Tobit — Chapter 2

CUM ESSET DIES FESTUS DOMINI — The feast was Pentecost, as the Hebrew and Greek specify. On this feast especially one must devote oneself to works of charity, for these are the works of the Holy Spirit whose feast is celebrated at Pentecost (Acts 2:1ff.). Tobias sent his son to invite from his kinspeople some who feared God to eat with them.

ET DUM SOL OCCUBUISSET CAUTE SEPELIRET EUM — Tobias buried the dead body secretly after sunset, lest anyone denounce him to the king and he face mortal danger as had happened in ch. 1:22. Ambrose (De Tobia 1): \"Forbidden by an edict, he was more inflamed than deterred, lest he seem to abandon the duty of piety out of fear of death; the price of mercy was the penalty of death.\" Lapide gives an extended defense of the duty of burial: it is the last office of mercy, a debt to nature, an honor to the deceased, a consolation to relatives, and expresses faith in the resurrection; the bodies of the faithful must be buried to protest faith and hope in the resurrection; through burial great honor is paid to the virtue of saints and martyrs.

CONTIGIT AUTEM UT QUADAM DIE FATIGATUS A SEPULTURA...JACTASSET SE JUXTA PARIETEM ET OBDORMISSET — Worn out from burial work, Tobias threw himself down beside the wall of the courtyard to sleep; according to the Hebrew, he slept outside because he was ritually unclean from contact with the corpse (Num. 19:11-16), without entering the house, lying with open eyes under the open sky where swallows nested.

ET EX NIDO HIRUNDINUM DORMIENTI ILLI CALIDA STERCORA INCIDERENT SUPER OCULOS EJUS, FIERETQUE CAECUS — Warm dung fell from the swallows' nest onto Tobias's eyes, blinding him, since swallow dung is dry, warm, and caustic and so dries out the humors of the eyes. Lapide prefers the view of Dionysius and Valesius that Tobias was not totally blinded but had only an albugo (membrane, i.e., a cataract) drawn over his eyes, which surgeons later removed with a needle and restored his sight. This is confirmed by ch. 11:14-15. Swallow chicks blinded among their parents' droppings have their sight restored by the herb celandine (Tertullian; Pliny VIII.27 and XXV.8). Tropologically, Peter Damian (Ep. 12): \"What do the lightly flitting swallows signify but the light ways of flatterers and smooth talkers, who, while they soothe with the sweetness of their fawning, blind the interior eyes of those who listen?\"

HANC AUTEM TENTATIONEM IDEO PERMISIT DOMINUS EVENIRE ILLI UT POSTERIS DARETUR EXEMPLUM PATIENTIAE EJUS SICUT ET SANCTI JOB — God permitted this trial so that posterity might have a model of patience in Tobias just as in holy Job. Whatever evil befalls any faithful man comes from God's certain foreknowledge and will, either to purge him of vices, perfect him in virtue and patience, and thereby increase his merits and heavenly rewards. Augustine (Serm. 226 De Temp.): \"He contracted the calamity of blindness so that he might receive the Angel as his physician.\" Chrysostom (Hom. 4 ad Pop.) enumerates ten reasons why God permits the saints to suffer.

NON EST CONTRISTATUS CONTRA DEUM — Tobias did not murmur against God or complain, saying: \"Lord, why did you permit me to be blinded by swallow dung in the very act of burying the dead?\" His blindness from God he bore with equanimity, knowing it sent by just reason; but he was deeply pained by his wife's calumny, which was not from reason but from unjust passion, and all the more because God's offense grieved him more than his own injury. Ambrose (De Tobia 2): \"Worn out by so holy a service, the prophet, while resting beside the wall of the court with dung falling from a sparrows' nest, contracted blindness with cataract; yet he did not sigh in complaint, nor say: Is this the reward of my toils? He grieved more at being prevented from his services than at the loss of his eyes; he regarded blindness not as a punishment but as an impediment.\"

