Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Tobias, about to die as he thought, gives his son his final counsels of virtue and salvation.
Vulgate Text: Tobias 4:1-23
1. Therefore when Tobias thought that his prayer had been heard, so that he might die, he called to himself his son Tobias, 2. and said to him: Hear, my son, the words of my mouth, and build them in your heart as a foundation. 3. When God shall have received my soul, bury my body: and you shall have honor for your mother all the days of her life: 4. for you must remember what and how great dangers she suffered for you in her womb. 5. And when she also shall have completed the time of her life, bury her near me. 6. And all the days of your life keep God in your mind: and take care never to consent to sin, nor to neglect the commandments of the Lord our God. 7. Give alms from your substance, and do not turn your face from any poor person: for so it shall come to pass that the face of the Lord shall not be turned from you. 8. According to your ability, be merciful. 9. If you have much, give abundantly: if you have little, strive to give even a little willingly. 10. For you store up for yourself a good reward in the day of necessity. 11. Because almsgiving frees from all sin and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness. 12. Almsgiving shall be a great confidence before the most high God, for all who practice it. 13. Take heed to yourself, my son, from all fornication, and besides your wife never allow yourself to know the crime. 14. Never permit pride to dominate in your thought or in your word: for in it all destruction took its beginning. 15. Whoever does any work for you, pay him his wages immediately, and let the wages of your hired worker in no way remain with you. 16. What you would hate to be done to you by another, see that you never do to another. 17. Eat your bread with the hungry and the needy, and cover the naked with your garments. 18. Place your bread and wine upon the burial of a just man, and do not eat and drink of it with sinners. 19. Always seek counsel from a wise person. 20. At all times bless God, and ask Him to direct your ways, and that all your counsels may remain in Him. 21. I also inform you, my son, that I gave ten talents of silver to Gabelus, in Rages, a city of the Medes, when you were still a small child, and I have his bond with me: 22. and therefore find out how you may reach him, and receive from him the above-mentioned weight of silver, and return his bond to him. 23. Do not fear, my son: we lead a poor life indeed, but we shall have many good things if we fear God, and depart from all sin, and do good.
They are twelve in number. The first is about piety to be shown to father and mother both in life and after death, verses 3, 4, and 5; the second about religion toward God, verses 6 and 20; the third about almsgiving, verses 7 and 17; the fourth about the avoidance of fornication and chastity, verse 13; the fifth about the avoidance of pride and humility, verse 14; the sixth about justice and wages to be justly and promptly paid to workers, verse 15; the seventh about the golden rule, that one should do to no one what one would not wish done to oneself, verse 16; the eighth about care for the dead, verse 18; the ninth about prudence, that one should do nothing without the counsel of a wise man, verse 19; the tenth, about constant remembrance, praise, and invocation of God, verse 20; the eleventh about providence in feeding the family, by recovering the money lent to Gabelus, verse 22; the twelfth, that he should console himself in his poverty with hope in God, who enriches those who hope in Him. Similar golden counsels and lessons of virtue were handed down by holy men about to die to their sons and posterity, as St. Louis to his son Philip: read them in the life of St. Louis in Surius on August 25; St. Ephrem, as is clear from his testament; St. Theodore the Studite, St. Dominic, St. Francis, whose testament is extant at the end of volume IV of the Library of the Holy Fathers.
Verse 2: Honor Your Mother
2. You shall honor your mother — according to that word of God in the Decalogue: "Honor your father and mother, that you may be long-lived upon the earth," Deuteronomy V, 16. See what was said there. Marvel here at the equanimity of Tobias, who, though received with sharp reproach by his wife, nevertheless entrusts her honor and care to his son, and urges him to remember the pains, annoyances, and dangers that she endured for him in her womb and afterwards. Hear Sirach chapter III, 8 and 18: "He who fears the Lord honors his parents: and he will serve as masters those who begot him. How infamous is he who abandons his father: and he who exasperates his mother is cursed by God!"
Verse 5: Bury Her Beside Me
5. Bury her beside me — the Hebrew and Greek say: Bury her beside me honorably in the same tomb. For husband and wife are as one flesh, that is, one civil person, Genesis II, 24. Thus Abraham with Sarah, Isaac with Rebecca, Jacob with Leah wished to be buried in the same tomb, Genesis XLIX, 29. Remarkable is what St. Gregory of Tours writes, On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter XXXII, about two lovers, namely a husband and wife, living in continence and chastity by mutual consent. For when the wife, now deceased, was being carried to burial, her husband, with hands stretched toward heaven, said: "I give You thanks, Creator of all things, that just as You deigned to entrust her to me, so I have returned her to You unpolluted by any contagion of pleasure. But she, smiling, said: Be silent, be silent, man of God, because it is not necessary to speak our secret when no one is asking. After this, covered with a shroud, she departed. Not long afterward he too departed from this world, and was buried in his place. They were in one and the same basilica, but from different walls each tomb was kept. And one was to the south, the other to the north. But when morning came, the tombs were found to be together (that is, joined), and they remain so to this day: therefore the inhabitants now call them the two lovers, and venerate them with the highest honor."
