17. Thus that widow in the third book of Kings, when in the drought and famine, having consumed everything, she had made of the little meal and oil which was left, a cake upon the ashes, and, having used this, was about to die with her children, Elias came and asked that something should first be given him to eat, and then of what remained that she and her children should eat. Nor did she hesitate to obey; nor did the mother prefer her children to Elias in her hunger and poverty. Yea, there is done in God’s sight a thing that pleases God: promptly and liberally is presented what is asked for. Neither is it a portion out of abundance, but the whole out of a little, that is given, and another is fed before her hungry children; nor in penury and want is food thought of before mercy; so that while in a saving work the life according to the flesh is contemned, the soul according to the spirit is preserved. Therefore Elias, being the type of Christ, and showing that according to His mercy He returns to each their reward, answered and said: “Thus saith the Lord, The vessel of meal shall not fail, and the cruse of oil shall not be diminished, until the day that the Lord giveth rain upon the earth.”50    1 Kings xvii. 14.  According to her faith in the divine promise, those things which she gave were multiplied and heaped up to the widow; and her righteous works and deserts of mercy taking augmentations and increase, the vessels of meal and oil were filled. Nor did the mother take away from her children what she gave to Elias, but rather she conferred upon her children what she did kindly and piously.51    [See p. 479, supra, note 7. [Prov. xi. 24.] And she did not as yet know Christ; she had not yet heard His precepts; she did not, as redeemed by His cross and passion, repay meat and drink for His blood. So that from this it may appear how much he sins in the Church, who, preferring himself and his children to Christ, preserves his wealth, and does not share an abundant estate with the poverty of the needy.

XVII. Sic vidua illa, in tertio Regnorum libro, cum, in siccitate et fame consumptis omnibus, de modico farre et oleo quod superfuerat fecisset subcinericium panem , quo absumpto moritura cum liberis esset, supervenit Helias, et petiit sibi prius ad edendum dari; tunc quod superfuisset, inde illam cum filiis suis vesci. Nec obtemperare illa dubitavit, aut Heliae filios mater in fame et egestate praeposuit. Fit immo in conspectu 0615A Dei quod Deo placeat; prompte ac libenter quod petebatur offertur; nec de abundantia portio, sed de modico totum datur, et esurientibus liberis alter prius pascitur, neque in penuria et fame cibus ante quam misericordia cogitatur; ut, dum in opere salutari carnaliter vita contemnitur, spiritaliter anima servetur. Helias itaque typum Christi gerens, et quod ille pro misericordia vicem singulis reddat ostendens, respondit et dixit: Haec dicit Dominus: Fidelia farris non deficiet, et capsaces olei non minuetur usque in diem quo dabit Dominus imbrem super terram (I Reg. XVII, 14). Secundum divinae pollicitationis fidem multiplicata sunt viduae et cumulata quae praestitit, et operibus justis , ac misericordiae meritis augmenta et incrementa sumentibus, farris et olei 0615B vasa completa sunt. Nec filiis abstulit mater quod Heliae dedit, sed magis contulit filiis quod benigne et pie fecit. Et illa nondum Christum sciebat, nondum praecepta ejus audierat, non cruce et passione ejus redempta, cibum et potum pro sanguine rependebat; ut ex hoc appareat quantum in Ecclesia peccet qui, se et filios Christo anteponens, divitias suas servat, nec patrimonium copiosum cum indigentium paupertate communicat.