Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Tobias, mocked by his wife, and Sarah by her maidservant, lamenting and praying are heard by God, who therefore sends the holy Raphael to heal them both.
Vulgate Text: Tobias 3:1-25
1. Then Tobias groaned and began to pray with tears, 2. saying: You are just, O Lord, and all Your judgments are just, and all Your ways are mercy, and truth, and judgment. 3. And now, O Lord, be mindful of me, and take not vengeance for my sins; neither remember my offenses, nor those of my parents. 4. Because we did not obey Your precepts, therefore we are delivered to plunder, and captivity, and death, and to be a byword and a reproach among all the nations among which You have scattered us. 5. And now, O Lord, great are Your judgments, because we have not acted according to Your precepts, and have not walked sincerely before You. 6. And now, O Lord, deal with me according to Your will, and command my spirit to be received in peace: for it is better for me to die than to live. 7. On the same day it happened that Sarah, daughter of Raguel, in Rages, a city of the Medes, also heard a reproach from one of her father's maidservants, 8. because she had been given to seven husbands, and a demon named Asmodeus had killed them, as soon as they had gone in to her. 9. When therefore she rebuked the girl for her fault, she answered her, saying: May we never see from you a son or daughter upon the earth, you who murder your husbands. 10. Do you want to kill me too, as you have already killed seven husbands? At this voice she went into an upper room of her house: and for three days and three nights she neither ate nor drank; 11. but persisting in prayer, with tears she besought God to free her from this reproach. 12. Now it happened on the third day, when she was completing her prayer, blessing the Lord, 13. she said: Blessed is Your name, O God of our fathers: who when You have been angry, will show mercy, and in the time of tribulation forgive the sins of those who call upon You. 14. To You, O Lord, I turn my face, to You I direct my eyes. 15. I beg, O Lord, that You free me from the bond of this reproach, or else take me from the earth. 16. You know, O Lord, that I never desired a husband, and I have kept my soul clean from all lust. 17. I never mingled with those who play: nor have I made myself a companion of those who walk in levity. 18. But I consented to receive a husband with Your fear, not with my lust. 19. And either I was unworthy of them, or perhaps they were not worthy of me: because perhaps You have preserved me for another husband. 20. For Your counsel is not in the power of man. 21. But this everyone who worships You holds for certain, that his life, if it be in trial, shall be crowned: and if in tribulation, shall be delivered; and if in correction, it shall be permitted to come to Your mercy. 22. For You do not delight in our destruction: because after a tempest, You make a calm; and after tears and weeping, You pour in joy. 23. May Your name, O God of Israel, be blessed forever. 24. At that time the prayers of both were heard in the sight of the glory of the most high God: 25. and the holy Angel of the Lord, Raphael, was sent to heal them both, whose prayers had been recited at the same time in the sight of the Lord.
Verse 1: Then Tobias Groaned and Began to Pray
1. Then Tobias groaned and began to pray with tears. — In Greek: with groaning and tears; in Hebrew: with great sorrow taken upon him, and even with a certain bodily illness. For grief of the soul creates bodily pain, and sickness of the mind begets sickness of the flesh. For the passion and emotion of the soul spreads itself into the body through sympathy. See here how true is that saying of Ecclesiastes vii, 8: "Calumny troubles the wise man." Behold, blindness did not trouble Tobias, but the calumny of his wife troubled him. For blindness he knew had been sent upon him by God for a just reason; but the calumny he felt was being done to him by his wife not from reason, but from unjust passion, which was therefore a grave sin, and which accordingly greatly afflicted him. For the offense against God his Creator tormented him more than his own personal injury.
He began to pray with tears, — from the inmost feeling of his heart, with devotion and compunction: and thereby he as it were did violence to God, so that He would hear and console him. Hear St. Augustine, sermon 226 On the Times, which is about Tobias: "The prayer of the just man is the key of heaven. The prayer ascends and God's mercy descends. Although the earth is deep and heaven is high, yet God hears the tongue of man, if he has a clean conscience. He speaks with feelings, if our groaning is all we have. The rain of our eyes is enough for His ears; weeping is heard sooner than words." Hear also St. Bernard, On the Manner of Living Well, sermon 10: "Anna, the mother of Samuel, through compunction and tears merited to have a son; moreover she obtained from God the gift of prophecy. David through compunction and tears obtained forgiveness of the murder and adultery he had committed. For thus he heard through the prophet: You shall not die, because the Lord has taken away your sin. Father Tobias through compunction and tears merited to receive the cure of his blindness and consolation in his poverty. For thus the angel Raphael said to him: Joy be to you always; and he added: Be of brave heart, for it is near that you will be cured by God. Also Mary Magdalene through compunction and tears merited to hear from the Lord: Your sins are forgiven you."
