Commentaria in Tobiam
Chapter 3
1. Then Tobias sighed, and began to pray with tears, 2. Saying: Thou art just, O Lord, and all thy judgments are just, and all thy ways mercy, and truth, and judgment. 3. And now, O Lord, think of me, and take not revenge of my sins, neither remember my offences, nor those of my parents. 4. For we have not obeyed thy commandments, therefore are we delivered to spoil, and to captivity, and death, and are made a fable, and a reproach to all nations, among which thou hast scattered us. 5. And now, O Lord, great are thy judgments, because we have not done according to thy precepts, and have not walked sincerely before thee. 6. And now, O Lord, do with me according to thy will, and command my spirit to be received in peace: for it is better for me to die than to live. 7. It happened on the same day, that Sara the daughter of Raguel, in Rages a city of the Medes, received a reproach from one of her father’s maids, 8. Because she had been given to seven husbands, and a devil named Asmodeus had killed them, as soon as they had gone in to her. 9. So when she reproved the maid for her fault, she answered her, saying: May we never see son or daughter of thee upon the earth, thou murderer of thy husbands. 10. Wilt thou kill me also, as thou hast already killed seven husbands? At these words she went into an upper chamber of her house: and for three days and three nights did neither eat nor drink, 11. But continuing in prayer with tears besought God that he would deliver her from this reproach. 12. And it came to pass on the third day, when she had finished her prayer, blessing the Lord, 13. She said: Blessed is thy name, O God of our fathers, who when thou hast been angry, wilt shew mercy, and in the time of tribulation forgivest the sins of them that call upon thee. 14. To thee, O Lord, I turn my face, to thee I direct my eyes. 15. I beg, O Lord, that thou loose me from the bond of this reproach, or else take me away from the earth. 16. Thou knowest, O Lord, that I never coveted a husband, and have kept my soul clean from all lust. 17. Never have I joined myself with them that play: neither have I made myself partaker with them that walk in lightness. 18. But a husband I consented to take, with thy fear, not with my lust. 19. And either I was unworthy of them, or they perhaps were not worthy of me: because perhaps thou hast kept me for another man. 20. For thy counsel is not in man’s power. 21. But this every one is sure of that worshippeth thee, that his life, if it be under trial, shall be crowned, and if it be under tribulation, it shall be delivered, and if it be under correction, it shall be allowed to come to thy mercy. 22. For thou art not delighted in our being lost: because after a storm thou makest a calm, and after tears and weeping thou pourest in joy. 23. Be thy name, O God of Israel, blessed for ever. 24. At that time the prayers of them both were heard in the sight of the glory of the most high God: 25. And the holy angel of the Lord, Raphael, was sent to cure them both, whose prayers at one time were rehearsed in the sight of the Lord.
1. “THEN TOBIAS SIGHED, AND BEGAN TO PRAY WITH TEARS.”—The Greek: with groaning and tears; the Hebrew: with great grief received, and also a certain sickness of the body. For sorrow of mind begets pain of the body, and sickness of the mind sickness of the flesh. For passion and affection of soul diffuse themselves into the body by sympathy. See here how true is that of Ecclesiastes 7:8: “Oppression troubleth the wise man.” Behold, blindness did not trouble Tobias, but the calumny of his wife troubled him. For he knew blindness was sent him by God for a just reason; but the calumny he felt was done him by his wife not from reason but from unjust passion, which was therefore a grave sin, and that afflicted him greatly. For the offence of God his Creator tormented him more than his own injury.
“HE BEGAN TO PRAY WITH TEARS,”—from the inmost feeling of the heart, devotion and compunction: and so he as it were did violence to God, that he should hear and console him. Hear St. Augustine, sermon 226 On the Season, which is on Tobias: “The prayer of the just is the key of heaven. The prayer of the just ascends and the mercy of God descends. Though the earth be low, heaven high, God hears nevertheless men,”
let us render, as is fitting, what is his to God, to our neighbour, to ourselves, and let us live prudently. So Serarius.
6. “COMMAND MY SPIRIT TO BE RECEIVED IN PEACE.”—The Greek adds: Because I have heard undeserved reproaches; whence it is clear how gravely the reproaches of his wife and others pierced the soul of Tobias, so that he wished to die. For he says: “It is better for me to die than to live.” For a life in continual and great sorrow is not life but death, indeed worse than death; wherefore right reason dictates that it is then better to die than to live, if it so please God. So Job, chapter 7, verse 15: “My soul,” he says, “chooseth hanging, and my bones death.” And Elias, 3 Kings 19:4, suffering persecutions from Jezabel, asked for his soul that he might die, and said: “It is enough for me, Lord, take away my soul.” And St. Paul, 2 Corinthians 1:8: “We were pressed out of measure,” he says, “above our strength, so that we were weary even of life.” Yet it is the mark of a stronger and nobler mind not to wish for death, but to bear and overcome any adversity with an unconquered soul. Whence St. Augustine, when Hippo was besieged by the Vandals: “You know,” he says, “that I at this time ask God, in this calamity, that he deign either to free this city surrounded by enemies, or, if it seems otherwise to him, to make his servants strong to bear his will; or at least that he take me from this world to himself.” And this third he obtained. For three months before the city was taken he departed this life. Hear also St. Bernard, On the Manner of Living Well, sermon 10: “Anna, the mother of Samuel, by compunction and tears deserved to have a son; moreover she obtained from God the gift of prophecy. David by compunction and tears obtained pardon for the homicide and adultery he had committed. For so he heard by the prophet: Thou shalt not die, for the Lord hath taken away thy sin. Father Tobias by compunction and tears deserved to receive the cure of blindness and the consolation of poverty. For thus the angel Raphael said to him: Joy be to thee always; and added: Be of good courage, it is at hand that thou be cured by God. Mary Magdalen also by compunction and tears deserved to hear from the Lord: Thy sins are forgiven thee.”
7. “IT HAPPENED ON THE SAME DAY THAT SARA.”—Note here the wonderful providence of God toward his faithful.
2. “AND ALL THY WAYS MERCY, AND TRUTH, AND JUDGMENT.”—The ways of God are his ordinations, counsels, decrees, governments, actions, works. For by these as by ways he comes down to govern creatures and men; as if to say that all the works of God are mercy, truth and justice; mercy, because a thousand of our miseries, a thousand For he combined the calumny of Tobias with the calumny of Sara, and the prayer and compunction of Tobias with the prayer and compunction of Sara, that he might console both by mutual marriage. And this signifies “It happened,” which looks to the future narration of the marriage. This is what Solomon says, Proverbs “but a prudent wife is properly from the Lord.” Similar things are in the lives of the Saints. John Moschus, in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 201, relates of the son of a most illustrious Constantinopolitan man, who succours with a thousand mercies. Again, because when he punishes our sins he punishes short of what is deserved, and tempers justice with mercy. Likewise he punishes with light penalties in this life, that by them, measuring and fearing the most atrocious torments of hell, we may beware by avoiding sins. Finally, he punishes one, or a few, that all the rest may grow wise by their example. The same are true, because conformable to the first wisdom and truth; and because most truly he performs what he promised and what he threatened. For he is in word and deed most true and most constant. The same are judgment, because they flow from the eternal law, which is in the mind of God, and from the first justice and divine judgment, and so are most just.