1Kgs 17:6

“"The ravens brought him bread in the morning and meat in the evening." The bread represents perfection and justice accomplished together. This is the bread about which Isaiah says that it is given to those "who will live on the heights, and whose refuge will be the fortress of the rocks, and whose eyes will see the king in his beauty." Indeed, bread, which is the principal nourishment of human beings, indicates quite appropriately their main good. With regard to meat, the fact that it was brought in the evening shows two things: the first is the mourning of penitence, as the psalmist says: "Weeping may linger for the night," and the mortification of flesh and the hard toils, which the penitents marching toward perfection suffer. But their grief will become joy in the morning when the sun of justice, which dispels the darkness of sin, rises.And these words have an even higher meaning, because they are also referred to God the Word, who clothed himself with the flesh of our humanity and came to us in the evening, that is, at the consummation of times, and "filled with good things the hungry" through the Holy Spirit, which "God poured out on them richly through the Messiah, our Savior."”

“Therefore do not boast when you fast, do not glory lest fasting profit you nothing; for those things that are done for ostentation will not prolong their fruit into the future, but they consume the reward for present deeds. Elijah was in the desert that no one might see him fast except the ravens alone, when they supplied him with food. Elisha was in the desert where no food except poisonous wild gourds could be found. John was in the desert, where he could find only locusts and wild honey. Feasts were served to those fasting by the holy ministry of angels. Daniel dined among fasting lions. He dined on the dinner of another; the wild beasts did not taste theirs. Feasts fly to those who fast, the feet stagger of those who dine: manna descended from heaven to those who were fasting, the sin of prevarication ascended from those who were banqueting.”

“Blessed Elijah typified our Lord and Savior. Just as Elijah suffered persecution by the Jews, so our Lord, the true Elijah, was condemned and despised by the Jews. Elijah left his own people, and Christ deserted the synagogue; Elijah departed into the wilderness, and Christ came into the world. Elijah was fed in the desert by ministering ravens, while Christ was refreshed in the desert of this world by the faith of the Gentiles. Truly, those ravens that took care of blessed Elijah at the Lord's bidding prefigured the Gentiles, for on this account it is said concerning the church of the Gentiles, "I am dark and beautiful, O daughter of Jerusalem." Why is the church dark and beautiful? It is dark by nature, beautiful by grace. Why dark? "Indeed, in guilt I was born, and in sin my mother conceived me." Why beautiful? "Cleanse me of sin with hyssop, that I may be purified; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Why dark? The apostle says, "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me prisoner to the law of sin." Why beautiful? "Who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Truly, the church of the Gentiles was like a raven, when it despised the living and before receiving grace served idols as dead bodies.”

“It was because they lusted that they were condemned and not because they ate flesh, for behold Elijah did not ask for food with lust, but the ravens fed him with bread and flesh, evening and morning, and he drank water from the brook; and when flesh was sent unto the prophet by the Giver, he by the power of his freedom received it like a meal of garden herbs. And thou must in another way understand that it is lust which is reprehensible, for every day, morning after morning, the people gathered the manna which came down, and so long as they gathered it according to the command they were not reprehended or condemned; but when they lusted to gather it in too great a quantity, it swarmed with worms and stank, to the shame of the lust which gathered it.”

“It is taught: When the priests, his brothers, saw that he had escaped the anger of Ahab, they saved for him a part of the food and bread reserved [to them], and a raven brought it to him through divine intervention.The Schools say, A raven stole the [food] from houses, inns, markets and peasants, since it is an impudent, wild and merciless bird by nature. It has no natural love for its young and does not feed them, but another bird adopts them and feeds them. Through this [the Scripture] shows that animals of such a nature performed what God ordered them to do and provided for the necessities of the prophet, whereas the children of Israel, even though they were endowed with reason, did not want to observe the law of God. At the same time, the fact that [Elijah] was nourished by ravens, and then that the "wadi dried up," occurred through the mercy of God in order to induce the prophet to pity and compassion toward the people, so that his spirit might relent and he might pray God to send rain. But when, in spite of this, his anger against the people was not appeased, [God] ordered him to go among the nations, in order to show him that the plague of famine has spread among them as well, and that he had at least to show compassion for the nations, if he could show any for the people; but [this happened] also because there was nobody among the people who was worthy of receiving Elijah. Other [authors] say, The bread and the food were made from the elements every day through an angelic operation, just like the manna had been made from air and the quails from the sea, and just like the half cake was brought to Paul the anchorite, and the bunch of dates was brought by a lion to the anchorite of the desert of Sodom. But [the food was not brought to Elijah] by an angel, as it was to John, nor by a man, as Daniel received it by Habakkuk, but by a raven, in order to show that there is nothing impure in the creation of God—just as God gave to Samson water to drink from the jaw of a donkey23—and in order to signify, at the same time, the abrogation of the prescriptions of the Law. According to other authors, the angels were disguised as ravens.”