Verse 2: All Your Ways Are Mercy, and Truth, and Judgment
2. And all Your ways are mercy, and truth, and judgment. — The ways of God are His ordinances, counsels, decrees, governances, actions, and works. For He uses these as it were as paths, and through them descends to rule creatures and human beings; as if to say: all God's works are mercy, true and just. Mercy, because He succors our thousand miseries with a thousand acts of compassion. Again, because when He punishes our sins, He punishes less than we deserve, and tempers justice with mercy. Likewise He punishes with light penalties in this life, so that by measuring and fearing the most atrocious torments of hell, we may take care to avoid sins. Finally He punishes one, or a few, so that all the rest may learn wisdom from their example.
The same are truth, because they are conformed to the first wisdom and truth; and because He most truly fulfills what He has promised and what He has threatened. For He is Himself most truthful and most constant in His words and deeds. The same are judgment, because they flow from the eternal law which is in the mind of God, and from the first justice and divine judgment, and therefore are most just.
Tropologically, God wills that we imitate Him in these three things. He desires therefore that in all our actions there be a certain "mercy," so that we may help others, or at least ourselves: "truth," so that we act in conformity with nature and reason, in conformity also with our end, and if we have said anything to anyone, that we act in conformity with what we have said: "judgment," so that we give to each what is his due — to God, to our neighbor, to ourselves — and live prudently. So Serarius.
Verse 6: Command My Spirit to Be Received in Peace
6. Command my spirit to be received in peace. — The Greek adds: Because I have heard undeserved reproaches; whence it is clear how deeply the taunts of his wife and others stung the soul of Tobias, so that he wished to die. For he says: "It is better for me to die than to live." For life in constant and great sorrow is not life, but death, indeed worse than death; wherefore right reason dictates that it is then better to die than to live, if indeed it should so please God. So Job, chapter vii, verse 15: "My soul," he says, "has chosen hanging, and my bones death." And Elijah, III Kings chapter xix, verse 4, enduring the persecutions of Jezebel, "asked for his soul that he might die, and said: It is enough, Lord, take my soul." And St. Paul, II Corinthians i, 8: "We were pressed," he says, "beyond measure, above our strength, so that we were weary even of living." Yet it is the mark of a stronger and more generous soul not to desire death, but to endure and overcome any adversity with an unconquered spirit. Hence St. Augustine, when Hippo was besieged by the Vandals: "You should know," he said, "that in this time of our calamity, I pray to God either that He deign to free this city surrounded by enemies, or, if He sees fit otherwise, that He make His servants strong to bear His will; or at least that He take me from this world to Himself." And this third request he obtained. For three months before the city was captured, he departed this life.
Verse 7: Sarah Also Heard a Reproach
7. On the same day it happened that Sarah. — Note here the marvelous providence of God toward His faithful. For He combined the calumny of Tobias with the calumny of Sarah, and the prayer and compunction of Tobias with the prayer and compunction of Sarah, so that He might console both through a mutual marriage. And this is what the word "therefore" signifies, which looks forward to the coming narrative of the marriage. This is what Solomon says, Proverbs xix, 14: "House and riches are given by parents: but a prudent wife is properly from the Lord."
Similar examples are found in the lives of the Saints. John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 201, narrates that the son of a certain most distinguished man of Constantinople, who had given away everything to the poor, and dying had left his son no guardian but Christ, when the son, now impoverished, entered the temple and devoutly called upon God, was seen by a certain most wealthy patrician, who for this piety betrothed his daughter with a generous dowry to him.
In Rages, a city of the Medes. — The Greek has, in Ecbatana; for the city of Rages was situated on the mountain of Ecbatana, as is said in chapter v, verse 8, and was the capital and royal city of the Medes.
Verse 8: A Demon Named Asmodeus Had Killed Them
8. Because she had been given (successively) to seven husbands, and a demon named Asmodeus had killed them, as soon as they had gone in to her. — The cause of the killing we shall hear from Raphael in chapter vi, verse 17: "Demon" — in the Greek is added to poneron, that is, that evil and wicked one, namely, the worst and most wicked, as St. Prosper says, part II of the Promises xxxix.
