it He might give life to us dead in sin. “Elias, and after him Eliseus,” says Prosper, “to raise the dead child, fitted his youthful limbs to it. And the Lord Jesus emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant: He fitted Himself, small, to that small one, that He might make this body of our lowliness conformable to the body of His glory. Lying beneath Him the cold body, He kindled it with His own heat: so likewise our Saviour the Lord warmed the world, from whose heat there is now none that hideth himself. He breathed three times upon him as he lay, that a threefold confession might be infused into the believer: so the dead was raised, when the ungodly was justified from perpetual death.”
Whence the Chaldee translates, he contracted himself over the child; the Septuagint, he breathed three times upon the child. For as a hen broods over her eggs, and spreads herself wholly over them and as it were adjusts herself to them, to warm and quicken them, so also the Godhead of Christ spread itself over our whole humanity, and as it were measured itself to it and made itself equal, to warm it cold, to animate it lifeless, to quicken it dead; for each member of man and all the powers of the soul were by sin spiritually dead, cold, dry and lifeless; wherefore the Godhead, lying upon each, breathed upon them, and inbreathed the spirit of grace and spiritual life. The third time, moreover, Elias lay upon the boy and measured himself to him by contracting himself, because Christ thrice contracted Himself and measured Himself to human nature, namely first in the womb; second, in the manger; third, on the cross: and so He quickened the dead human race, and breathed into it the spirit of charity, poverty and patience, “and offering up prayers with a strong cry and tears, was heard for his reverence.” So Lyranus, Angelomus, Eucherius, Salian.
…the widow’s son lay dead, because the son of the Church, that is the people of the Gentiles, was dead by many sins and crimes. As Elias prayed the widow’s son is raised, as Christ came the son of the Church, that is the Christian people, is brought back from the prison of death; Elias bends himself in prayer, and the widow’s son is quickened; and Christ bows down in His passion, and the Christian people is raised.” And after some things: “For that he bends himself three times shows the mystery of the Trinity. The widow’s son, that is the people of the Gentiles, neither the Father alone without the Son, nor the Father and the Son without the Holy Spirit, but the whole Trinity raised. Finally this is shown also in the sacrament of Baptism, when the old man is plunged a third time, that the new man may deserve to rise.” This, then, is the abridged word which was received, was taken in a manger, says St. Cyprian, book 2 Against the Jews, chapter 3, namely the Word an infant, wise as a child, God sucking milk.
The tropological cause was that Elias might show that a zealous man burning with charity, who strives to convert souls dead by vices and concupiscences, ought by great compassion, pity and zeal to make himself as it were equal to them and measure himself with them, in order to breathe into them, cold and torpid, the spirit of life: for the sinner is like a dead and cold corpse; wherefore there is need of great and frequent ardour in the preacher, confessor and admonisher, to breathe into him the warmth of penance and devotion, by which he may dispose himself to receive the life of grace from God. So fire first warms the cold wood, that it may then kindle it, and a hen long warms her eggs that they may be animated. So Paul did, saying: “I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak. I became all things to all men. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?” 2 Corinthians 11:29. And: “My little children, of whom I am in labour again, until Christ be formed in you,” Galatians 4:19.
The anagogical cause was to signify that Christ in the resurrection will measure Himself to us and as it were make us equal to His glory and glorious body, according to that: “Who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory,” Philippians 3:21.
22. AND THE SOUL OF THE CHILD RETURNED INTO HIM.—“Returned,” namely from limbo. Hence the immortality of the human soul is plain. This boy is the first from the beginning of the world raised from death to life, for we read of no other raised before him. So Cajetan. Finally the upper chamber, or the place in which Elias raised this boy from death, is still shown, says Adrichomius, in Sarephta.