I Give you my word that your father’s eyes will open
Our first reading today is from the Book of Tobit. This Book is not in the abridged New King James version, so our Protestant brothers and sisters do not know what we are taking about. A retired Navy Chaplin, Pastor Dan H asked me to email him a copy. He loved it. It is totally a beautiful story . When you have time read the whole Book of Tobit on your own .
To understand our first reading today, you have to know who the characters are. Just like in a play.
Tobit is the blind father who lived in a Jewish community in the pagan City of Nineveh. Poor Nineveh! It really must have been an evil city and still was .Tobit was a righteous man in a small faithful Jewish community in Nineveh.
Anna, was Tobit’s wife and was also a good God fearing woman.
Tobias was his son. Earlier Tobit was sent Tobias on a mission to the distant city of Media to recover his savings. Tobias succeeded. In the process he met and married Sarah.
Sarah was the daughter of another God fearing man, Raguel.
Now Sarah was cursed by the Devil. She must have been a tremendously beautiful young women. Everyman she married died on their wedding night. There was a long list of grooms who never lived past the wedding night. However, Tobias broke the curse with the help of an Angel. Raphael.
Now we pick up the story today. Tobias has returned home. If Tobias had died, Anna and Tobit would have had no income or food and would most certainly have died. Tobias could have died but he succeeded, thanks to Raphael.
Raphael was an angel sent by the Lord .
The beautiful prayer of Tobit is this:
Blessed be God! Blessed be his great name! Blessed be all his holy angels! Blessed be his great name for evermore! For he had scourged me and now has had pity on me and I see my son Tobias.
Why was Tobit, Tobias and Sarah successful?
Was is solely due to the angel Raphael or was there something else?
Here are some of the characteristics of all these people. They had a tremendous faith in God. Faith even in a pagan city. This faith led to trust in God. They all had a tremendous sense of duty to serve God and their family.
What did God do?
He rewarded their faith, trust and duty. He sent an angel to help overcome the Devil. The angel didn’t do all the work. He only encouraged.
The lesson from this reading is simple. The Lord said to my Lord; Sit at my right hand and I will put you enemies under your feet.
Yes, you may not think it, but the Devil is still out there. He doesn’t do all the evil in the world, because the world is sometimes responsible for its own brand of evil. Nonetheless, evil does exist. Think of the times that evil has attacked you or your loved ones. We are the only light in a pagan world. We have no light of our own but reflect the light of Christ in us.
At one low time in my life, I was accused of something that I did not do. I stood my ground because I knew there was no proof and the fact that I was innocent of any wrong doing.
Just like Tobit, I have faith in God and trusted Him. When my fate was darkest that faith and trust came through.
So to me the most important thing from the whole book of Tobit and our selected reading is that the enemy will be put under our feet. We need to trust and have faith in God in every part of our lives.
Every part includes the parking space you need close to the door for an elderly friend. It includes the faith in your daughter living with someone that they are not married.
Just like Tobit we need to have faith. Trust in God and serve Him no matter the evil that is creeping into the world around us. We have angels around us all the time. Sometime they come from Heaven and sometimes the miracles against evil come from that faithful community that God surrounds us on earth. (Us) When we serve we are angels to someone.
God Love you always
Bob Burford
Credit for Picture :“The Angel Departing from the Family of Tobit LACMA M.79.227.1” by Fæ is marked with CC PDM 1.0