Plato in the Cratylus says that demons are so called as if daemones, that is, knowing ones, because they have a full knowledge of nature and natural things, and this is confirmed by Lactantius, book II of the Divine Institutions chapter xiv, and St. Augustine, book IX of the City of God, chapter xx. Secondly, others derive the etymology of demon from damasthai, that is, to rule, because demons are governors of men; whence Plutarch wrote a book on the genius of Socrates, which directed him. Thirdly, Eusebius, book IV of the Preparation of the Gospel: Demon, he says, is derived from damainein, that is, to terrify, because it terrifies men. For: "If," says St. Antony in St. Athanasius, "demons find in the hearts of the wicked the seed of fear, like robbers who occupy desert places, they increase the terrors they have taken hold of, and cruelly threatening, they punish the unhappy soul." St. Athanasius adds: To St. Antony was brought a young man "having a principal demon," whom, sending him to his disciple, he said: "This is not my work. For against this order of demons," namely the principal order, "I have not yet been granted the grace; but this is the grace of the simple Paul," as Palladius narrates in chapter xxviii.
Fourthly, Eugubinus, book VIII of the Perennial Philosophy chapter xix, derives the Greek daimon from the Hebrew sedim, or by crasis sdaim, that is, destroyers, devastators; for such they are, and such especially is Asmodeus.
You ask who Asmodeus is. The Rabbis cited by Elias in the Tishbi assert first that Asmodeus was born from Naamah, who was the sister of Tubal-Cain and the wife of Shimron, Genesis iv, 22. For they say there are four mothers of demons, namely Naamah, or as they call her, Nahema, Lilith, Ogereth, and Machlath. Secondly, that Asmodeus is the one who in the Chaldean paraphrase, Job xxviii, is called Samael, who tempted and overcame Eve, and harasses married couples, and is the author of all quarrels. That Sarah had her battle with him, and aided by the angel of God she departed victorious: whence she received her name from conquering and prevailing. For Sarah in Hebrew means the same as ruling and mistress. This latter explanation is apt and true. Thirdly, Ecclesiastes i, 1: "I, Ecclesiastes, was King;" the Chaldean translates: Aschmedai malca deschedim, that is, Asmodeus king of demons. The Zohar adds that Solomon, expelled from his kingdom by Asmodeus, was detained in the desert; and that Asmodeus himself meanwhile assumed the appearance of Solomon and administered justice to the Hebrews in Jerusalem. But these are inventions of the Rabbis, and therefore fabrications.
I say therefore that Asmodeus is a demon who incites men to lust, and punishes and cruelly afflicts those he has overcome, as he cruelly afflicted Sarah's seven betrothed on account of their impurity. That this is so is gathered from the power granted to Asmodeus in chapter vi, verse 17: "For those who receive matrimony in such a manner as to exclude God from themselves and their mind, and to give themselves to their lust like a horse and a mule which have no understanding, the demon has power over them." Indeed demons are accustomed to be the executioners of those very ones whom they have deceived: "For by whom a man is overcome, of him also he is the slave," II Peter ii, 19. Against them, therefore, as his guilty ones and slaves, Asmodeus rages with his punishments. Hence Asmodeus, or a companion or subject of Asmodeus, was that demon whom Cyprian, at first a magician but later a faithful man and martyr, summoned by his incantations to bend the virgin and martyr St. Justina to the love of the young man who was pursuing her, but in vain. For St. Justina conquered him by the sign of the cross, by prayer, and by constancy. Such also was that demon who, possessing a girl bewitched by a young magician, when asked by St. Hilarion why he had not rather possessed the young magician himself, answered: "Why should I enter into him who had my colleague, the demon of love?" as St. Jerome reports in the Life of St. Hilarion. Finally hear St. Athanasius in the Life of St. Antony: "That demon, throwing himself at Antony's knees, wept with a human voice, saying: I have led many astray, I have deceived very many; but now, as by the other Saints, so also by your effort I have been overcome. When Antony asked him who he was who said such things, he said: I am the friend of fornication; I have taken up the many-formed weapons of lewdness against all young people, and hence I am called the spirit of fornication. How many who intended to live chastely I have deceived! How many who were making a tender beginning I have persuaded to return to their former filth! I am the one on whose account the prophet rebukes the fallen, saying: You have been seduced by the spirit of fornication; and truly through me they were overthrown. I am the one who often tempted you yourself, and was always repulsed."
