{"id":735,"date":"2015-06-04T13:09:09","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T18:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=735"},"modified":"2015-06-19T13:12:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T18:12:28","slug":"what-tobiah-had-that-seven-others-didnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=735","title":{"rendered":"What Tobiah Had That Seven Others Didn’t"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 9th<\/sup> Week of Ordinary Time<\/h2>\n

Tob 6: 10-11, 7: 1bcde, 9-17, 8: 4-9a; Mk 12: 28-34<\/h2>\n

Deacon Larry Brockman<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

So \u201cTo love him\u2026 and to love your neighbor\u2026is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices\u201d!\u00a0 This is what Jesus found so worthy in this Scribe because it showed that the man understood that a commitment to God must be with the heart, not just with the head.\u00a0 God is looking for something more than compliance, even lavish compliance.<\/p>\n

Do we have burnt offerings and altar sacrifices today that turn God off?\u00a0 Maybe not literally; but how about this:\u00a0 Some attend Mass every Sunday, but they leave early and race out of the parking lot to get to the Sunday special before the crowd arrives.\u00a0 Other folks can give their fair share in the collection by all reasonable standards of measure, but they ignore a grieving or disaster stricken co-worker or neighbor.\u00a0 Still others can smile and compliment the priest on his great message every Sunday, but forget the message the moment they return to their regular weekly routine.\u00a0 God is looking into our hearts continually, looking to find who we really are, not who we think we are.\u00a0 And our actions speak louder than our words and our wallets.<\/p>\n

It seems to me that the story in Tobit kind of reinforces what God is looking for.\u00a0 First of all, the story in the Book of Tobit is one of the most engaging and fascinating tales in the Bible.\u00a0 It grieves me that our selection has left out the part about the fish.\u00a0 Yet I am confident that just telling you that much will get some of you interested in reading the whole story.<\/p>\n

From the selection we do have this morning, something is really clear.\u00a0 Sarah must have been an unusually attractive woman.\u00a0 Seven other men tried to marry Sarah.\u00a0 All met a disastrous end and died on their wedding night.\u00a0 One would think that after the second husband\u2019s demise, the third through 7th<\/sup> suitors would have learned something; but apparently not.<\/p>\n

Now, all 7 were entitled to marry her legally.\u00a0 This is clear from the description of how meticulous her father Raguel was in the rest of the book.\u00a0 Raguel would have followed the customs of the Jewish culture to the letter.\u00a0 Each one of the seven former husbands would have followed the required law as well.\u00a0 But something was amiss in their motivation.\u00a0 Whether it was lust over Sarah\u2019s beauty or Raguel\u2019s riches, we don\u2019t know, but they were preoccupied with themselves and their own will.\u00a0 Clearly, the Lord intended Sarah for someone else.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, something really stood out about Tobiah.\u00a0 Tobiah met all the legal requirements to the letter as well.\u00a0 But Tobiah was, first and foremost, following the wishes of his father, and he trusted in the Angel, God\u2019s messenger, for guidance.<\/p>\n

Following the wishes of the Father; trusting in the subtle guidance of a guardian angel- does that sound familiar?<\/p>\n

Not only that, Tobiah\u2019s mental attitude was different.\u00a0 His first priority after entering the bridal suite was to offer a prayer to God.\u00a0 And what a beautiful prayer it was as well.\u00a0 He blesses and praises God; and then asks for a blessing from God for a long and fruitful marriage according to God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

Loving God and our neighbor is a matter of the heart.\u00a0 When we come to Mass; we should come eager to participate.\u00a0 When we give; we should give of our time, talent, and treasure in ways that help us in our continual conversion of the heart; and when we hear the word of God, we should do our best to make it live in us.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a tall order for all of us, to love God and our neighbor that way.\u00a0 In involves accepting God\u2019s will and trusting in Him as we go along.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the Scribe understood.\u00a0 It\u2019s what Tobiah put into practice.\u00a0 And it is our challenge this morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 9th Week of Ordinary Time Tob 6: 10-11, 7: 1bcde, 9-17, 8: 4-9a; Mk 12: 28-34 Deacon Larry Brockman   So \u201cTo love him\u2026 and to love your neighbor\u2026is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices\u201d!\u00a0 This is what Jesus found so worthy in this Scribe because it showed that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[349],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":736,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions\/736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}