Commentaria in Tobiam
Chapter 12. Synopsis of the Chapter
Tobias enumerates to his father the many and great benefits received from Raphael: wherefore both offer him half of the goods brought. Presently Raphael manifests that he is not a man but an Angel, and having given teachings of heavenly life, vanishes and returns to heaven.
1. Then Tobias called to him his son, and said to him: What can we give to this holy man, that is come with thee? 2. And Tobias answering, said to his father: Father, what wages shall we give him? or what can be worthy of his benefits? 3. He conducted me and brought me safe again, he received the money of Gabelus, he caused me to have my wife, and he chased from her the evil spirit, he gave joy to her parents, myself he delivered from being devoured by the fish, thee also he hath made to see the light of heaven, and we are filled with all good things through him. What can we give him sufficient for these things? 4. But I beseech thee, my father, to ask him, if perhaps he will vouchsafe to take the half of all things that have been brought. 5. And calling him, the father and the son took him aside: and began to desire him that he would vouchsafe to accept of half of all things that they had brought. 6. Then he said to them secretly: Bless ye the God of heaven, give glory to him in the sight of all that live, because he hath shewn his mercy to you. 7. For it is good to hide the secret of a king: but honourable to reveal and confess the works of God. 8. Prayer is good with fasting and alms more than to lay up treasures of gold: 9. For alms deliver from death, and the same is that which purgeth away sins, and maketh to find mercy and life everlasting. 10. But they that commit sin and iniquity, are enemies to their own soul. 11. I discover then the truth to you, and I will not hide the secret from you. 12. When thou didst pray with tears, and didst bury the dead, and didst leave thy dinner, and hide the dead by day in thy house, and bury them by night, I offered thy prayer to the Lord. 13. And because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove thee. 14. And now the Lord hath sent me to heal thee, and to deliver Sara thy son’s wife from the devil. 15. For I am the angel Raphael, one of the seven who stand before the Lord. 16. And when they heard these things, they were troubled, and being seized with fear they fell upon the ground on their face. 17. And the angel said to them: Peace be to you, fear not. 18. For when I was with you, I was there by the will of God: bless ye him, and sing praise to him. 19. I seemed indeed to eat and to drink with you: but I use an invisible meat and drink, which cannot be seen by men. 20. It is time therefore that I return to him that sent me: but bless ye God, and publish all his wonderful works. 21. And when he had said these things, he was taken from their sight, and they could see him no more. 22. Then they lying prostrate for three hours upon their face, blessed God: and rising up, they told all his wonderful works.
3. “HE CONDUCTED ME AND BROUGHT ME SAFE AGAIN.”—Tobias here recounts seven immense benefits of Raphael. The first is that he led him into Media and brought him back unhurt. The second, that he procured for him an upright and rich wife, namely Sara. The third, that he expelled Asmodeus from him and Sara. The fourth, that he brought joy to the parents of both Tobias and Sara. The fifth, that he rescued him from being devoured by the fish. The sixth, that he restored sight to his blind father. The seventh, that he heaped on him all goods, bodily and spiritual. The guardian Angel does the same for every man, whose person and office Raphael here took on himself and represented, as Serarius shows at length here from the Meditations of Fr. Vincent Bruno, question 20.
5. “THEY TOOK HIM ASIDE,”—that is, called him back apart into a more secret part of the house, that they might deal with him more secretly, freely and confidently. So Lyranus. Whence Raphael, called aside, “said to them secretly,” as follows; for he wished to be called aside, that apart he might open himself and the secrets of God to them.
7. “FOR IT IS GOOD TO HIDE THE SECRET OF A KING: BUT HONOURABLE TO REVEAL AND CONFESS (praise, celebrate and give thanks for) THE WORKS OF GOD.”—“Secret,” in Greek mysterion, that is, the arcanum or secret of a king, it is good to conceal; because the happy execution of a matter depends on secrecy, according to that of Gellius, book 10, chapter 25: “Silence is the treasure of counsels:”
Excellent is the virtue of keeping silence about affairs.