You ask secondly, why he is called Asmodeus? Serarius answers first: Asmodeus is said to be quasi esh Med, that is, the fire of Medai, that is, of Media, because he was king of all the demons who then inhabited Media (in which was Rages, where Sarah lived, and her seven betrothed were killed by Asmodeus) and the neighboring provinces. For since he operated in Media, where would he be king if not in that very region? He therefore stirred up all the Medes to lust, and afflicted those he overcame. For there are Persian, Median, African, Southern, Meridional, sepulchral, aerial, fiery, watery, and earthly demons, as Rhodiginus teaches, book II, chapters iv and v, the Chaldean on the Canticle chapter iv, verse 6, and Thomas of Cantimpre, book II of the Bees, chapter lvii, number 9.
Secondly, Asmodeus, or as it is said in Hebrew Asmodai, signifies the abundance of sin; ascam means sin, dai means abundance; for where lust burns, there sins abound. For as St. Gregory says in book I on Kings chapter xv: "Lust is kindled like a fire, and if it is carelessly extinguished, the adjacent straw is quickly set ablaze."
Thirdly, Asmodeus is the same as esh, that is, fire, or ascam, that is, sin, modad, that is, measuring and weighing, so that he may gauge how great the lust is, and inflict a punishment proportioned to the fault.
Fourthly, Asmodeus is the same as destroyer, desolator, from ascam, that is, he has laid waste, or from scamad, that is, he has destroyed.
Fifthly and most aptly, Asmodeus is said to be quasi esh, that is, fire, or ascam, that is, of sin, scomed, that is, the destroyer. For he is introduced here as the avenger of lust and the killer of impure bridegrooms.
As soon as they had gone in to her. — In Greek: before they were with her as husbands, that is, before they came together. For God did not permit Sarah, so chaste, to be touched by such impure men, but killed them through Asmodeus before the contact, because they wanted to assault her with unbridled lust.
Verse 9: May We Never See from You a Son or Daughter
9. May we never again (hereafter; for she had borne no child until now) see from you a son or daughter upon the earth, you who murder your husbands. — This was a grievous insult hurled by a maidservant, or as the Greek says, by maidservants against Sarah. The Greek exaggerates it even more; for it reads: "And they said to her: Do you not understand that you strangle your husbands? Behold, you have had seven, and you have not been named after any one of them. Why do you scourge us? If they are dead, go with them: may we never see a son or daughter of yours."
Note three insults that were thrown at Sarah by the maidservant: first, that she had killed, indeed strangled, seven bridegrooms, when she herself had not done this, but Asmodeus. For what is more shameful, what more cruel for a bride than to say: You killed your husband? Second, that she corrupts her name; for instead of "Sarah," that is, mistress, she calls her tsaram, that is, afflicted and wretched. Third, she curses her with perpetual sterility. So St. Monica, called a drunkard by a maidservant, was greatly afflicted, as St. Augustine reports, book IX of the Confessions chapter viii. So too Sarah here was so tormented that in verse 15 she prays: "I beg, O Lord, that You free me from the bond of this reproach, or else take me from the earth."
Verse 10: She Went into an Upper Room
10. At this voice she went into an upper room. — In Greek it reads: She was saddened, hoste apanxasthai, which Vatablus translates: so that she thought of strangling herself; but recovering and correcting herself, she said: I am the only child of my father; if I do this, it will be eternal disgrace to him, and the most immediate occasion of death, because I would bring his old age with sorrow to the grave, that is, to death or the tomb, as in chapter vi, verse 7. So also the Hebrew, which reads: She was so afflicted that she desired to strangle herself; which she would also have done, had she not thought again: thus would I bring the gray hairs of my father and mother with sorrow to the grave. Better the interpreter of the Royal Greek Bible translates: She was saddened, so as to be suffocated, namely from the distress of grief and sorrow.
Verse 11: Three Days and Nights She Neither Ate nor Drank
11. And for three days and three nights she neither ate nor drank; but persisted in prayer. — See here the fruit of insult; for the insult itself begot compunction; this begot a three-day fast and prayer. For, as Lyranus says: "The fervor and prolongation of prayer induces forgetfulness of food and drink." And the Gloss: "He grows fat by prayer alone," it says, "whom the leanness of the body feeds."
