Reading and meditation on the Word of God on Friday of the 9th Week in Ordinary Time
June 4, 2021
Reading is delivered by Irene Asterina and meditation delivered by Erik Stedy, from the Church of Santo Yohanes Bosco in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The reading is taken from the book of Tobit (11: 5-17)
Anna sat watching the road by which her son was to come.
When she saw him coming, she exclaimed to his father,
“Tobit, your son is coming, and the man who traveled with him!”
Raphael said to Tobiah before he reached his father:
“I am certain that his eyes will be opened.
Smear the fish gall on them.
This medicine will make the cataracts shrink and peel off from his eyes;
then your father will again be able to see the light of day.”
Then Anna ran up to her son, threw her arms around him,
and said to him,
“Now that I have seen you again, son, I am ready to die!”
And she sobbed aloud.
Tobit got up and stumbled out through the courtyard gate.
Tobiah went up to him with the fish gall in his hand,
and holding him firmly, blew into his eyes.
“Courage, father,” he said.
Next he smeared the medicine on his eyes, and it made them smart.
Then, beginning at the corners of Tobit’s eyes,
Tobiah used both hands to peel off the cataracts.
When Tobit saw his son, he threw his arms around him and wept.
He exclaimed, “I can see you, son, the light of my eyes!”
Then he said:
“Blessed be God,
and praised be his great name,
and blessed be all his holy angels.
May his holy name be praised
throughout all the ages,
Because it was he who scourged me,
and it is he who has had mercy on me.
Behold, I now see my son Tobiah!”Then Tobit went back in, rejoicing and praising God with full voice
for everything that had happened.
Tobiah told his father that
the Lord God had granted him a successful journey;
that he had brought back the money;
and that he had married Raguel’s daughter Sarah,
who would arrive shortly,
for she was approaching the gate of Nineveh.
Tobit and Anna rejoiced
and went out to the gate of Nineveh
to meet their daughter-in-law.
When the people of Nineveh saw Tobit walking along briskly,
with no one leading him by the hand, they were amazed.
Before them all Tobit proclaimed
how God had mercifully restored sight to his eyes.
When Tobit reached Sarah, the wife of his son Tobiah,
he greeted her: “Welcome, my daughter!
Blessed be your God for bringing you to us, daughter!
Blessed is your father, and blessed is my son Tobiah,
and blessed are you, daughter!
Welcome to your home with blessing and joy.
Come in, daughter!”
That day there was joy for all the Jews who lived in Nineveh.
The Word of the Lord.
The theme for our meditation today is: Archangel Raphael and Family. In recent days the first reading of the Church’s liturgy has been on Tobit and his family who were so intimate with the Archangel Raphael. This Archangel was always helping Tobit and his family in their problems and difficulties.
Archangel Raphael is known as the great healer. Tobit who was blind and eventually his miraculous recovery was told in today’s first reading. The intervention of the Archangel Raphael, the kindness that his son Tobia received after his marriage with Sarah, the medicine for his sickness and the return of the child to his home and family, were all the elements that helped Tobit’s recovery.
This story highlights two fundamental elements that can help anyone’s healing, namely family members and home. There was a 20-year-old girl who shared a story how she managed to recover from the Covid-19 attack. The virus has forced her to be hospitalized. She has surrendered everything and especially her safety. The support system and medical treatment were really working as best as they could to help regain her recovery. All managed to make her body strong so she was able to fight the virus. Finally she get full recovery and her health now regains. God has indeed used the family members and the support system to heal her.
God had presented Jesus Christ to belong to the King David’s family and, therefore, various healings, restorations, and renewals made happened in all David’s descendants that expelled hardness of heart, blindness and ignorance. If there are still people who are blind or intend to go against of what Jesus Christ has offered as the good news for the salvation of the world, there is still hope that their hardness of heart will be healed someday. They must open themselves for the Lord to heal them.
Today we can learn something that is very useful, namely God through his Archangel Rafael helping our families and communities. The heavenly power can heal our family members from their sickness both body and soul. Our homes and family atmosphere are indeed medicines that can heal us and also comfort us.
However, we need also to admit that our respective families or communities should still bear certain illness and suffering caused by their own members or by some situations. They might have brought some problems to make life together become difficult. But we should not deny our strong support system basically comprised of family and community. Let us go in and stay there with the Archangel Rafael and the Lord Jesus, that our life may be renewed again.
Let’s pray. In the name of the Father… O glorious and marvelous Lord, look on us and bless each of us who are bound and united with our families or communities, so that each of us becomes a blessing to the other. Hail Mary full of grace … In the name of the Father …