Tiberius Caesar, asked why he did not communicate his counsels to his friends, answered: The mind of a prince should be known to no one, or to few; because many are full of chinks and blab out the secrets they have heard, so that the prince must be endangered or betrayed. So Dionysius in Tiberius. King Antigonus of Macedon, to his son Philip, who asked: “When shall we break camp?” said: “Why? Are you afraid you alone will not hear the trumpet?” So Plutarch in the Apophthegms of Kings. Metellus Macedonicus, to a friend who asked what he had determined to undertake, said: “I would strip off my tunic, if I thought it knew my plan.” So Pliny, chapter 61, On Illustrious Men.
“BUT HONOURABLE TO REVEAL AND CONFESS THE WORKS OF GOD,”—that others, hearing them, may acknowledge, revere, worship and adore the clemency, wisdom and magnificence of God. Whence St. Severus, bishop of Minorca, in his epistle On the Conversion of the Jews: “Since the Angel Raphael admonishes,” he says, “that it is honourable to reveal and confess the works of God, surely to be silent or to conceal the works of Christ is dangerous.” Pope Stephen in Regino, year of the Lord 753: “As,” he says, “no one ought to boast of his own merits, so neither ought the works of God, which are done in him by his saints without their merits, to be passed over in silence, but proclaimed, as the Angel admonishes Tobias.” St. Cyprian declares and proves, saying: “Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor, the Lord will deliver him in the evil day. Mindful of which precepts Daniel, when king Nabuchodonosor, terrified by an adverse dream, was in anxiety to avert the evils, gave a remedy for obtaining divine help, saying: Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to thee, and redeem thou thy sins with alms, and thy iniquities with works of mercy to the poor, and God will be patient with thy sins. To which the king did not hearken, and suffered the adverse and hostile things he had seen; which he could have escaped and avoided if he had redeemed his sins with alms.” He confirms the same, citing the present place: “The Angel Raphael also testifies likewise, and exhorts that alms be given willingly and generously, saying: Prayer is good with fasting and alms; because alms deliver from death; and the same purgeth sins. He shows that our prayers and fasts avail less unless they are helped by alms. That supplications alone avail little to obtain, unless they be made good by the addition of deeds and works. The Angel reveals and manifests and confirms that by alms our petitions are made effective, by alms life is redeemed from dangers, by alms souls are freed from death.”
13. “AND BECAUSE THOU WAST ACCEPTABLE TO GOD, IT WAS NECESSARY THAT TEMPTATION SHOULD PROVE THEE.”—For temptation and tribulation prove, preserve, increase and perfect patience and virtue. For he is unworthy of the grace and friendship of God who refuses to suffer adversity for him and serves him only in prosperity. Hence is sanctioned by the eternal law of God that of the Apostle: “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” 2 Timothy 3:12. See what was said on James 1:4 ff. and Ecclesiasticus 2. Seneca saw this as through a shadow, in his book On Providence, where he assigns various and weighty causes why God sends afflictions on upright men, and among other things gives these golden sayings, like gems, chapter 1: “God does not hold a good man in delights: he tries him, hardens him, prepares him for himself,” chapter 2: “As the great force of inland springs does not change the savour of the sea, so the onset of adversity does not turn the mind of a brave man. He remains in his state, and whatever happens he draws to his own colour. For he is more powerful than all external things; I do not say he does not feel them, but he conquers them; and otherwise quiet and calm, he is raised up against things that rush upon him. He thinks all adversities exercises.”
8. “PRAYER IS GOOD (better) WITH FASTING AND ALMS, MORE THAN TO LAY UP TREASURES OF GOLD.”—The Greek also adds: Better is a little with justice than much with injustice. Hence the Fathers and Theologians teach that there are three kinds of good works, namely prayer, fasting and alms, to which as to heads all the rest are reduced. For prayer pays what is owed to God, fasting to oneself, alms to one’s neighbour. Again, that prayer alone is weak, but becomes strong and effective if it be armed with two wings, by which it may fly to God in heaven, namely fasting and alms. Hear St. Cyprian, tract On Work and Alms. In Solomon we read: “Shut up alms in the heart of the poor, and it shall obtain for thee from all evil.” And again: “He that stoppeth his ear lest he hear the weak, shall himself also call upon God and there shall be none to hear him.” For he cannot merit the Lord’s mercy who has not himself been merciful, nor obtain anything of the divine goodness in prayer who has not been humane at the prayer of the poor. The same in the psalms the Spirit
And presently: “Athletes rejoice to contend with the strongest, to be beaten and harassed. Virtue withers without an adversary. Happiness cannot bear any blow unscathed. God, a most loving lover of the good, wishing them to be as excellent and eminent as possible, assigns them fortune with which to be exercised. Behold a pair worthy of God, a brave man matched with evil fortune, above all if he also challenged it. I see not, I say, what Jupiter has on earth more beautiful, if he would turn his mind to it, than to look upon Cato; his party already more than once broken, standing nevertheless upright amid the public ruins.”
