2 Kings 13:20

Verse 20. Buried him, near Samaria. Menochius.—He had been chosen by Elias sixty-eight years before, and had lived eleven with him. His perfect character is given, Sirach 48:13. His double spirit represents the plentitude of grace in Jesus Christ; as his raising the child to life, in such a wonderful manner, denotes his incarnation. The waters of Jericho made sweet, and the healing of Naaman, set before us the virtue of baptism: as the widow’s oil shews the great graces which are bestowed by Christ upon his Church. The children devoured, and the Syrians struck blind, remind us of the perversity and blindness of infidels, who will not acknowledge the truth. Matthew 13:14. We must now see how the bones of Eliseus prophesied: 1. By raising the dead to life, as a confirmation of all his former predictions; 2. as proof of a future resurrection, of the virtue of relics, and of the influence of the saints in heaven, whose souls were formerly united to their bodies, and were filled with the Holy Spirit; (Saint Cyril of Jer. cat. xviii. Illum.) 3. in as much as this miracle was a figure of Christ’s resurrection, who raised himself to life, and those who believe in him: ( Calmet.) while Eliseus, in the like state of death, had only raised another. Bible. S. Max. hom. i. de pasc.—Same. Septuagint Hebrew and Syr. “at the coming in of the year;” ( Bible.) or, “the next year.” Pagnin.