Gall, also called bile, is a part of an animal’s body that aids in digestion, particularly in the digestion of fat. While it plays an important function in the body, it is very unpleasant to experience on its own. It is bitter and experiencing it aside from its normal use is often a sign of a potentially serious medical problem. It’s strange, then, that bile plays such a significant role in one of the most beautiful stories of life and love found in Scripture. In the book of Tobit, the titular character was blinded by a bird defecating in his eyes. Later, his son Tobiah has just married Sarah and now Tobiah goes to visit his father. On the way, though, Tobiah is instructed by the angel Raphael to take the gall of a fish they caught and to smear it in Tobit’s eyes. When Tobiah does this, scales fall from Tobit’s eyes and his first sight is his family with the new addition of his daughter-in-law, Sarah.

Tobit is a beautiful book, and the story of Tobiah and Sarah is particularly notable as one of the great love stories in Scripture. Tobit, though, is the main character. His blindness led him to be bitter and untrusting of those around him, especially his own wife. Yet, all it took was fish gall to lead him to witness the beauty and wonder of his life around him, obscured from him before due to his blindness. Apparently, fish gall was commonly used in antiquity as a medicine for blindness. It irritated the eyes, yet many doctors seemed to have prescribed it to those who suffered from blindness. If this is the case and the gall of the fish caught by Tobiah and Raphael was not “miraculous” per se, then what should we take away from its use in this story? If the fish gall was miraculous, why did it have to be fish gall? No detail of Scripture is irrelevant; reading or listening to Scripture should open up to us a plethora of interpretations and insights that God means to share with us through His Word. Using what we know about biblical imagery, the use of fish should be an indication to us of Christ’s Church. The first followers of Christ (Peter, Andrew, James, and John) were all fishermen. The first leader of the Church, Peter, was particularly known through his identity as a fisherman. The early Christians even used the fish as a symbol of the movement and their community. The Catholic Church has the power to open the eyes of the blind to the full splendor of our God. However, it was not just a fish that cured Tobit of his blindness; it was fish gall. It was the unpleasant part of the fish, the gross but efficacious material that contributes to an animal’s well-being, that cured his blindness. 

What is the unpleasant but powerful part of the Church that is the true source of us becoming witnesses of God’s splendor? It was Christ’s violent death on the cross, re-presented on the altar through the Eucharist, lived on through the blood of the martyrs and the spiritual suffering of the Church. Sacrifice is unpleasant, even gross. Yet without it, we are kept blind by the comforts of the world. If we take the “fish gall” and apply it to the eyes of the blind, what will they see of our Church? Like Tobit, they will see a son and his new bride. They will see Christ and his heavenly Bride, the Church, at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. When life becomes unpleasant and difficult, as was the case for Tobit, we ought to remind ourselves that it is through the unpleasant, like the death of Christ and the sufferings of the Church, that unveil for us the beautiful splendor of Heaven. It is a banquet, a feast, held for a bridegroom and his bride. The Church, both in its beauty and in all of its imperfections, reveal to us the fullness of God in Heaven.

One of the secrets to living a holy and productive life is to surround yourself with good and holy people. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to us that many of the great saints throughout the history of the Catholic Church knew each other personally and lived at the same time; sanctity is infectious. When we are in darkness, if it is through our own fault or not, we feel alone because we do not have the comfort and company of other holy people. Therefore, it becomes our duty to either rise to the occasion of being that necessary holy person for others, or to pray for the arrival of someone in our lives to lift us up and to challenge us to be better. This is the essence of Christian living, charity and love in its purest form. Love can only radiate in the world through the will of God, because God is love itself; whenever we experience this truest form of love, we are experiencing a glimpse of Heaven, sent to us by God in the form of our neighbor.

God sends people to the world throughout Scripture, especially to those in most need. Before Christ, having a direct encounter with God in His full glory was unheard of; instead, He sent His messengers, the angels, who gave humans the closest glimpse to Heaven possible for them. Heaven was not always revealed through pomp or majesty, awesome miracles or powerful experiences; these were only given in vision and when necessary. Instead, the angels sometimes came humbly and indicated the nature of Heaven through pure charity, in which cases the recipients of these visits never even knew that they were encountering spiritual beings. Consider the three angels who visited Abraham, or the angel Jacob struggled with who bestowed upon him the name of Israel, or any of the angels encountered in the New Testament who shared news of Christ. These beings were mistaken to be humans so that those who encountered them could understand the need for solidarity in sanctification. We need each other to be more holy, but we need a presence from Heaven in order to first learn how to strive for sanctity. In this passage from the book of Tobit, the angel Raphael is mistaken to be a fellow traveler of Tobiah. When Tobit and Tobiah attempt to thank him, he rightly instructs them on the necessity of giving God all the praise - this is done most efficiently, though, through charity towards other human beings. Prayer and fasting are good, instructs Raphael, but better than either is almsgiving accompanied by righteousness.

A true glimpse of Heaven is found most clearly in true charity, and true charity is always accompanied with a lesson for us to learn. Abraham learned of God’s fulfillment of the promise through the three angels, Jacob learned of his nation’s identity through the one with whom he struggled, and the followers of Christ learned about their master’s divinity through their own encounters with the angels. Tobit and Tobiah learned from Raphael how love is best expressed - through giving your entire self, your whole livelihood. The woman who gives a measly two coins to the Temple treasury was not lauded publicly or thanked by Christ, but used as an example in a lesson to his disciples. The best people in our lives are those who expressed charity towards us, so that we may learn how to grow in holiness and how to better comprehend the reality of Heaven. Many times, we never realize their value until long after they’ve left our lives. Just as it is throughout Scripture, how Heaven is revealed gradually through the charity of others, these individuals in our own lives are angels in disguise.