I really love the book of Tobit.
If you ever get an opportunity, read this book in Scripture, because it’s a
really heartwarming story. It’s an ancient episode of Touched by an
Angel.
The old man Tobit is a just and
upright man, but he, along with the rest of Israel are living in exile during
the Babylonian occupation. During this period, all of his countrymen living
around him have forsaken worship of the Lord, and have turned even further to
idolatry. Turning to idolatry is why God sent them into exile in the first
place. Tobit, though stays true to the covenant, even though he’s mocked by
everyone for doing it.
Tobit then undergoes a personal
tragedy. While he’s doing an act of mercy by burying a dead man who had been
abandoned in the road, he goes blind.
Now he has to send his only son,
the young boy Tobiah, on a dangerous journey to find their kinsmen, somewhere in
the Babylonian empire, and get help.
But before Tobit does this, he
prays. Tobit prays. Tobit prays for his son’s safety. Now think of this for a
minute. Put yourself in Tobit’s shoes. You’re helpless. You can’t provide for
your family in a foreign country that’s hostile to you. And now you have to send
your only child, a teenage boy, to look for your relatives, somewhere in this
vast empire.
How would you pray? Tobit didn’t
just pray. Tobit poured his heart out to God. Tobit begged God for help.
And God heard his prayer, and sent
the archangel Raphael, disguised as one of Tobit’s kinsmen, to act as a guide
for the boy. And in the course of their travels they find Tobit’s kinsmen,
Raphael rescues a young maiden, Sarah, from being tormented by a demon, he
brings young Tobiah and Sarah together and they get married, and he even finds a
cure for Tobit’s blindness.
The lesson here is this: God
hears the prayers of those who keep his covenant.
Once Jesus was asked to respond to
the question, “Which is the greatest commandment?’ He says the greatest
commandment is, “Hear O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone!
Therefore you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This statement in
Hebrew theology is called the Shema. It’s the heart of the Mosaic law.
But then Jesus goes on to say,
“The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The
Ten Commandments are rooted in these two commandments; loving God with all our
heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbor as
ourselves.
God responds to Tobit because he
kept both of these great commandments. First, he kept God’s covenant even when
it was difficult and life threatening to keep God’s covenant. And he also
loved his neighbor as himself by the charitable acts that he preformed. And he
poured his heart out to God in prayer.
If we remain true to God, God will
remain true to us. If we are single hearted for the Lord, and treat others with
a charitable heart, then God will hear us in our need even in the midst of a
pagan empire.
It is my prayer for us all today,
that we become as single hearted for God as Tobit was.
And blessed be God
forever,
Father Michael Anthony
Sisco
Visitor, Confraternity of
Penitents
....
Taken from: http://www.penitents.org/sisco_tobit.htm
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