Verse 6: Keep God in Mind All the Days of Your Life
6. All the days of your life keep God in mind — that is, in your memory, so that you are always mindful of Him in your understanding, and think and meditate on Him frequently: in your will, so that you continually revere, love, praise, invoke, obey, and glorify Him, and therefore carefully guard yourself from every offense and sin against Him, as follows carefully: according to that saying of Proverbs III, 6: "In all your ways think on the Lord, and He will direct your steps." Thus Enoch walked, as did Noah. Genesis V and VI. Thus Abraham heard from God: "Walk before Me, and be perfect," Genesis XVII, 1. Thus Elijah: "The Lord lives," he said, "in whose sight I stand," III Kings XVII, 1. And Elisha: "The Lord of hosts lives, in whose sight I stand," IV Kings III, 14. Indeed Seneca too, epistle 19: "So live," he says, "with men, as though God sees."
Verse 7: Give Alms
7. Give alms, and do not turn your face (the Hebrew says, do not avert your eyes) from any poor person. — Tobias here gives his son six fruits and incentives of almsgiving. The first is: "For so it shall come to pass that the face of the Lord shall not be turned from you," that is to say, God will repay you in kind, because He Himself is the protector of the poor. Therefore if you turn your face from them, denying alms, or the consolation that you can give them, God will likewise turn His face from you, denying the grace and help that you seek.
Verse 8: According to Your Ability, Be Merciful
8. According to your ability, be merciful — so that if you have gold, bread, food, you may give those; if you do not have them, you may give counsel, comfort the poor with a word, and pray well for him, showing the feeling of compassion; for compassion lightens the wretchedness of the wretched, and takes part of it upon itself.
Verse 10: A Good Reward in the Day of Necessity
10. For you lay up a good reward for yourself in the day of necessity — and especially in the hour of death: which God will give to him, as promised by Him to the merciful. For "reward," the Greek has "deposit"; because what is bestowed on the poor does not perish, but is deposited as if in the bosom of God to be safeguarded, so that He may return them to the giver at the proper time, in this life in simple measure, and double, indeed a hundredfold in heaven. The Hebrews add here: But you shall possess riches and treasures of silver and gold in justice. For treasures shall profit nothing, and alms shall deliver from death. And whoever gives alms, he shall see the face of God, as it is written: I in justice shall behold Your face, and those who are occupied with it are from heaven.
This is the second fruit and incentive of almsgiving. The third follows.
Verse 11: Almsgiving Frees from All Sin and from Death
11. For alms deliver from all sin and from death (eternal, and often from present death). — By what reasoning? First, dispositively, because alms obtain greater grace, by which almsgivers are gradually advanced to the remission of guilt, even mortal sin, and they dispose toward it, if indeed they are done from the prevenient grace of God, just as faith, hope, and fear dispose toward the same; especially if the alms are given for some supernatural motive, e.g., that you may obtain pardon for sin, that you may please God, that you may obtain His grace; second, because if the guilt has already been remitted, alms merit the remission of remaining punishment; third, because God on account of alms removes or defers the punishment of the present life, even when guilt has not been remitted. Hence almsgivers, even those who are otherwise impious, are rarely punished by God in this life. Wherefore Daniel, chapter IV, urged the cruel and impious Nebuchadnezzar, saying: "Redeem your sins with almsgiving;" indeed St. Augustine, book XXI of the City of God, chapter XXVII, says that some cannot be saved without almsgiving. Hence St. Ambrose, sermons 30 and 31, compares almsgiving to baptism: "Thus," he says, "alms extinguish sins, just as the water of baptism extinguishes the fire of hell. Therefore alms are in a certain way another washing of souls, so that if anyone after baptism should sin through human frailty, it remains for him to be cleansed again through alms." And St. Cyprian, in the book On Prayer and Almsgiving: "Just as the fire of hell is extinguished by the washing of saving water, so by alms and just works, the flame of sins is quenched." St. Bernard, sermon 1 after Epiphany, establishes almsgiving as the third water jar, by which the washing away of sins takes place. So also St. Leo compares it to baptism, homily 2 On the Collections, and sermon 5: "Alms," he says, "blot out sins, destroy death, and extinguish the punishment of everlasting fire," and then he appends the passage from Tobias." See what was said on Sirach III, 33, on those words: "Water extinguishes a burning fire, and alms resist sins."
