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common. Therefore, in her times there came a severe famine; not that the earth, being weary, refused to yield its fruit, but the sins of men repelled the gift of God. Therefore, there came a severe famine, and the most bitter of all famines; and the great Elijah brought this famine, summoning it like some terrible servant, so as to chasten his fellow-servants who were insulting the Master; or rather, the sins of the Jews summoned it; but the mouth of the prophet brought it, for he says, "As the Lord God lives, there will be no rain, except by my word." It was, therefore, an unbearable evil; for not only did the terrible voice of the prophet make the womb of the earth barren, but it also checked the very streams of the rivers, and all the torrents then dried up. And just as a fierce and burning fever, falling upon the nature of a body, not only dries the surface, but also penetrating to the very depth, scorches the very nature of the bones; so also the drought that then occurred not only burned the face of the earth, but also reaching its very flanks, drew up all moisture from below.

What then did God say to the prophet? "Arise," he says, "and go to Zarephath of Sidon; there I will command a widow woman to feed you." What is this? In his own land he enjoyed no hospitality, and you send him to a foreign land, and to a widow woman? For if she were well-off, if she were very wealthy, if she were the wife of the king himself, if she had many storehouses filled with produce, would not the fear of famine have made sterile her good will more than the earth itself? Therefore, lest the prophet say these things, or reason thus, for this very reason, He first fed him by means of ravens, as if saying to him through these events, "If I prepared an irrational nature to show you hospitality, much more will a rational one be persuaded to do so."

3. For this reason, after the ravens, the widow. And one could see the prophet

becoming a suppliant to a woman, that heaven-high and divine soul, the noble and lofty Elijah, coming like some vagrant and beggar to the doors of the widow, and the mouth that had shut heaven, uttering the words of beggars: "Give me bread, give me water;" so that you might learn that nothing is so suitable as the house of a widow woman, a dwelling full of poverty, and free from wealth and the evils that come from wealth. For the place was clear of disturbances, and full of all philosophy, and calmer than any harbor.

Such are the dwellings which the souls of the saints especially seek. The prophet, therefore, went to the widow, who was to be a rebuke of the Jewish inhospitality; he went to the widow, teaching everyone that the Jews justly endure that punishment. For when God is about to punish some, He does not simply inflict the penalty, nor is He content with the verdict of His own judgment, but He also makes His defense to men through the events, as if being judged in a common court by the suspicions of the many. And just as judges, when they are about to lead someone on the path to death, sitting beforehand on a high tribunal, and having ordered the curtains to be drawn together, and having gathered the whole city around them, thus as if judging the condemned man in a public theater, making their inquiries in the sight and hearing of all, and ordering the records of their deeds to be read, and preparing the guilty party himself to become the accuser of his own deeds, then they deliver the verdict; so also God, as if sitting beforehand on the high tribunal of the proclamation of the Scriptures, and gathering the whole world around, conducts the examination of sins in the sight and hearing of all, not ordering records to be read, nor

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κοινοί. Ἐγένετο τοίνυν κατὰ τοὺς ταύτης χρόνους λιμὸς χαλεπός· οὐχὶ ἡ γῆ δὲ καμοῦσα παρῃτήσατο τὴν φορὰν, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὰ ἁμαρτήματα τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν δωρεὰν ἀπεκρούσαντο. Ἐγένετο τοίνυν λιμὸς χαλεπὸς, καὶ λιμῶν ἁπάντων πικρότατος· καὶ τοῦτον ἤγαγε τὸν λιμὸν ὁ μέγας Ἠλίας, καθάπερ τινὰ φοβερὸν οἰκέτην καλέσας, ὥστε τοὺς συνδούλους τὸν ∆εσπότην ὑβρίζοντας σωφρονίσαι· μᾶλλον δὲ ἐκάλεσεν αὐτὸν τῶν Ἰουδαίων τὰ ἁμαρτήματα· ἐκόμισε δὲ αὐτὸν τοῦ προφήτου τὸ στόμα, Ζῇ γὰρ, φησὶ, Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς, εἰ ἔσται ὑετὸς, εἰ μὴ διὰ στόματός μου. Ἦν τοίνυν ἀφόρητον κακόν· οὐδὲ γὰρ τὴν γαστέρα τῆς γῆς ἄγονον ἐποίησε μόνον ἡ φοβερὰ τοῦ προφήτου φωνὴ, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὰ τῶν ποταμῶν τὰ ῥεῖθρα ἀνέστειλε, καὶ οἱ χείμαῤῥοι τότε ἐξηραίνοντο πάντες. Καὶ καθάπερ πυρετὸς λάβρος καὶ διακαὴς εἰς σώματος φύσιν ἐμπεσὼν, οὐχὶ τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν ξηραίνει μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸ χωρήσας τὸ βάθος, αὐτὴν τῶν ὀστῶν καταφρύγει τὴν φύσιν· οὕτω καὶ ὁ τότε γενόμενος αὐχμὸς, οὐχὶ τὴν ὄψιν τῆς γῆς κατέκαυσε μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς αὐτὰς τὰς λαγόνας ἐλθὼν, πᾶσαν κάτωθεν ἀνέσπασε τὴν νοτίδα.

