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Context No. 109 of 4322 · Tobit

Context · Reflection

Tobit 11:14-19: in context

14He wept, and said, “Blessed are you, O God, and blessed is your name forever! Blessed are all your holy angels! 15For you scourged, and had mercy on me. Behold, I see my son Tobias.” And his son went in rejoicing, and told his father the great things that had happened to him in Media. 16Tobit went out to meet his daughter-in-law at the gate of Nineveh, rejoicing and blessing God. Those who saw him go marveled, because he had received his sight. 17Tobit gave thanks before them, because God had shown mercy on him. When Tobit came near to Sarah his daughter-in-law, he blessed her, saying, “Welcome, daughter! Blessed is God who has brought you to us, and blessed are your father and your mother.” And there was joy among all his kindred who were at Nineveh. 18Achiacharus and Nasbas his brother’s son came. 19Tobias’ wedding feast was kept seven days with great gladness.

Tobit is a story kept in the Catholic Bible about a devout Israelite deported to Nineveh, who goes blind, and a young woman named Sarah whose seven husbands have each died on the wedding night. Tobit's son Tobias travels to collect a debt, accompanied by a guide who is the angel Raphael in disguise. He marries Sarah, and comes home with a remedy for his father's eyes. This passage is the homecoming.

The blindness is cured with a fish gall applied to the eyes, a folk remedy the angel prescribed, and the first thing Tobit does with his sight is bless God. The line he says is worth the whole passage: you scourged me, and you had mercy on me, behold, I see my son Tobias. He does not edit out the first half. The affliction and the mercy are named in one breath, to the same person.

Then he walks out to the gate of Nineveh to meet his daughter-in-law, and the neighbors are astonished to see him walking without help. He blesses Sarah at the gate and calls her welcome, daughter. A woman whose story until now had been seven funerals is greeted publicly, by name, by a father-in-law who can see her. Who is arriving in my life carrying a history that everybody knows, and would I walk out to the gate to meet them by name?

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