And it will not suffer the soul to go into darkness — of hell, because it as it were closes and blocks the mouth of hell. St. Augustine objects, sermon 18 On the Words of the Lord according to Matthew, chapter XVI, and at the same time answers: "If," he says, "the son should answer in wonder: What then, father, did you not give alms, that you now speak as a blind man? Are you not now in darkness, you who say to me: alms do not allow one to go into darkness? He knew from what light he was teaching his son, he knew in the inner man what he saw. The son extended his hand to his father, that he might walk upon the earth: and the father to his son, that he might dwell in heaven." The same, homily 47, among the 50: "Almsgiving," he says, "advocates for man on the day of judgment, so that he need not fear the eternal flames." This is the fourth fruit of almsgiving; the fifth and sixth follow.
Verse 12: Great Confidence Before the Most High God
12. Great confidence before the most high God shall alms be for all who give them. — The Hebrew: a generous and good gift shall be repaid before the Holy One. Vatablus: the best reward shall be returned. For this reason, almsgiving, in the dress of a Queen and Virgin wearing a crown on her head made of olive branches, appeared in a dream to St. John the Almsgiver, Archbishop of Alexandria, and said to him: "I am the first of the king's daughters; if you possess me as a friend, I will lead you into the sight of the emperor. For no one has a share with him, as I do. For I made Him become man on earth, and save mankind." Aroused by this vision, St. John gave all he had to the poor, and the more he distributed, the more he received from God, and thus turned tin into silver: so says Leontius, Bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus, in his biography.
Verse 13: Take Heed from All Fornication
13. Take heed to yourself, my son, from all fornication — which many of the pagans thought was lawful, and therefore it was specifically forbidden by the Apostles to the Gentiles converted to Christ, Acts XV, 29, and Paul writing to the Gentiles repeatedly forbids it under penalty of hell, as in I Corinthians VI; Galatians V; Ephesians V; Hebrews XIII, and St. John, Apocalypse XXI, 8: "The part of fornicators," he says, "shall be in the pool burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
And beside your wife never allow yourself to know the crime — that is to say, know no woman besides your wife, so as to commit the crime of fornication with her. Plato learned the same from Moses, and enacted it in book VII of the Laws: "Let no one," he says, "dare to touch any woman except his lawful wife."
Verse 14: Never Permit Pride to Dominate
14. Never permit pride to rule in your mind (in your thought, estimation, judgment and will), or in your words (so that although you may feel the temptations of pride, you nevertheless do not consent to them, so that pride rules over you; but you generously suppress it and rule over it): for in it all perdition took its beginning — of both Lucifer and the Angels, and of Adam and men; indeed, as St. Prosper says, book On the Contemplative Life, XXV: "no sin can, could, or will be able to exist without pride," because everyone who sins puts himself and his own appetite before God and His law, which is certainly pride. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 1 On the Advent: "If God did not spare the proud Angels, how much less will He spare you, decay and worm? He did nothing, he performed nothing; he only thought pridefully: and in a moment, in the blink of an eye, he was irreparably cast down, because he did not stand in the truth. Flee pride, my brothers, I beg you, flee it greatly. The beginning of all sin is pride, which so swiftly darkened with eternal darkness even Lucifer himself, shining more brightly than all the stars; which changed not merely an Angel, but the first of Angels into the devil." Finally in sermon 34 on the Canticle: "A horrible and fearful curse is hurled at the proud Angel, because he did not stand in the truth. If it was thus dealt with the Angel, what will become of you, earth and ashes? He swelled with pride in heaven: I in the dunghill. Who would not judge pride in a rich man more tolerable than in a poor man? Woe to me, if it was dealt with so harshly with that powerful one, because his heart was lifted up; nor did it avail that pride is recognized as akin to the powerful, what shall be demanded of me, both wretched and proud?" And St. Chrysostom, homily 4 to the People: "Just as fasting is the beginning of modesty, that is its foundation and constitution: so also pride is the beginning of sin, and from it all sin begins. From pride is born contempt of the poor, the desire for money, the love of power, the longing for much glory. The haughty man cannot endure insult even from his superiors, let alone from his inferiors," etc. Gregory, book XXXIV of the Morals, chapter XVII: "Just as the root is hidden below, but from it branches spread outward, so pride hides itself within, but from it open vices immediately sprout. Indeed no evils would come into the public, if pride did not secretly bind the mind." Finally, pride renders a man disgraceful and ignoble, Proverbs XI, 2: "Where there shall be pride, there shall also be disgrace;" and chapter XXIX, 23: "Humility follows the proud, and glory shall uphold the humble in spirit."