Chapter 3: “Nothing is more unhappy than one to whom nothing adverse has ever happened. He was thought unworthy to be conquered at any time by fortune, which shuns every most cowardly man, as if to say: Why should I take that man as my adversary? He will at once lay down his arms. She tries fire in Mucius, poverty in Fabricius, exile in Rutilius, torments in Regulus, poison in Socrates, death in Cato. Evil fortune finds a great example only so. Is Mucius unhappy, because he holds his right hand in the enemy’s fires, and himself exacts of himself the penalty of his error? because he puts to flight, with burnt hand, the king whom he could not with armed hand?” And below: “Prosperity falls to the common sort and to mean natures; but to put under the yoke the calamities and terrors of mortals is the property of a great man. Calamity is the occasion of virtue: great men sometimes rejoice in adversity, no otherwise than brave soldiers in the triumph of war. Virtue is greedy of danger. You would know a pilot in a storm, a soldier in the line. I am compelled to nothing, I suffer nothing unwillingly, nor do I serve God, but assent to him. Wherefore the upright suffer hard things, that they may teach others to suffer. They are born as an example. To others I have given false goods, and mocked their empty minds as with a long deceiving sleep. I have adorned them with gold, silver and ivory, within there is no good. To you I have given sure goods, that will remain; the more a man has turned them over and viewed them on every side, the better and greater he will see what I have allowed you, to despise what is to be feared, to loathe what is desired. Not to need prosperity is your prosperity.” And finally concluding, he says: “Bear bravely, that is in which you may outstrip God. He is outside the endurance of evils, you above endurance. Despise poverty. No one lives so poor as he was born. Despise pain, because either it will be dissolved or it will dissolve you. Despise death; either it ends you or it transfers you. Despise fortune; I have given her no weapon with which to strike the mind.”
15. “FOR I AM THE ANGEL RAPHAEL, ONE OF THE SEVEN WHO STAND BEFORE THE LORD.”—Hence it is clear that Raphael is one of the first Angels, who as princes of the heavenly court stand nearest to God, of whom Apocalypse 1:4 treats at length. The Greek adds: I am one of the seven who offer the prayers of the saints, and walk before the majesty of the holy one. On these seven therefore lies the care of the human race. Others explain: one of the seven, that is, one of many. To stand before the Lord signifies many things, as Andrew Victor rightly observes, book On the Guardianship of Angels, page 43. First, Angels stand when they speak with God asking divine light, that they may know what his will is in some matter to be done. Secondly, Angels stand while they offer to God pious works, sacrifices, alms and human prayers. Thirdly, they stand when they are ready to obey the divine will, like soldiers prompt and ready for war, if war is to be waged at the divine nod, and like servants ready to perform duties at any command of God. Fourthly, they stand before God as judge, pleading the causes of men against the accusations of demons, and awaiting sentence. Fifthly, they stand while they praise God, as Isaias chapter 6 saw the Seraphim standing, praising God in those wonderful words: Holy, Holy, etc. Sixthly, to stand is to behold the divine countenance, and thence to draw the springs of supreme happiness, which happens either in the empyrean heaven, where in a peculiar and singular way the divine throne shines, or in any other places in which God is in all: and so wherever good Angels are, they always stand before God; because they always enjoy God. Hence it is that they are said to depart and return; because, sent to ministries, they do indeed depart from the empyrean seats, but do not lose supreme happiness, and return thither at God’s nod. Seventhly, to stand strictly and precisely pertains to those Angels who are not wont to be sent to external ministries, but, beholding in God the reasons of things to be done, teach and illuminate the inferior Angels who will execute those duties; whence Angels are distinguished into assisting and ministering. The Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones and Dominations assist; five other orders minister, and of these elsewhere we have proved that they too are sometimes sent. Hence Raphael says he stands before God. For to stand before God signifies not only to be in heaven, which is common to all Angels, but indicates a certain primacy in ministry, says Toletus on Luke chapter 1.