Verse 13: Blessed Is Your Name, O God
13. Blessed is Your name, O God. — The Greek has more fully: Blessed are You, O Lord my God, and blessed is Your holy and glorious name forever. May all Your works bless You forever. By this three-day prayer Sarah obtained from God resignation and tranquility of soul with great confidence in God, so that beginning a new prayer she burst forth into blessing and praise of God; for, as St. Ambrose says, chapter ii of the Instruction of Virgins: "Good is that prayer which observes order, so that we begin first with divine praises. For if, when we deal with a human being, we wish to make the judge favorable, how much more when we pray to our Lord? Therefore let us first offer to God the sacrifice of praise."
And in the time of tribulation You forgive sins (for which they are afflicted, and consequently the tribulation itself, for when the guilt is remitted the punishment is often also remitted) to those who call upon You; — for as Ecclesiasticus chapter ii, verse 13 says: "God is merciful and kind, and will forgive sins in the day of tribulation." And again chapter iii, verse 17: "In the day of tribulation He will remember you, and your sins will melt away as ice in fair weather."
Verse 16: I Never Desired a Husband
16. You know, O Lord, that I never desired a husband, — so as to pursue him from lust and desire, but I accepted him only for the sake of offspring, so that I might obey my parents, and beget grandchildren and heirs for them.
I have kept my soul clean from all lust, — not only of impurity, but also of gluttony, pride, avarice, and all other enticements. Great was this purity and continence of Sarah, for which she merited to be heard and blessed by God.
Verse 17: I Never Mingled with Those Who Play
17. I never mingled with those who play: — First, the Rabbis understand an impure sport, such as obscene fornicators play at. And thus they explain Exodus chapter xxxii, verse 6: "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play," that is, to fornicate. Better Hugo and others understand any kind of play familiar to girls, especially dancing and choruses, says Hugo, which a wise and upright man in Caesarius, book IV, chapter xi, calls "the sport of the devil." And Matthew Clingius in the Common Places, chapter On Dancing and Chorus: "What," he says, "is a chorus? It is a circle whose center is the devil and whose circumference is all his angels." Wherefore the Blessed Virgin, as St. Gregory witnesses, IV Dialogues chapter xvii, admonished the virgin Musa "that she should no longer do anything light or girlish, and should abstain from jests and games." Whence also Jeremiah, chapter xv, verse 17: "I did not sit," he says, "in the assembly of those who play." On which passage St. Jerome says: "Would that the Lord grant to us also not to sit in the assembly of those who play, and of those who do not think about the future!" So also in Psalm xxv, David says: "I did not sit in the assembly of vanity."
Verse 21: His Life Shall Be Crowned
21. But this everyone who worships You holds for certain, that his life, if it be in trial, shall be crowned, — if, that is, in temptation and trial he remains faithful and constant to God. For, as St. James says, chapter i, verse 12: "Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been proven, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him."
And if in correction (so it should be read with the Roman and Greek texts, not "corruption," as some read) it shall be permitted to come to Your mercy, — that is: If one who worships You, O Lord, is corrected and chastised by You for some offense, by requesting pardon through repentance, he will obtain it from You. For to this end You corrected and chastised him: to impel him to repentance for his offense, and to spare the penitent, and to reconcile him to Yourself.
Verse 22: After a Tempest You Make a Calm
22. Because after a tempest You make a calm: and after tears and weeping You pour in joy, — for indeed after cloud comes the sun, after night the dawn, after winter the summer, after sickness health, after desolation consolation, after the cross glory, after death resurrection, and as Tertullian says in the Apology, Christ, after gall, tasted honeycomb and honey. Truly Solomon, Proverbs xiv, 10: "The heart," he says, "that knows the bitterness of its soul, in its joy no stranger shall mingle." See what was said there. And the Psalmist, Psalm xciii, 19: "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Your consolations have gladdened my soul."
