In yesterday's reading from the Book of Tobit, we heard how he took a serious risk by burying the body of a murdered Jew. He did this after sunset so as not to be seen. When he finished, he washed himself and went to sleep. Fetching a corpse had rendered him ritually impure, so to keep from defiling his house, he sleeps outside. You might expect him to be rewarded by God for what he had done, but instead, his concern for the law leads to blindness. Of course, God does have his good in mind, but at least at a superficial level, it seems almost as though he's been punished for doing good. Bird droppings fall into his eyes and cause an infection that doctors are unable to cure. Their treatments only make him worse until he becomes totally blind. His previous trial lasted less than 40 days, but this one lasts some four years. Because he's blind, he's unable to work. For the first two years, his nephew Ahikar supports him, but then he moves away, and the family falls into poverty.
His wife, Anna, whose name means grace, supports the family by weaving cloth, but she can't earn as much as Tobit used to. There are no more fine meals like the one Tobit sat down during yesterday's reading. Meat is a luxury they can't afford, and it's an unbelievable treat when Anna's employers give her a goat one winter day. Through all of this, Tobit has remained faithful. The Vulgate includes his explanation of what had happened. The Lord permitted this trial to before him in order that an example might be given to posterity of his patience, like that of Holy Joe. Since from his infancy, he had always feared God and kept his commandments. He was not turned against God by sorrow for the scourge of blindness that had stricken him. Rather, he remained steadfast in the fear of God, giving thanks to God for the days of his life. Just as kings mocked blessed Job, so too, Tobit's relatives and acquaintances ridiculed his life, saying, where is your hope on behalf of which you gave alms and buried the dead? So here, it almost seems as if our Alleluia verse is alluding to this one. It says that we must have our hearts enlightened to know the hope that belongs to our call.
Tobit's relatives and acquaintances said to him, where is your hope on behalf of which you gave alms and buried the dead? Tobit knew what his hope was, so he corrected them, saying, do not speak that way, for we are the children of saints, and we look forward to that life, which God will give to those who never fail to keep faith with him.
This last expression, we are children of saints, calls us to imitate the examples of our saintly forebears. Tobit, like the Jews to whom he spoke, was a child of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by natural descent, probably also by other holy people who are less famous. We are children of Abraham by faith, and spiritual children also of those saints whose particular spirituality we follow, like Saint Francis or Saint Maximilian. We need to keep this in mind so as not to be unworthy children. Tobit did, and so was unyielding in observing God's law, even though he was close to the breaking point. When Anna came home with the goat, he thought that she had broken.
Unable to take years of poverty after their previous comfortable life, she had stolen a goat.
Perhaps she thought that that would console him in his great suffering. It was understandable that Tobit wouldn't have a stolen animal in his house, and demanded that she return it.
When she said it wasn't stolen, he thought she was just lying, and so they fell to arguing.
And in arguing, you look for anything you can throw at the other person, and so she rebukes him, much as the other relatives had done. And so that's it. Tobit can't take it anymore. Now even his wife is against him. He really has nothing left and breaks down in tears.
In anguish, he turns to God in prayers we'll hear in tomorrow's reading.
Saint Bede explains the mystical meaning of these events, another reason why Tobit was blind.
He says, Tobit's being blinded denotes, as the apostle says, that blindness has come on a part of Israel. He was blinded while he slept and not while he worked, because one who neglects to watch and stand firm in the faith, and act powerfully, and be strengthened spiritually, lies down and sleeps from fatigue. The apostle's saying fits him well.
Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you.
So though Tobit is, in reality, a holy Jew, at times he also represents those Jews who, though they were part of a holy people, though they were children of saints, did not live holy lives, and such were those who failed to believe in the Messiah. One thing that I haven't mentioned, but that will come into the story tomorrow or the day after, is that Tobit left a large sum of money on deposit in a distant city. In this, Saint Bede sees the Jewish scriptures of the Old Testament, which the Jews have, in a way, deposited with us Gentiles, who were far off, as the apostle says, but which will return to them as a treasure when they come to recognize Christ in the scriptures.
For Israel will remain blind until the full number of the Gentiles comes in, and then all Israel will be saved. So the end of Tobit's story, when he is healed of blindness and receives the treasure he had deposited far off, prefigures the conversion of the Jews toward the end of time. 
Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.

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