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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

34.

Pascitur Helias tempore famis corvis mane afferentibus panem et ad vesperam carnes: et Manichaei non intellegunt in illis libris Christum, cui quodam modo salutem nostram esurienti confitentur peccatores fidem primitias spiritus nunc habentem, in fine autem velut ad vesperam saeculi etiam carnis resurrectionem. Mittitur Helias pascendus ad alienigenam viduam, quae volebat duo ligna colligere, priusquam moreretur: non hic solo ligni nomine sed etiam numero lignorum signum crucis exprimitur. Benedicitur farina eius et oleum: fructus et hilaritas caritatis, quae cum impenditur, non deficit; hilarem enim datorem diligit deus. p. 361,25

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

34.

In the time of famine, Elijah is fed by ravens bringing bread in the morning and flesh in the evening; but the Manichaeans cannot in this perceive Christ, who, as it were, hungers for our salvation, and to whom sinners come in confession, having now the first-fruits of the Spirit, while in the end, that is to say in the evening of the age, they will have the resurrection of their bodies also. Elijah is sent to be fed by a widow woman of another nation, who was going to gather two sticks before she died, denoting the two wooden beams of the cross. Her meal and oil are blessed, as the fruit and cheerfulness of charity do not diminish by expenditure, for God loveth a cheerful giver. ¹