16. “AND WHEN THEY HEARD THESE THINGS, THEY WERE TROUBLED, AND BEING SEIZED WITH FEAR THEY FELL UPON THE GROUND ON THEIR FACE”—from reverence and sacred awe. For, as St. Antony said: “Fear is struck not so much from alarm of mind as often from the sight of great things.”
17. “AND THE ANGEL SAID TO THEM: PEACE BE TO YOU, FEAR NOT.”—Hence the Fathers teach that it is a sign of an angelic apparition if first horror is struck, then consolation and gladness are brought; for the demon does the contrary. Hear Bede on Luke chapter 1: “As it is,” he says, “of human frailty to be troubled by the sight of a spiritual creature, so it is of angelic kindness to soothe at once with gentle words mortals afraid at his appearance; but on the contrary it is of demoniac fierceness always to shake with greater horror those whom they perceive to be terrified by their presence.” And St. Antony, as St. Athanasius testifies in his Life: “When a good Angel,” he says, “appears to good men, even if at the beginning he casts fear by his unaccustomed sight, in the end he brings consolation and tranquillity of mind. The sight of the Angels is lovable and tranquil; for they do not strive, nor cry out, nor does anyone hear their voice. But silently and gently hastening, they pour joy, exultation, confidence into the breast, since with them is the Lord, who is the fountain and origin of gladness. Then our mind, not troubled but gentle and placid, is irradiated by the light of the Angels; then the soul, burning with eagerness for heavenly rewards, would, if it could, break down the dwelling of the human body and, relieved of its members, depart quickly to heaven with those whom it sees; so great is their kindness that if anyone, according to the condition of human frailty, has been terrified by their splendour, they at once remove all fear from his heart.” Then of appearing demons he gives these contrary signs: “But the faces of the worst are fierce, their sounds horrid, their thoughts foul, with the applause and movements of undisciplined youths or robbers, from which fear of soul and stupor of the senses are at once struck; hatred of Christians, sadness and weariness of monks, remembrance of one’s own, fear of death, desire of wickedness, weariness of virtue, dullness of heart. If therefore after fear conceived by horror joy succeeds, and confidence in God and ineffable charity, let us know that help has come; because security of soul is the sign of the present majesty.”
19. “I SEEMED INDEED TO EAT WITH YOU.”—In truth Raphael did not eat; because eating is a vital action, by which the soul vitally conveys the food chewed in the mouth down into the stomach, where it is digested. But Raphael, since he did not vitally inform the assumed body, and did not convey the food into it vitally, but threw the food into it as into a kind of sack, and then dissolved it into vapour and air.
“BUT I USE AN INVISIBLE MEAT AND DRINK,” etc.—Namely God, and the vision and enjoyment of God, is the food of the Angels, by which they are delighted and blessed continually.
20. “AND PUBLISH ALL HIS WONDERFUL WORKS.”—The Greek has: Write all that has been done in a book; whence it is clear that Tobias, obeying Raphael, wrote this history, and is the author of this book; as the Greek has in the following chapter, verse 1. The Hebrew has more fully: Now therefore, he says, write for yourselves all these words in a book, and it shall be for a testimony (between you and your God all the days of your life). And let this word be for a sign and a testimony to every generation and generation. And do you bless the Lord, and confess the memory of his holiness. And now let me go, and I will return to God who sent me to you.
21. “AND WHEN HE HAD SAID THESE THINGS, HE WAS TAKEN FROM THEIR SIGHT,”—by dismissing the body assumed by himself, and dissolving it by rarefaction into the air or vapour from which, condensed, he had formed it, as the Scholastics teach with St. Thomas, part 1, question 51.