Fear Not 220

Brethren in the Lord, gather ye now as the sun declines and hear the voice of the angel through the sacred page of Tobit. For the holy Raphael, messenger of the Most High, speaks unto young Tobias amid the perils of the journey and the dread espousal: '...do not be afraid' (Tobit 6:18). In the days when Israel wept in exile, the righteous Tobit sent his son to reclaim a debt in far Media. Along the Tigris the youth caught the great fish whose liver and heart, burned with incense, would drive away the demon Asmodeus who had slain seven husbands of the fair Sarah. The angel commands courage, not rashness, but faith that casts out fear through obedience and prayer. Origen of old taught that the fish prefigures the incarnate Word whose passion consumes the powers of darkness; the smoke ascending is the acceptable oblation of the Church’s fasts and vigils. St. John Chrysostom, golden-mouthed, reminds us that marriage itself is a battleground where the enemy seeks to sow discord, yet the angel’s words echo still: fear not, for the Lord joins the couple and the demon flees before chastity and almsgiving. In the Catena of the Fathers we read how Tobias’s obedience prefigures the new Tobias, Christ Himself, who descends into the waters of Jordan and binds the strong man. Augustine likewise declares that perfect love casts out fear, for the heart fixed on the eternal Jerusalem trembles neither at death nor at the assaults of the evil one. Therefore, beloved, when the night presses and the sevenfold foe surrounds your household, burn upon the altar of your soul the incense of psalmody and mercy. Let the liver of continence and the heart of prayer rise as sweet savor. The same Raphael who guided Tobias guides the Church; the same voice that stilled the demon stills the storm within. Fear not, for He who has begun a good work will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. Thus the Early Fathers expound the mystery, that we, like Tobias, may return in joy bearing the medicine of immortality. #FearNot220 #FearNotUNPLUGGED #042of220 #Catholic