Τί οὖν ὁ Θεὸς πρὸς τὸν προφήτην; Ἀνάστηθι, φησὶ, καὶ πορεύθητι εἰς Σαρεφθὰ τῆς Σιδῶνος· ἐκεῖ ἐντελοῦμαι γυναικὶ χήρᾳ τοῦ διαθρέψαι σε. Τί τοῦτο; ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκείας οὐδεμιᾶς ἀπέλαυσε φιλοφροσύνης, καὶ εἰς τὴν ἀλλοτρίαν αὐτὸν πέμπεις, καὶ πρὸς γυναῖκα χήραν; Εἰ γὰρ εὔπορος ἦν, εἰ γὰρ πλουσιωτάτη, εἰ γὰρ αὐτοῦ τοῦ βασιλεύοντος γυνὴ, εἰ γὰρ ταμιεῖα πολλῶν εἶχεν ἐμπεπλησμένα γεννημάτων, οὐκ ἂν αὐτῆς μᾶλλον τῆς γῆς τὴν προαίρεσιν ἀπεστείρωσεν ὁ τοῦ λιμοῦ φόβος; Ἵνα οὖν μὴ ταῦτα ὁ προφήτης λέγῃ, μηδὲ διαλογίζηται, διὰ τοῦτο αὐτὸ, πρότερον διὰ τῶν κοράκων ἔθρεψε, μονονουχὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν λέγων διὰ τῶν γενομένων, ὅτι Εἰ τὴν ἄλογον φύσιν ξενοδοχῆσαί σε παρεσκεύασα, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἡ λογικὴ πεισθήσεται τοῦτο ποιῆσαι.

γʹ. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο μετὰ τοὺς κόρακας ἡ χήρα. Καὶ ἦν ἰδεῖν τὸν προφήτην

ὑπόδικον γενόμενον γυναικὸς, τὴν οὐρανομήκη καὶ θείαν ψυχὴν ἐκείνην, τὸν γενναῖον καὶ ὑψηλὸν Ἠλίαν, ὥσπερ ἀλήτην τινὰ καὶ προσαίτην πρὸς τὰς θύρας τῆς χήρας ἐρχόμενον, καὶ τὸ στόμα, ὃ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἔκλεισε, τὰς τῶν προσαιτούντων φθεγγόμενον φωνάς· ∆ός μοι ἄρτον, δός μοι ὕδωρ· ἵνα σὺ μάθῃς ὅτι οὐδὲν οὕτως ἐπιτήδειον, ὡς γυναικὸς οἰκία χήρας, καὶ σκηνὴ πενίας γέμουσα, καὶ πλούτου καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ πλούτου κακῶν ἀπηλλαγμένη. Καθαρὸν γὰρ θορύβων ἦν τὸ χωρίον, καὶ πάσης φιλοσοφίας μεστὸν, καὶ λιμένος παντὸς εὐδιώτερον.

Τοιαῦτα δὴ μάλιστα ἐνδιαιτήματα τῶν ἁγίων ἐπιζητοῦσιν αἱ ψυχαί. Ἀπῄει τοίνυν πρὸς τὴν χήραν ὁ προφήτης, τῆς Ἰουδαϊκῆς μισοξενίας ἔλεγχον ἐσομένην· ἀπῄει πρὸς τὴν χήραν, διδάσκων ἅπαντας ὅτι δικαίως ἐκείνην τὴν κόλασιν ὑπομένουσιν Ἰουδαῖοι. Καὶ γὰρ ὅταν μέλλῃ τινὰς κολάζειν ὁ Θεὸς, οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἐπάγει τὴν τιμωρίαν, οὐδὲ τῇ τῆς οἰκείας κρίσεως ἀρκεῖται ψήφῳ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις διὰ τῶν πραγμάτων ἀπολογεῖται, ὥσπερ ἐν κοινῷ δικαστηρίῳ κρινόμενος ταῖς τῶν πολλῶν ὑπονοίαις. Καὶ καθάπερ οἱ δικάζοντες, ὅταν μέλλωσί τινα τὴν ἐπὶ θάνατον ἄγειν ὁδὸν, ἐφ' ὑψηλοῦ τοῦ βήματος προκαθίσαντες, καὶ τὰ παραπετάσματα συνελκυσθῆναι κελεύσαντες, καὶ τὴν πόλιν αὐτοῖς περιστήσαντες ἅπασαν, οὕτω καθάπερ ἐν θεάτρῳ κοινῷ δικάζοντες πρὸς τὸν κατάδικον, ὑπὸ ταῖς ἁπάντων ὄψεσι καὶ ἀκοαῖς τὰς πεύσεις ποιούμενοι, καὶ τὰ ὑπομνήματα τῶν ἐκείνοις τετολμημένων ἀναγνωσθῆναι κελεύοντες, καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν ὑπεύθυνον τῶν αὐτῷ τετολμημένων γενέσθαι κατήγορον παρασκευάζοντες, τότε τὴν ψῆφον ἐπάγουσιν· οὕτω καὶ ὁ Θεὸς, καθάπερ ἐφ' ὑψηλοῦ τοῦ βήματος, τοῦ τῶν Γραφῶν κηρύγματος προκαθίσας, καὶ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἅπασαν περιστήσας, ὑπὸ ταῖς ἁπάντων ὄψεσι καὶ ἀκοαῖς ποιεῖται τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων τὴν ἐξέτασιν, οὐχ ὑπομνήματα ἀναγνωσθῆναι κελεύων, οὐδὲ