Our first reading today is the beginning of the book of Tobit. This is one of those books that is found in the Catholic Bible, but not in a Protestant one. (Unless it contained the Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical books.) We’ll talk about today’s story in a moment. In the Gospel reading from Mark 12, Jesus tells a parable about a landowner who sends his servants to care for his vineyard. They are all killed. Talk about shooting the messenger!
Tobit is a very interesting character, and a very interesting book. In today’s story, we see Tobit’s son, Tobiah, has found the body of a murdered kinsman in the city. Tobit goes and gets the body and buries it after sunset. This was very un-PC at that place and time. In fact, Tobit had been “hunted down for execution because of this very thing.” He narrowly escaped, but went ahead and did it again, despite being mocked by the neighbors. Why? Because it was the right thing to do.
Ever feel that way? That you, too, were being “hunted down” for doing the right thing? Like upholding the value of every life. Fighting to preserve the family. Speaking the truth in the midst of a culture that holds that truth is whatever anyone says it is. It can, indeed, make us afraid. We want to fit in. We don’t want to not be liked. But at some point, we have to draw a line. Are we going to be unafraid to do what is right? Or are we going to cow-tow to those who wish to push amorality on everyone? Take courage, my friend. Because there’s never a wrong time to do the right thing.
Father, give us the courage to do the right thing, always. Amen.
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