Verse 25: The Holy Angel Raphael Was Sent
25. And the holy Angel of the Lord, Raphael, was sent to heal them both, whose prayers had been recited at the same time in the sight of the Lord, — that is, presented and offered through the guardian Angels of both, indeed through St. Raphael, as he himself asserts to Tobias in chapter xii, verse 12: "When you prayed with tears," he says, "I offered your prayer to the Lord." Hence in Apocalypse viii, 3, it is said that an Angel stood with a golden censer and offered God incense, that is, the prayers of the saints. "Raphael" in Hebrew is said to be quasi rophe el, that is, physician of God, or medicine and cure of God. So St. Gregory, homily 34 on the Gospels, and St. Jerome on Daniel chapter viii. So God Himself is called rophe, that is, physician, healer, and savior, in Greek ho iomenos se, that is, healing you and curing you, Exodus xv, 26, Psalm xxxix, 5, and often elsewhere. Raphael therefore is the vicar of God the Healer, the executor and worker of health. Hence the Church in the office of Michael prays to Christ:
Send us from heaven Raphael, the Angel who is the physician of salvation, that he may heal all the sick, and likewise direct our actions.
In St. Augustine, sermon 226, Raphael himself says: "I am the minister of the cure, God is the author of health." St. Jerome, at the cited place: "Wherever," he says, "medicine and healing is necessary, Raphael is sent, who is interpreted as the cure or medicine of God, this interpretation of the name signifying that in God is true medicine." The Hebrew text a little below: "The Lord sent," it says, "the Angel Raphael, the Prince appointed over healings, or who presides over health." Hence in the Roman Missal, which was published at Paris in the year 1520, there is a Mass for St. Raphael, for the sick and for travelers.
Moreover the Hebrew text in this place reads thus: At that time the prayer of both was heard in the presence of the Shekinah itself, and in the presence of the throne of the glory of Jehovah; the prayer of Tobias for the blindness of his eyes; the prayer of Sarah for the humiliation of her parents. The Shekinah is the Holy Spirit, says Rabbi Elias, so called because He dwells in the saints: for sachan means to dwell.
The Roman Greek text has: The prayer of both was heard in the presence of the glory of the great Raphael, that is, of the great God, who is the supreme Raphael, that is, physician and healer, as I have already said; or, as if to say: The prayer was heard in the presence of God, as our translator renders it, who is the glory of the great Raphael. For God is the honor and glory of all Angels and men, according to Psalm iii, 4: "But You, O Lord, are my protector, my glory, and the lifter up of my head." Or thirdly and best, as if to say: The prayer of both was heard by God in the presence of the glorious and great Raphael, who had offered it to the divine majesty. For although Raphael was present with Tobias, and therefore absent from Sarah, nevertheless he saw and heard the prayers of the absent one; indeed he could in the twinkling of an eye fly from Tobias to Sarah, and from there fly back to Tobias, and thence to God in the empyrean heaven. For Angels are most swift, and like lightning they descend from heaven to earth.
Allegorically, the Gloss says: "Mystically, by Raphael can be understood our Lord Jesus Christ, who is called the Angel of great counsel according to the Septuagint translation, Isaiah ix. And He came into the world to heal the human race in both sexes."
Moreover, in the Greek text some things are stated somewhat more specifically: Raphael was sent to heal them both; to wipe away the white films from Tobias's eyes, and to give Sarah, daughter of Raguel, as wife to Tobias, son of Tobit, and to bind Asmodeus, the evil demon, because it belonged to Tobias to receive that inheritance, that is, Sarah, who was owed to him as the best inheritance, and this because, as the Hebrew says: Tobias had the right of kinship, that is, he could claim her for himself by right of kinship.
You ask from which hierarchy Raphael comes: Dominic Bannes in I part, Question cxii, article 4, thinks he is from the lowest order of Angels, because he seems to have been the guardian Angel of Tobias; and guardian Angels are from the lowest order. Hence St. Thomas, I part Question cxiii, article 3, says Michael is from the order of Principalities, Gabriel from the order of Archangels, and Raphael from the order of Angels.
Secondly, Serarius here, Question II, thinks he is from the penultimate order, which is the Archangels. For St. Isidore, book VII, Origen, chapter v, Prosper, part II of the Promises chapter xxix, and others call Raphael an Archangel.
Thirdly, others cited by John Eck, homily 3 on the feast of St. Michael, judge that Raphael is from the order of Powers. For these exercise the command of their power over demons, as Raphael did here by binding Asmodeus. Others think he is from the order of Virtues.
