Elisha and the Widow are Christ and the Church

William Durandus’ commentary on today’s Mass, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum VI, 48

The Mass of this day speaks of prayer and of mercy, through which also does the Lord save us. The epistle (4 Kings, 4, 1-7) is about a widow, whose sons a creditor is seeking to take as slaves, so Elisha fills her vessels with oil, telling her to pay the debt which she owes from selling part of the oil, and that she and her sons should live from the rest.

A Dutch engraving of Elisha and the widow, 1616-36.

This widow is the Church, whose spouse Christ is not present bodily or visibly. The creditors are the demons, for which reason, the devil is called a tax-collector (exactor), because he demands money from us, meaning, uncleanness, with interest. This is why Isaiah says (14, 4), “How hath the tax-collector ceased, and the tribute gone silent?”

But Christ has delievered us from this sort of tax-collector through the works of mercy, the liberation which is asked for in the Gradual.

Graduale, Ps 18 Ab occultis meis munda me, Dómine: et ab aliénis parce servo tuo. ℣. Si mei non fúerint domináti, tunc immaculátus ero: et emundábor a delicto máximo. (From my hidden sins cleanse me, o and from those of others spare Thy servant. ℣. If they rule not over me, then shall I be blameless, and cleanse of a very great sin.)

But the Gospel from St Matthew (18, 15-22) is about mercy, to wit, “If thy brother sin against thee, go and reprove him.” If he ignores you, teach him; if he repents, forgive him, “not, I say, as many as seven times, but unto seventy times seventy”, that is, as often as he sins, forgive him.

Again, the widow as she prays to Elisha for her sons says in the introit, “I have cried out”, and in the gradual, “From my hidden sins cleanse me.”

Introitus, Ps. 16 Ego clamávi, quoniam exaudisti me, Deus: inclína aurem tuam, et exaudi verba mea: custódi me, Dómine, ut pupillam óculi: sub umbra alárum tuárum prótege me. Ps. Exaudi, Dómine, justitiam meam: intende deprecatiónem meam. Glória Patri... Ego clamávi.. (I cried out, because Thou didst hear me, o God; incline Thine ear, and hear my words; keep, o Lord, as the apple of Thine eye, beneath the shadow of Thy wings protect me. Ps. Hear, o Lord, my just cause, intende unto my supplication.)

At last, when she has been heard in her prayers, she gives thanks in the offertory, “The right hand of the Lord,” and in the communio, she teaches us how those who want the oil of mercy should present themselves, which is to say, let those who wish to rest upon the mountain go walk without blemish, and work justice.

Communio, Ps. 14 Dómine, quis habitábit in tabernáculo tuo? aut quis requiescet in monte sancto tuo? Qui ingréditur sine mácula, et operátur justitiam. (Lord, who shall dwell Thy tent? Or who shall rest upon Thy holy mountain? He who walks without blameless, and doeth justice.)