Tobit
Introduction
The Book of Tobit is one of the later books of the Scriptures. It goes back two centuries before the Common Era. The original text, written in Aramaic, became lost but it had been translated into Greek.
In the last two centuries before Jesus, the dispersed Jews among the nations grew to be much more numerous than those who were living in Palestine. Even when living in foreign countries, far from the Promised Land, was considered a disgrace, they were doing quite well. Just as it would be the case later in the Christian world, many in the Jewish world discovered the benefits of that new vocation as minorities in the pagan world and to be the witnesses of divine revelation in the world. The families who wanted to remain faithful in their observance of the law were relying on their communities where the synagogue weekly worship was celebrated with reading the Scripture together.
However, they were aware that for the most part, the future of Judaism depended on the families’ transmission of their identity as people of God. It was necessary to prevent the Jews from intermingling with the people who surrounded them and to keep them from forgetting their vocation. In particular, the father of the family was to bear witness to the faith that he lived each day.
The author of the Book of Tobit wanted to provide the Jews with a model. To write his story, he took his inspiration from a story of “The Grateful Dead.” A generous man had discovered an unburied corpse and he had buried it with dignity. Later on, in the course of a journey, a stranger approached him, started to walk with him and he freed him from various dangers. When this generous man wanted to compensate him, the stranger revealed to him that he was the dead man whom he had buried and then he disappeared.
The author of the Book of Tobit used this plot and he introduced the angel… The old story of Tobit has not lost its value at a time when many Christians do not know anything about the path that Jesus proclaimed to us. We have relied too much on “the Church,” on the catechism being taught by priests, and very often, parents are not able to transmit the word of God.
His wife Anna copes with the situation by working in Ahikar’s household, although they were formerly rich.
Tobit’s preoccupation on handing his religion down to his son, and his concern for the future of his son, shows that he is a real father.
3.1 He has dedicated his life in faithfulness to God and now finds himself poor, blind and, even, insulted by his wife Anna. How does he react? He presents his problem to God without complaining about anyone, not even about his wife.
In the Scriptures, we repeatedly see that God tests us before granting us a special favor. We will really understand when we hear what Christ says to the disciples of Emmaus: “Did not the Messiah have to suffer all this to enter into his glory?” (Lk 24:26).
He is in solidarity with his sinning people and finds it just to be punished, even though he asks to be freed from this punishment.
He feels incapable of fighting alone in life, and asks for death, but leaves everything in God’s hands.
His prayer is to ask for strength and the ability to fulfill what God says and demands and not to present to God his own plan and ask him to realize it, as we often do when we pray.
7. When we find ourselves in Sara’s situation, we immediately blame God.
Sara thinks about her problem and, in thinking, she sees that she must change her mind and must not ask for death. When we look at one isolated event in life, we can despair, but if we look at the whole, we will always find some reason to keep on struggling.
Sara’s reason to keep on living is her love for her father and her desire to give him heirs.
Whenever there is despair it is because we look only at one aspect of life as, for example, the economic aspect. Oftentimes, someone who fights for a cause, or a ruler, wants to give up everything because he is being criticized, without looking at all the good he would not accomplish if he quit.
4.1 At the moment when the young Tobiah sets out in his journey, his father transmits to him all his wisdom. Honesty, of course, in all sectors of life, knowing that God is just and that he never forgets to reward those who serve him—Tobit speaks from a long experience of life and an awareness of the providence of God.
There follows an invitation to give “alms,” a word which seems old-fashioned but which simply means sharing. However poor the Jewish people may have been, giving the tenth part of their incomes seemed quite normal.
Then comes the command of marrying a girl of his race and his religion. Of course, we find there the Jewish consciousness of being a race that must stand apart from others by faithfulness to its mission. For Christians also, marriage cannot only be the access to shared love but should always serve a mission.
5.4 The journey of Tobiah to Rages will also be a spiritual experience. He meets an angel of God in human form and this friend, Azarias, will help him with advice. He will lead him to discover the will of God and in so doing Tobiah will be able to free Sara from her demon.
7.9 This way of celebrating marriage belongs, first of all, to family religion. Such has been the custom in a great number of countries and religions. It is difficult to say what was added to this family liturgy when Christians of the primitive Church wanted their marriage to be recognized. It is the family which traditionally feels it has to perpetuate itself through marriage.
Only in the last centuries was the priority of mutual love affirmed; and before long we found ourselves in the great crisis of the twentieth century: the family, why? In some ancient countries, the suicidal option was considered normal: a couple without children or with one or two; in other words, the death of a nation in a more or less brief span of time.
See the call to the law of Moses: the official celebration of marriage helps husband and wife to understand that they are really committing their lives: they will not find themselves unless it be in fulfilling a common mission.
12.1 Almsgiving—sharing—preserves from death; it purifies from all sin (v. 9). The words used by Tobit are those of a society which in no way resembles our own. Sharing today takes many forms when nations begin to realize we are all one humanity. Sharing remains a basic law: if today many individuals and families find themselves in difficulties for which they cannot always blame “society”, we must also ask ourselves if we have sufficiently shared with others, thereby drawing God’s blessing. The Wisdom Books will repeat it: the unjust borrow and never repay, the just give generously and have what they need.
