The first reading for mass from the book of Tobit today, shows our universal human tendencies to make a judgement too quickly sometimes. The story begins with Tobit making a thoughtless mistake by sleeping against the wall of the courtyard where the birds congregated. What was he thinking? It must have been hot inside and it was cooler outdoors, because Tobit tells us that his head was uncovered because of the heat. That’s how the bird droppings got in his eyes. We can relate to this. How many of us have received an injury by not paying close attention to what we were doing and then later, it got infected? A tiny staph infection in a cut has been known to kill people though. However, in Tobit’s case he went blind.
It seems that his wife went to work to support the family. Perhaps Tobit’s self esteem had been damaged because of his blindness, being unemployed and having to depend on his wife for his living. Perhaps he was depressed, but he didn’t seem to be aware of his emotional state when his wife Anna brought the goat home. Tobit got upset when he saw Anna’s goat and accused her of stealing it. She insisted that wasn’t true, that she had been given the goat as a gift but Tobit just wouldn’t believe her. Tobit said “I became flushed with anger against her over this”.
How many times have we done this ourselves? We are not in a good mood and don’t realize it, when we encounter a new situation in our lives and our first reaction is a negative one? We sometimes judge people too quickly based on circumstantial evidence. We didn’t really come upon a negative situation though. We brought our own emotions to the situation. The situation did not cause our reactions, our own state of mind interpreted the situation in a negative light.
This attitude is so prevalent in our society too. It seems to be an instinctive human reaction to things when we do not feel good about ourselves, or we are upset about something else unrelated to the new event we have encountered. Events do not cause our emotions. We cause our emotions. That is a tough concept to grasp. We can not control other people or the events that happen in our lives, but we can control how we respond to them.
Tobit’s wife was justified in getting upset with him for his uncharitable behavior when she said “Where are your acts of charity? Where are your righteous deeds? These things are known about you!” Perhaps everyone around Tobit knew his outlook on life was not very positive anymore.
The psalm today seems fitting for Anna’s situation when it says “They are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord. There hearts are steady, they will not be afraid; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.”
What does the first reading and the psalm have to do with the Gospel? Not very much at first glance.
The Pharisees and Herodians set a trap for Jesus by asking him if they should pay taxes to the emperor or not. When they bring him a coin Jesus asks them who does the coin belong to? When they responded it was the emperor’s, Jesus told them to “give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s”.
Anna’s goat belonged to Anna because her employer gave it to her as part of her pay. Tobit however, was not glorifying God in his conduct toward his wife at the moment. His behavior was also a poor reflection of his faith to the rest of the community he lived in. People forgot about the righteous deeds he had done in the past because of the way he was currently treating other people.
This is something to really give some thought to today. The things we give to God are not just acts of charity and going to church on Sunday. We glorify God by how we act and the way we treat one another the rest of the week too.
Maybe we should try to curb any irritability that crops up today and examine why we are feeling that way. Did we leave for work late and that is why everyone else seems to be in our way, when we are rushing to get to work on time? A moment of self control and an examination of our conscience might help to prevent a negative situation from happening and this gives glory to God. Curbing the negative allows room for the good to come into our world and helps to bring about the kingdom of God.
