The Book of Tobit has many similarities with the Book of Job, the story of Tobit is the story of a God fearing man from the tribe of Neftali who was deported by the Assyrian empire: "I, Tobit, have walked all the days of my life on paths of fidelity and righteousness" Tobit 1:3.
And the book gives us a valuable advice that Tobit gave to his son Tobiah, advice that is also a beatitude: "Do not fear, son, that we have lived in poverty. You will have great wealth, if you fear God, avoid all sin, and do what is good before the Lord your God" Tobit 4:21.
Tobit taught to us in a similar way to our Lord Jesus that the true wealth is the spiritual richness and not the material wealth: "Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife" Proverbs 17:1. Like a house built on bad foundations is the life of a fool whose only value is his money: "Of what use is money in the hands of fools when they have no heart to acquire wisdom?" Proverbs 17:16
Tobit taught to his son Tobiah that the spiritual wealth begins with the fear of God. The fear of God is constancy, firmness, devotion, equanimity, and stability. The fear of God is the attachment to the Law, always keeping it in mind, and constantly placing our thoughts on it. Fearing God means knowing how to separate what corresponds to God and what corresponds to men, giving each one what is corresponding.
Then Tobit told us that spiritual wealth also means avoiding evil, that means avoiding bad companies, which make violence their constant conversation: "Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers" Psalm 1:1.
Finally, Tobit told us about the need for the good, the righteousness, to be blessed by God, this means making charity a constant experience, giving alms to the poor, worrying about the oppressed, Tobit mentioned to us that when the Assyrians killed his compatriots in Nineveh, he always gave them a burial. Righteousness is, as Tobit told, the moral or ethical commitment to oppose to the fury, in this case, the fury of the ancient pagans of the Assyrian empire with their brutal practices.
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