No Where to Turn

In today’s first reading, Tobit 3: 1-11a, 16-17, we encounter two very grief-stricken persons: Tobit and Raguel’s daughter Sarah. Tobit wanted God to take his life.  Tobit says to God: “It is better for me to die than to live, because I have heard insulting calumnies, and I am overwhelmed with grief.”  Sarah, who lost seven husbands  because of “the wicked demon Asmodeus [who] killed them off before they could have intercourse with her” is taunted by her maid. This maid accused her of strangling “your husbands! Look at you! You have already been married seven times, but you have had no joy with any one of your husbands. Why do you beat us? Is it on account of your seven husbands, because they are dead? May we never see a son or daughter of yours!”

Both Tobit and Sarah have recourse to God. Tobit cries out:  “Lord, command me to be delivered from such anguish; let me go to the everlasting abode; Lord, refuse me not. For it is better for me to die than to endure so much misery in life, and to hear these insults!”  Sarah comes to realize that “it is far better for me not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord to have me die, so that I need no longer live to hear such insults.”  Neither one of them hides their agonizing pain from the Lord.  Their honesty with the Lord in prayer leads to relief in a way they could never have imagined. In short, God works miracles by sending the angel Raphael to heal Tobit’s physical blindness and  “to marry… Sarah to Tobit’s son Tobiah, and then drive the wicked demon Asmodeus from her.”

When you and I are at our lowest, are we honest with God in prayer or do we hide our pain?  To whom  or to what do we have recourse when we can’t take it anymore?  Drugs? Sex? Shopping? Overeating? Starving ourselves? Gambling?  God?  Do we still believe miracles are possible, that God is listening to us when no one else seems to care?