SED IMMOBILIS IN DEI TIMORE PERMANSIT, AGENS GRATIAS DEO OMNIBUS DIEBUS VITAE SUAE — This is the act of heroic patience, the state of a holy and perfect man, who despising all earthly things both adverse and prosperous dwells in heaven with his mind and already begins to foretaste the heavenly beatitude. Just as Job, afflicted on every side, said (Job 1:21): \"The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.\" In all adversities therefore give thanks to God, and you shall be holy and even blessed. The author of Questions on Both Testaments (Ps.-Augustine, Q. 119): \"How praiseworthy is holy Tobias, whose devotion was neither diminished by captivity nor persuaded by the loss of his eyes to cease blessing God, nor turned by the exhaustion of his substance from the way of justice and truth. Necessity proves the just man. To preserve equity in poverty is true and perfect justice.\"

NAM SICUT BEATO JOB INSULTABANT REGES — Job's three friends Eliphaz, Baldad, and Sophar were kings, i.e., rulers and princes of certain towns, who came to console him but instead brought desolation, accusing him of grave crimes as if God were punishing him so harshly for them. As Job rebukes them in chs. 6, 13, 16, 19 — \"Will you still mislead with your speeches?\" (Job 13:7) — and God in ch. 42:7 thundered against them from heaven: \"My wrath is kindled against you, because you have not spoken rightly of me, as my servant Job has.\" A detailed comparison of Job and Tobias follows, noting five parallels: (1) both were lavish in almsgiving and works of mercy; (2) both bore adversity, poverty, blindness, and disease with constant patience and even thanksgiving; (3) both sustained their suffering by hope of eternal life; (4) both were mocked by friends and wives; (5) God restored both to all their former prosperity.

UBI EST SPES TUA? — The taunters ask rhetorically: \"Your hope has proved false and vain; you hoped that through almsgiving you would obtain all prosperity from God, yet God blinded you by swallow dung encountered while burying the dead. What is more unhappy and miserable than one deprived of sight?\"

FILII SANCTORUM SUMUS ET VITAM ILLAM EXSPECTAMUS QUAM DEUS DATURUS EST HIS QUI FIDEM SUAM NUNQUAM MUTANT AB EO — Tobias answers his mockers fittingly: \"My hope is not for present goods but for future ones. I hope that after this life God will give a blessed and eternal life to those who remain steadfast in faith and hope through all adversities.\" This same hope of another and happier life sustained the seven Maccabee brothers so that they surmounted and even contemned the frying-pans, racks, and all torments, saying intrepidly to Antiochus: \"You slay us in this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up in the resurrection of eternal life\" (2 Macc. 7:9). Lapide cites St. Francis: \"So great is the glory I await that every pain delights me.\"

UNDE FACTUM EST UT HAEDUM CAPRARUM ACCIPIENS DETULISSET DOMI — Anna brought home a kid goat given as a bonus over her weaving wages. Tobias suspected it might be stolen, having three reasons to doubt: such a goat had never appeared in their household nor been given for weaving wages before; Anna was poor; and Tobias was a most strict lover of justice and most bitter enemy of theft, of the most tender and delicate conscience. Lapide quotes Bernard: \"It is the disposition of good minds to fear guilt even where there is no guilt.\" He parallels St. Sanctulus, who in extreme poverty and hunger feared to set before his laborers bread offered to him lest it might belong to another.

AD HAEC UXOR EJUS IRATA RESPONDIT: MANIFESTE VANA FACTA EST SPES TUA ET ELEEMOSYNAE TUAE MODO APPARUERUNT — Anna replies bitterly: your almsgiving and justice have come to nothing, having led you, me, and the whole household into such poverty, blindness, and distress. Lapide draws the lesson that just as Tobias received curses and even maltreatment from his closest companion for his good deeds, so must the patient man expect new passion from those he has benefited, and in that new passion gain a new and greater crown. Augustine (Serm. 18): \"The one with physical sight was blind in defending the theft; the one physically blind saw in justice. Which was in better light?\" Lapide also narrates the example of St. Saturus who resisted with constancy the demands of the Arian king Huneric even when urged by his own wife and threatened with exile and stripping of goods.