Verse 15: Pay Him His Wages Immediately
15. Whoever shall have done any work for you, immediately pay him his wages — namely "before sunset," if he is a poor man, as is prescribed in Deuteronomy XXIV, and Leviticus XIII: "The work of your hired man," it says, "shall not remain with you until morning."
Verse 16: What You Would Hate to Be Done to You
16. What you hate to be done to you by another, see that you never do to another. — This is the first principle, from which all virtues concerning the neighbor are drawn as conclusions, and all vices harming the neighbor are cut away. Hear St. Chrysostom, homily 13 to the People: "There is no need of many words, nor of lengthy laws, nor of varied teaching. Let your will be the law. Do you wish to receive benefits? Confer a benefit on another. Do you wish to obtain mercy? Have mercy on your neighbor. Do you wish to be praised? Praise another. Do you wish to be loved? Love. Do you wish to hold first place? Yield first to another. Be your own judge. Be your own lawgiver for your life." And again: "What you hate, do not do to others. By the one he induces flight from evil, by the other the practice of virtue. Do you hate to suffer insult? Then do not envy another. Do you hate to be deceived? Then do not deceive another. And in all things generally, if we retain these two words, we shall need no other instruction."
St. Augustine teaches the same, book II On the Ordering of Life, chapter VIII, and book III On Christian Doctrine, chapter XIV; indeed even the Emperor Alexander, although a pagan, according to Lampridius, "often proclaimed what he had heard from certain Jews or Christians and held fast to, and he ordered it to be declared by a herald whenever he corrected someone: What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to another"; indeed Christ Himself sanctioned this norm of virtue, Matthew VII, 12: "All things," He says, "whatever you wish men to do to you, do you also to them." The Greek adds here: Do not drink wine to drunkenness, and let not drunkenness walk with you on your way, for it will make you stumble and fall into ditches and precipices, and thence into hell. The Hebrew: beware of drunkenness; and let no vanity ever please you.
Do not join yourself to the wicked, But join yourself to the good, and from them you will learn very many good things. Living with the wicked, you too will become wicked.
Verse 18: Place Your Bread and Wine upon the Burial of the Just
18. Place your bread and your wine upon the burial of the just. — In Hebrew and Greek: Pour out your bread and your wine upon the graves of the just. Munster takes "graves" to mean "mouths," that is to say: Take your wine, and place bread in the mouth of the just, that they may not die of hunger; but everyone can see that this is inept, far-fetched, and forced. Note therefore that among the early Christians (especially at Rome and in Africa) it was the custom for the faithful to bring meals to the tombs and shrines of the martyrs, which, having been sanctified as it were by contact with the martyrs, they and their friends would first taste, then distribute to the poor, who were gathered in the Church for the agape feast on the birthdays of the martyrs, and this was done in honor of the martyrs; and St. Augustine relates that his mother St. Monica used to do this, book VI of the Confessions, chapter II.
Note second that they did the same at the burial of their own dead, whose salvation or glory was uncertain, namely they gave alms, or prepared a banquet, or agape feast in cemeteries or churches; both for the consolation of grief, and so that the soul of the deceased, if detained in the punishments of purgatory, might be expiated by this almsgiving and the prayers of the poor. But because this funeral rite reflected the customs of the pagans, who offered such offerings to their deceased (they called the souls of the dead, and their genii, or presiding gods, "manes") as though the souls of the dead feasted on those meals, as is clear from Virgil, Aeneid VI, Pliny, book VIII, chapter XII, Macrobius, Cicero, and others — which are consequently called by Festus feralia and inferiae, by the poets the supper of Hecate, by Livy viscerationes, by Plautus pollincturae, by Nonius silicernia; customs still practiced by the Japanese and Peruvians, as is clear from the letters from India. Similarly, because of the abuses of feasting and drinking, St. Ambrose at Milan abolished this rite of feasting from the churches, whose example the African Church followed, St. Augustine later teaching the same, and alms for the dead began to be distributed at home, as is still done, although in some places, such as Spain, bread is still offered at burial, which goes to the priests so they may pray for the soul of the deceased, says Sanchez. All this is evident from St. Augustine, book VI of the Confessions, chapter II, and epistle 64, and St. Paulinus, epistle to Alethius, and St. Chrysostom, homily 32 on Matthew. Therefore Tobias here indicates the same was practiced among the Jews, and perhaps from them Christians borrowed this rite, as they did many others. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Distribute your bread and wine to faithful poor people, so that they may pray for the deceased already buried. Hence he adds: And do not eat and drink thereof with sinners — that is, with unbelievers and perverse men, both because their prayers avail little with God for freeing the soul of the deceased from punishments, and lest you learn from them to drink and act impiously. For, as Epictetus says, "he who associates with the contaminated will become contaminated"; and Theognis:
"He who touches pitch," says our Sirach, chapter XIII, verse 1, "shall be defiled by it: and he who associates with the proud shall put on pride." And shortly before he had said, chapter XII, verse 13: "Who shall pity a snake charmer struck by a serpent, and all who approach wild beasts? So also he who keeps company with an unjust man, and is involved in his sins."
