Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
Today's first reading says a little about Tobiah's journey and mostly focuses on his marriage to Sarah, and leaves out a few points that are important to the story.
It would have been too long to read everything, but I can summarize.
Leaving Nineveh, Tobiah, and Raphael apparently walked south along the ancient highway that follows the Tigris River because the first night, they camped by it.
Tobiah went down to the river to wash his feet, which were probably dirty from the road, and he was surprised by a large fish that tried to eat his foot.
Raphael told him to grab the fish, and he did, pulling it out of the river, and then Raphael got him to save the gall, the heart, and the liver of the fish, which he said would prove useful for healing.
He explained that the heart and liver could be burned to drive away a demon, while the gall would cure blindness caused by white scales, or as the lectionary says, cataracts.
So when this alarming event had been faced with courage and strength by Tobiah, it proved to be the providential key to success in his whole journey.
They continued on their way, and it probably took them the better part of a month to reach Ecbatana.
There they stayed with Raguel, and Raphael got Tobiah to marry Saria.
Since their husbands had died without having children, the Law of Moses required the closest kinsmen to marry the widow and have children for them.
So Tobiah is fulfilling a specific religious duty by marrying her, besides the general commandment to mankind to be fertile and multiply.
This duty is a strong motive for him, but Raphael also told him that the girl is wise, courageous, and very beautiful.
The angel also reminded him that his father had ordered him to marry a woman from his own ancestral family.
And Raguel would love to see his daughter happily married, but he'd be remiss if he didn't warn Tobiah about what happened to the seven men who preceded him.
But Raphael, who is going by Azariah, has already told Tobiah how to get rid of the demon.
First, he must put the heart and liver on a brazier for incense.
The smoke will drive the demon away.
Then he must pray with Sarah before he consummates the marriage.
This is probably to keep the demon from being able to come back.
Demons get power to hurt us from our sins.
By ensuring through prayer that their intentions are pure, Tobiah and Saria give the demon no way to get back into their life.
Some interpreters think the demon was able to kill Saria's former husbands because their intentions were lustful rather than pure.
The first night, all they do is pray and go to sleep.
According to the Vulgate, they abstain from consummating the marriage for the first three nights.
Raguel, meanwhile, fears the worst.
He's seen it all before.
And so when the couple is finally alone in the bedroom, he has his servants dig a grave.
If Tobiah dies, he'll bury him during the night so that word of the eighth dead husband won't get out.
Later, he sends a maid to check on them.
And when she reports that the couple is sleeping peacefully, he praises God and has the grave filled in before morning, before Tobiah sees it.
The next day, Raguel begins a celebration that will last a fortnight.
He wants the usual marriage celebration would last a week, but Raguel wants to double it because finally, after seven dead husbands, Saria is happy. Finally, his daughter is happily married.
Because Tobiah can't continue the journey during this period, he sends Raphael to pick up the money and bring it back.
He's afraid that his father and mother in Nineveh will worry that something has happened to him if the trip takes too long.
And in fact, his mother really does worry that her son hasn't come back because he's dead.
When Raphael returns with the money, they depart with Sarah and half her inheritance.
They'll get the other half when her parents die.
Tomorrow we'll hear about their arrival in Nineveh, but now let's consider some of the spiritual meaning of these events.
Saint Bede explains that the fish that wanted to devour Tobiah represents the ancient devourer of the human race, that is, the devil.
When the latter desired the death of humanity in our Redeemer, he was caught by the power of the divinity.
The Lord gutted the fish when he exposed more extensively to his saints the devil's wickedness and tore from their flesh, as it were, the secrets of his snares.
And the Lord, as he is about to receive the Church from the Gentiles as his bride, bids it at first betrothal in the person of each individual believer to renounce Satan and all his works and all his pomps, and then confess its faith in the Holy Trinity for the remission of sins, which is the significance of burning up with live coals the innermost entrails of the fish.
So as in other cases, these entrails have power not so much in themselves, but for what they represent, for what they prefigure.
As I said yesterday, Tobiah prefigures Christ, particularly as man and bridegroom of the Church.
St. Bede explains the significance of two other persons.
Raguel stands for the people of the Gentiles, whom the Lord deigned to visit through his preachers in order to take himself a bride from their stock, that is, to make of the Gentiles a church for himself.
Also, Sarah's name befits the Church because of Sarah, the patriarch Abraham's wife, who bore Isaac, the son of the promise, that is, the first of the free people of the Church.
So Sarah's son represents the elect.
When Raphael was assuring Tobiah that he could safely marry Sarah, he said to him, do not be afraid, for she was set apart for you before the world existed.
You will save her, and she will go with you.
All of this speaks to the Church.
St. Paul writes to Timothy that God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our own works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.
And he also tells the Ephesians that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And as Sarah went with Tobiah, so we will go with him, that where he is, we may also be.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.

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