Fourthly and best, many judge that Raphael is from the first order of Seraphim, and therefore one of the seven chief Seraphim. For these most closely attend upon God, as Raphael says he does, chapter xii, 15. So Gregory of Valencia, I part on Question cxii of St. Thomas, Question vi, Viegas, commentary II, section xviii, on Apocalypse chapter xii, Nazianzen and Cyril, whom our Ribadeneira cites and follows in the feast of St. Michael. Hence also the Ethiopian Mass ranks Raphael, along with Michael and Gabriel, as one of the most eminent Angels. Whence the Roman Septuagint at this verse calls Raphael great: In the presence of the glory, they say, of the great Raphael.
The Hebrews, as Lyranus says on Genesis chapter xviii, call the three Angels seen by Abraham in human form Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. They said the first was sent to announce the birth of Isaac; the second to destroy the impure cities with flames; the third to cure Abraham from the wound of circumcision: but the Hebrews are refuted by Tostatus on Genesis chapter xviii. Moreover, Raphael presides over good health; and therefore he was sent to dispel the blindness of Tobias; hence his name means medicine of God: Michael is appointed over the prayers and offerings of the faithful, Gabriel over the battles of men. Toletus in his annotation 46 on Luke chapter i treats of Gabriel appointed over wars, as do St. Jerome on Daniel chapter viii, and Rupert on Apocalypse chapter viii.
Again, Raphael is the patron of journeys and the guide of travelers; hence in the Itinerary of the Church he is invoked by them. On this matter Peter de Natali, Bishop of Aquileia, book IV, chapter cxli, recounts a notable example of a certain pilgrim from Orleans, who, attacked by enemies, invoked St. Raphael and was freed by him.
You ask secondly whether Raphael was properly the guardian Angel of Tobias? Dominic Bannes affirms this at the cited place. He proves it because the office of a guardian Angel is to offer prayers to God; and this Raphael did. Again, he accompanied Tobias throughout the entire journey, guarded him, and rescued him from all dangers. He was therefore his guardian. But I say with Serarius and Gregory of Valencia that he was not properly the guardian of Tobias: first, because the guardian is from the ninth and lowest order of Angels; but Raphael is from the first order of Seraphim; secondly, tutelary Angels are assigned to human beings by God from the beginning of life, or (as some prefer) from conception: but Raphael was sent from heaven when Tobias was in his years of youth; thirdly, he was not principally sent to guide and protect the younger Tobias, but to heal the father Tobias and to free Sarah from the demon, as is clear from chapter xii.
From this the answer to the argument is clear; for not only Angels but also Seraphim offer our prayers to God; "for all are ministering spirits sent for service," as the Apostle says, Hebrews i, last verse.
Finally, just as Asmodeus is the king of demons and the patron of lust, so his antagonist St. Raphael is the King of Angels and the patron and guardian of chastity and the chaste, as he was here for Tobias and Sarah. Hence he himself or his associates girded St. Thomas Aquinas with the girdle of chastity, as his biography relates, and rewarded St. Equitius with the gift of chastity, as it were by castrating him, as St. Gregory reports in book I of the Dialogues chapter iv.
Tropologically, learn here how great is the dignity of the soul, and how great is the condescension of God and the Angels, even the Seraphim (such as Raphael), by which they deign to exercise so great, so particular, and so provident a care for sinful, lowly, and wretched human beings, as great as Raphael exercised here for Tobias and Sarah. Read St. Bernard on Psalm xc, sermon 17, where among other things he says in astonishment: "He has given His Angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. Let them confess to the Lord His mercies, and His wonderful works to the children of men. Let them confess and say among the nations that the Lord has done great things for them. Lord, what is man, that You have made Yourself known to him, or that You set Your heart upon him? You set Your heart upon him, You bear solicitude for him, You have care of him. Finally to him You send Your Only-Begotten Son, You send Your Spirit, You also promise Your face. And lest anything in the heavens be idle from the work of caring for us, You send those blessed spirits for our sake, You assign them to the ministry of our guardianship, You command them to become our teachers." And after some intervening words: "Wonderful condescension, and truly great the affection of charity, etc. Therefore the supreme Majesty has given charge to Angels, and to His Angels He has given charge: to those indeed sublime ones, so blessed, so close to Him, so intimately adhering to Him, and truly members of God's household. He has given charge concerning you. Who are You, O Lord? What is man, that You are mindful of him, or the son of man, that You regard him? As if man were not corruption, and the son of man a worm? But what do you think He has commanded concerning you?" etc.