And she said, As the LORD your God lives, I have not bread, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a jar: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
Read Chapter 17
Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
Let us further see where blessed Elijah found that widow, dearly beloved. She had gone out to get water and to pick up sticks of wood. Let us now consider what the water and the wood signify. We know that both are very pleasing and necessary for the church, as it is written: “He is like a tree planted near running water.” In the wood is shown the mystery of the cross, in the water the sacrament of baptism. Therefore, she had gone out to gather two sticks of wood, for thus she replied to blessed Elijah when he asked her for food: “As the Lord lives, I have nothing but a handful of meal and a little oil in a cruse; and behold, I am going out to gather two sticks that I may make food for me and my son … and we will eat it and die.” The widow typified the church, as I said above; the widow’s son prefigured the Christian people. Thus, when Elijah came, the widow went out to gather two sticks of wood. Notice, brothers, that she did not say three or four, nor only one stick; but she wanted to...
When Elijah reached the gate of Zarephath, he met a woman and immediately realized, through the Holy Spirit, that she was the widow about whom God had talked to him. She was there and looked at him. It seems to me that Elijah had asked his Lord whether she was the one, as he was afraid that his severity would be weakened if he began to make inquiries about the widows of Zarephath. And, at the same time, the woman had received the order to feed the prophet through revelation, dream or another means. This is, in fact, what the words of God to Elijah indicate: “I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”
When he found her barefoot and dressed in rags in the act of gathering some wood, wasted by starvation and made miserably thin, he had the impression of seeing a burned stick, and he himself was ashamed of asking her for bread so that he first asked her for water. Later he added the request of bread. He knew for sure that a jug of flour would not have been lacking thanks to the promise o...
