Commentaria in Tobiam
Moreover Job, while still alive, is called blessed, because, as St. James says, chapter 1, verse 12: “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life.” “Job was blessed,” says St. Fulgentius, epistle 2, chapter 9, “when he lived justly in riches; but more blessed when he had become more just in poverty. He was blessed when he was surrounded by ten sons; but more blessed when, struck by the bereavement of them all at once, he remained immovable in the love of God. He was blessed also in soundness of body; but he was made more blessed in his wound. More blessed also on a heap full of filth than in a palace adorned with marbles.”
16. “WHERE IS THY HOPE?”—As if to say: Thy hope has deceived thee, and been false and deceitful; for thou didst hope by alms to obtain from God all prosperity, and behold God by the burial of the dead has blinded thee and deprived thee of thy eyes. For what is more unhappy and wretched than one bereft of his eyes and blind?
18. “FOR WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF SAINTS,”—namely of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, etc.; let us therefore imitate their faith, hope, patience and constancy in adversity. Let the afflicted Christian say the same: I am a son of Christ; his passion and cross therefore I will constantly behold, and his patience I will imitate. I am a son of the holy Apostles, of St. Stephen, St. Vincent, etc., who suffered so many and so great things for Christ: I will therefore follow them, and willingly and bravely endure my little evil for the love of Christ. For I am a son of the Saints, and therefore am myself a saint, that is, faithful, dedicated to God, and called by him to perfect holiness, which consists in patience. “For patience hath a perfect work,” James 1:4.
“AND LOOK FOR THAT LIFE WHICH GOD WILL GIVE TO THOSE THAT NEVER CHANGE THEIR FAITH FROM HIM.”—Tobias answers aptly those who insult him: “Where is thy hope?” As if to say: My hope is not referred to present goods, but to future. For I hope that after this there is another life, blessed and eternal, which God will give to those who persevere constantly in faith and hope of it in whatever adversities. This hope of another and happy life roused the seven Machabee brothers to overcome, indeed to despise, pans, drums, racks and all torments; whence they said fearlessly to the tyrant Antiochus: “Thou indeed, most wicked man, destroyest us in this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up, who die for his laws, in the resurrection of eternal life,” 2 Machabees 7. The same thought and words had almost all the other martyrs to a man, who, as the Apostle says, Hebrews 11:37: “were stoned, were cut asunder, were tempted, were put to death by the sword, etc., not accepting deliverance, that they might find a better resurrection”; because Christ himself, as the same says in the same place, chapter 12, verse 2, “having joy set before him (the soon coming resurrection and glorious ascension), endured the cross, despising the shame.” Whom St. Francis imitates: “So great,” he says, “is the glory I expect, that every pain delights me.”
20. “SHE BROUGHT HOME,”—into the house. The Greek adds that this kid was given to Anna in addition, as a gift, over the wages of her weaving; and when Tobias plainly did not believe Anna saying this, she in anger mocked him, saying: “Thy hope is come to nothing,” etc. Tobias had occasion to doubt of theft, both because such a kid had never been seen in his house, nor is such usually given as wages to weavers, nor had he ever received such, nor had Anna ever brought one; and because Anna was poor: he feared therefore that poverty had driven her to bring into the house a kid that was straying and lost; and because he was himself a most ardent lover of justice and a keen hater of theft, and of a most tender and delicate conscience: “It is the mark of good minds,” says St. Bernard, “to fear fault where there is no fault.” In like manner, in extreme want of things and hunger, when bread was divinely offered, “fearing lest perhaps it were another’s, and lest he commit a fault as if out of piety,” St. Sanctulus in St. Gregory, Dialogues book 3, chapter 37, was afraid to set it before his workmen.
22. “AT THIS HIS WIFE BEING ANGRY ANSWERED: IT IS EVIDENT THY HOPE IS COME TO NOTHING, AND THY ALMS NOW APPEAR TO BE VAIN,”—since by them thou hast brought on thyself blindness and distress. Learn here from Tobias to receive curses, indeed ill-treatment, for good deeds, even from the dearest friends, and to bear it constantly. This is the reward of patience, this its crown, that it provokes new suffering, and in it is crowned with a new and greater patience. Hear St. Augustine, sermon 18 on Matthew: “How great is thought the unhappiness of men who do not see this bodily light! Has someone been blinded? Straightway it is said: He had God angry with him; he committed some evil. This Tobias’s wife said to her husband. He cried out on account of the kid, that it might not be from theft: he would not hear the sound of theft in his house. She, defending her act, struck her husband with reproach; and when he said: Give it back, if it is from theft; she answered, retorting: Where are thy justices? How blind was she who defended theft! and what light did he see who commanded theft to be restored! She was outside in the light of the sun, he was within in the light of justice. Which of them was in the better light?”
after magnificent works, after many glorious proclamations of his mercy, suffered blindness of the eyes, fearing and blessing God in adversity, and by the very ruin of his body grew in praise; whom his own wife also tried to pervert, saying: Where are thy justices? behold what thou sufferest. But he, stable and firm in the fear of God, and armed with the faith of religion for every endurance of suffering, yielded not in sorrow to his wife’s feeble temptation, but rather deserved God by greater patience, whom afterwards the angel Raphael praises.”
In like manner St. Saturus, steward of the house of Hunneric, the Arian king, when he was solicited by him with the greatest threats and by his own wife with many tears to Arianism, answered fearlessly with St. Job: “Thou speakest like one of the foolish women. I should fear, woman, if the sweetness of this life were all that is dear; thou servest, wife, the craft of the devil. If thou lovedst thy husband, thou wouldst never draw thine own husband to the second death. Let them tear away my sons, let them separate my wife, let them take away the substance of my Lord, I secure in the promises will hold the words: If any man leave not wife, children, lands, or house, he cannot be my disciple. What more? the woman departing with her children refused, Saturus is strengthened, is brought to the crown, stripped, worn by punishments, dismissed a beggar.” So Victor of Utica, book 1 of the Vandal Persecution, near the end.
Parallel between the virtues of Job and Tobias.
Job and Tobias were very like in many things: first, in lavish alms, and in the offices of every kind of mercy, such as Job proclaims of himself in chapter 31, and Tobias here in chapter 1.
Secondly, in constant endurance of adversity, especially of poverty, blindness and diseases, and indeed in giving thanks. For these are great benefits of God, being matter of great virtue and great reward. Job therefore said in his patience:
“The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord.” The same said Tobias.
Thirdly, Tobias endured all this for hope of the future blessed life, verse 18. So also Job, chapter 19:25: “I know,” he says, “that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God, etc. This my hope is laid up in my bosom.”
Fourthly, Job was mocked by his wife and friends, but mocked the mockers; so also Tobias.
Fifthly, God restored to Tobias his lost wealth and his sight; so also to Job, chapter last, he gave back all things double.