And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
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Ephrem The Syrian
AD 373
“The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ ” Elijah was sleeping under a tree. Now an angel came to him and woke him up (sleep was weighing him down because of his fatigue, affliction and discouragement) and provided him with strength and comfort through the meal that he prepared for him. The nourishment of the prophet consisted of bread baked in the ashes and his drink of water. “And he said, ‘The journey will be too much for you,’ ” that is, “you will not escape the affliction which you fear, through your death, as you believe, but through your flight. Therefore the journey is too long for you, and it is not like going to Cherith, a place close by. Rather, you are leaving for a distant location among foreign people where you will get peace and prosperity. That is why, until you are allowed to do so, you must eat and drink and prepare yourself to be strong enough for a long journey, because in a ba...
In the strength of that food This bread with which Elias was fed in the wilderness, was a figure of the bread of life, which we receive in the blessed sacrament : by the strength of which we are to be supported in our journey through the wilderness of this world, till we come to the true mountain of God, and his vision in a happy eternity. (Challoner)
Horeb signifies "a rock, or dry wilderness. "(Calmet)
In the strength of that food: This bread, with which Elias was fed in the wilderness, was a figure of the bread of life which we receive in the blessed sacrament; by the strength of which we are to be supported in our journey through the wilderness of this world till we come to the true mountain of God, and his vision in a happy eternity.
