Lawful obedience. Was it not wrong of Tobias to continue to bury the dead after Sennacherib had forbidden it? No, it was rather Sennacherib who did wrong in ordering the dead bodies to be left unburied, for God had commanded, writing it on men’s hearts, that the bodies of the dead should be treated reverently, and buried.
Application. Dear children, none of you would wish to suffer eternally, to be shut out for ever from the presence of God, and banished from heaven. Lay to heart, therefore, the teaching and holy exhortations which you receive, obey God’s grace, avoid sin, and do heartfelt penance for the sins you have heretofore committed.
Do you think any one will ever be able to say of you: “He has from his youth up observed the commandments of God, and avoided the society of the wicked”?
Do you possess any ill-gotten goods? Have you ever taken anything, even a trifle such as a picture, a pen, or an apple, from any one? Give it back at once, or if you no longer possess it, make compensation for it. Do you ever take things from your parents’ stores? What a shame for a child to steal from his own parents!
Even you could practise many works of mercy. Do you look after your sick companions? Do you pray for the holy souls? You could prevent many a sin by gently appealing to the consciences of your comrades, or brothers and sisters, showing them what they ought to do.
Chapter LXVIII.
PARTING ADVICE OF TOBIAS TO HIS SON.— DEPARTURE OF YOUNG TOBIAS.
[Tob. 4—9]
TOBIAS, seeing himself surrounded by so many miseries, thought he could not live much longer. He, therefore, called his son and said : “My son, when God shall take my soul, thou shalt bury my body; and thou shalt honour thy mother all the days of her life; for thou must be mindful what and how great perils she has suffered[1] for thee. And when she also shall have ended the time of her life, bury her by me.
- ↑ She has suffered. Peril to life and health. A child comes helpless into the world, and for many years requires much care on the part of its mother. A mother has to endure much for the sake of her children: pain, sleepless nights, anxiety, care, labour and fatigue.
