The younger Tobias is the model of a good son. He listened eagerly to his father’s beautiful exhortations, and made this promise: u I will do all these things, father, which thou hast commanded me.” He kept this promise most faithfully, as you will see by what follows. If a child does not receive his parents’ advice willingly, he sins against that obedience which he owes them.
The connexion between the First and Fourth Commandment. Tobias’ exhortation shows us how very important the observance of the Fourth Commandment is for children. Does it not strike you as strange that his first exhortation should be: “Honour thy mother &c.” and that he should only say afterwards: “Have God in thy mind &c. ?” There is a reason for this, because reverence for parents is, so to speak, at the root of religion and of the fear of God. He who does not love and honour his parents, who are his visible benefactors, will not love and honour God, who is his invisible Father and Benefactor. The son who does not observe the Fourth Commandment is ungrateful and irreligious.
Defrauding of wages. Among his other exhortations Tobias said to his son: “If any man has done work for thee, pay him his hire.” This is a duty of justice. He who does not give his promised wages to the labourer, that lives by the work of his hands, commits one of the four sins which cry to heaven for vengeance.
Death is the separation of soul and body. Tobias said to his son: "When God shall take my soul, thou shalt bury my body.” By death the soul is parted from the body, and God calls it before Him to be judged. The body, meanwhile, returns to the earth, until God shall raise it up at the last day, and re-unite it for ever to the soul.
The enemies of our souls are all those things which lead to mortal sin. They who commit grievous sins are enemies not only of God and their neighbour, but also of their own soul; because they rob it of God’s grace, and plunge it into everlasting ruin.
The married state. We learn some good lessons from this history of Tobias. The Angel advised him to enter into the married state. Therefore that state is good and pleasing to God, and persons who intend to marry should not do so without consulting God by earnest prayer. We also learn that some marriages are bad and full of danger, like those of Sara with her previous seven husbands, who had no religion and no fear of God and no pure motives in their action. It is therefore necessary to prepare oneself by prayer and to purify one’s intention by the highest motives, both before and at the beginning of that holy and difficult state. These lessons have double force in the New Testament, where marriage has been raised by our Lord to the dignity of a Sacrament.
