Fish Eaters: The Whys and Hows of Traditional Catholicism


``Where the Bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be;
even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church'' Ignatius of Antioch, 1st c. A.D


Tobias, Raphael, and the Dog





The old and blind Tobias the Elder, a righteous man, sends his son, Tobias the Younger, to get money that is due to him from a man named Gabelus. St. Raphael the Archangel shows up under the guise of "Azarias the son of the great Ananias" to accompany him.

On this journey, the young Tobias is almost killed by a very large fish, but Raphael tells him to catch it and save its heart, liver, and gall to use as medicines. Continuing on, they stop at the house of Raguel, who has a daughter named Sara. Raphael tells Tobias to take Sara for a wife, and he does. While Tobias and Sara pray, Raphael goes on to the house of Gabelus, collects the money, and invites him to the wedding feast.

After the celebrations, and after enough time is spent such that Tobias is concerned that his parents would be very worried about his absence, he, his wife, and Raphael return home, and Tobias cures his father's blindness using the gall from the fish Raphael told him to keep.

All during this journey, they were accompanied by a dog. Care is taken in Scripture to note that the dog was there from the beginning of the journey, remained to the end, and that, upon their return home, the dog was full of "joy" that he showed by "fawning and wagging his tail." The notes in the Douay say, my emphasis,

This may seem a very minute circumstance to be recorded in sacred history: but as we learn from our Saviour, St. Matt. 5. 18, there are iotas and tittles in the word of God: that is to say, things that appear minute, but which have indeed a deep and mysterious meaning in them.

The dog isn't mentioned elsewhere -- not before the journey, nor during, nor after their return. He's mentioned only at the begging and the end:

Tobias 6:1
And Tobias went forward, and the dog followed him, and he lodged the first night by the river of Tigris.

Tobias 11:9
Then the dog, which had been with them in the way, ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail.

What could the presence of the faithful little dog mean?


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