The work of angels

The story of Tobit comes to a happy end. With the help of archangel Raphael, Tobias finished his mission. He returned with a wife, Sarah and half the inheritance of his father-in-law. He intended to give half the money he obtained to Raphael. Now, Raphael revealed his true identity.
Praise God and give thanks to him; exalt him and give thanks to him in the presence of all the living for what he has done for you. It is good to praise God and to exalt his name, worthily declaring the works of God. Do not be slow to give him thanks.
It is good to guard the secret of a king, but gloriously to reveal the works of God. Do good, and evil will not overtake you (Tobit 12:6-7).
The first and foremost job of an angel is to praise God. This is also the very first thing Raphael told the Tobit's.
Human are busy struggling for survival. Survival is their primary job. They conveniently forget to praise God. Angels need not to worry about survival. Therefore, they have no excuse not to praise God.
When we survive, we congratulate ourselves for our own hard work. We forget to give thanks to where thanks are due. Well, this excuse is not good. Human behaviour is guided by two principles, viz. pleasure-seeking and pain-relieving. We do things pleasurable to do, or we do things to avoid pain. Unless we find praising God a pleasurable thing to do, we will never be able to begin doing it. Then, how can we begin? Some people may not have the opportunity to take the first step but for Christians, they have no excuse not to praise God. Some wonderful things attributable to God, such as what had happened to Tobit, must have happened in their life. Otherwise, they would not be Christians in the first place. Therefore, like angels, Christians should praise and thank God in the presence of all the living.
Then Raphael turned from rituals to charity, from spirituality to ethics.
Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with wrongdoing. It is better to give alms than to treasure up gold.
For almsgiving delivers from death, and it will purge away every sin. Those who perform deeds of charity and of righteousness will have fulness of life;
but those who commit sin are the enemies of their own lives (Tobit 8-10).
Faith is empty without charity and righteousness. Raphael the angel advised human to give alms instead of saving up their money. Almsgiving not only saves the life of the needy, but also saves the life of the almsgivers. Probably we have never thought about almsgiving in this light. It is high time we thought about it the next time we hesitate to buy flags from volunteers.
I love "a little with righteousness is better than much with wrongdoing" because Confucius had expressed a similar thought. 不義而富且貴，於我如浮雲。【論語‧述而】The figure of Confucius towers like an archangel in the Chinese culture. One of his disciples made the following remark about the work of his master.
顏淵喟然歎曰：仰之彌高，鑽之彌堅，瞻之在前，忽焉在後。夫子循循然善誘人，博我以文，約我以禮，欲罷不能，既竭吾才，如有所立卓爾，雖欲從之，末由也已。 【論語‧子罕】
Sins are attractive. That is why many have sinned. But Raphael reminded us that when we commit sins, we are doing harm to ourselves. Do we need to be reminded? Of course not. Yet we continue to sin despite continuous reminders. Such is the human condition.
And so, when you and your daughter-in-law Sarah prayed, I brought a reminder of your prayer before the Holy One; and when you buried the dead, I was likewise present with you.
When you did not hesitate to rise and leave your dinner in order to go and lay out the dead, your good deed was not hidden from me, but I was with you (Tobit 12:12-13).
We are blessed indeed because we have angels carrying our prayers before God. Whenever we are doing good, angels are present with us. How blessed we are indeed. Times and again, I could hear faint voices suggesting some insignificant actions which turned out to be extremely helpful. Regrettably, I did not take heed of them often enough and missed out a lot of good encounters. I must train my ears to listen more attentively to these still small voices (1 Kings 19:12). Alex, when you have an angel watching over you, will you continue to sin?

Dear Lord, I thank You for sending a guardian angel to accompany me. Train my ears to listen to his still small voices so that I may confidently carry on with the good work You assign me. Amen.