Tobit 11: Homeward Journey
Saturday, November 8, 2025
I love this story and I can never read it enough for it is the tale of healing, fidelity, and joy. It is a story with an ending we all wish for ourselves and our loved ones. It is even a story we might wish for our enemies.
Commentary tells us that this story harbingers the miracles of the New Testament and even prepares us for miracles in our own lives. In this homeward journey, everyone is happy with their new in-laws, cataracts are removed, a family rejoices. The reader senses that all the characters will live happily ever after, and so pushes on toward the end of the tale in delicious anticipation of the revelation of the angel Raphael’s identity. This is the ideal ending to a perfect bed-time story. The loyal but harried young couple meets, overcomes odds, weds and returns home. Goodness comes out of evil and illness – even in exile. Our journey home has its reward.
Today’s first reading at Mass is from Hebrews 13:1-8 and it reminds us that we never know when the stranger beside us may be an angel: Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels. Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you are also in the body. Let marriage be honored among all and the marriage bed be kept undefiled . . . Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never forsake or abandon you’. Thus we may say with confidence: ‘The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?’ Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
When we feel as though the journey behind us has been too arduous, or the journey before us will be too difficult, let us remember how Tobias and Sarah overcame fear to journey home.
When it seems that the present leg of our journey offers no hope and little comfort, let us remember that healing angels accompany us in the guise of fellow travelers.
When we find ourselves distracted in our journey by the many tempting way stations, let us remember that Holy Spirit accompanies us, the Father calls us, and Jesus Christ heals us.
Let us remember, and let us rejoice as we join one another in the journey homeward.
A re-post from October 14, 2011.
Image from: http://namakparay.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html
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