Moreover, St. Gregory, Part III of the Pastoral Care, XXV, explains it thus: "He offers his bread and wine to sinners, who bestows aid on the wicked because they are wicked. Hence some rich men of this world, while the poor of Christ are tortured by hunger, lavish their generosity on feeding actors."
From this it is therefore clear that Purgatory exists, and that the pious alms and suffrages benefit the souls detained in it. See Bellarmine, book I On Purgatory, chapter III. I have said more on this matter on Sirach XXX, 18, on those words: "The offerings of food placed around the tomb."
Verse 19: Always Seek Counsel from a Wise Man
19. Always seek counsel from a wise man — both because even wise men are blinded in their own affairs: for passion blinds reason. Hence Proverbs III, 5 says: "Do not lean on your own understanding," and because the wise give wise counsels, and from the wise you will learn wisdom; hence the Greek here has: "Seek counsel from every prudent person, and do not despise any useful counsel." The Hebrew: "Listen and accept from anyone who gives you good counsel." Hesiod counsels the same, whose verses Aristotle cites and praises, Ethics I, chapter IV:
He too is good, who obeys one who rightly advises. But he who neither knows of himself, nor lends his ears to anyone: That he may learn good things — that man is foolish and useless.
"Son," says Sirach, chapter XXXII, verse 24, "do nothing without counsel, and after the deed you will not repent." And Solomon, chapter XIX, verse 20: "Hear counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter days."
Because Isocrates also says to Daemonicus: "Good deliberation comes from men, its success (prosperous execution, prosperous effect) from the gods."
Verse 20: At All Times Bless God
20. At all times bless God, and ask Him to direct your ways — saying with the Psalmist, Psalm CXVIII: "Would that, Lord, my ways may be directed to keep Your ordinances." And: "Show me Your ways, Lord, and teach me Your paths." The Hebrews have more fully in this passage: "At all times ask the Lord that He may direct your steps and your counsel: because no counsel is in the hand of man, but in the hands of God, who is blessed: because He will do all things that you wish, and He will humble the just man." The Greek has: Bless the Lord God at all times, and ask of Him that your way may be made straight, and all your paths and counsels may prosper, or be favored. For there is no nation that has counsel of itself: but the Lord Himself gives all good things, and whomever He wills, He humbles, as He wills.
Verse 23: Do Not Fear, My Son
23. Do not fear, my son: we lead a poor life indeed (in Greek, we beg, that is, we are beggars), but we shall have many good things, if we shall fear God. — "We shall have," not only in the future life, but also in the present, and especially the honor and merit of virtue and piety. Cicero saw this dimly, who in Tusculan Disputations I and the last says: "Who would doubt that riches are placed in virtue, since no possession, no quantity of gold and silver is to be valued more than virtue? For if shrewd appraisers of things value certain meadows and estates highly, because that kind of property can scarcely be harmed: how highly must virtue be valued, which can never be seized or stolen; which is lost neither by shipwreck nor by fire, nor changed by the change of times or storms? Those who are endowed with it are alone rich; for they alone possess things both fruitful and eternal."
The Hebrew has: Act manfully, and be strong, because the Lord will be with you to help you, and will make you prosper, if you seek Him with your whole heart, and with your whole soul. And afterwards: If you fear the Lord, and keep yourself from all sin, He Himself will give you great riches. "I say to you," says St. Augustine, sermon 7 On the Seasons, "you poor, who beg, who live on the alms of Christians: Be consoled, be consoled, your tribulation will be turned into joy, and your sorrow into gladness. Let it not be displeasing to you that you beg, nor therefore hold anything in your heart against God: because He is just and merciful in all His works. And He therefore made you poor, so that by enduring brief want, you might acquire eternal life. And He made the rich man wealthy, so that by giving his surplus, he might acquire a remedy for his sins. And therefore be patient and await the Lord."