Raphael And The Wedding

Assumens Raphael quatuor ex servus Raguelis, et duos camelos, in Rages Medorum perrexit, et indicans ei cuncta de Tobia, recepit pecuniam, cumque secum ad nuptias fecit venire. Servi Raguel et cameli praedictores sunt de gentibus electi, per quos Dominus et alios colligit. Servi, quia serviunt necessitati eorum quibus evangelizant. Cameli, quia et onera infirmitatis eorum fraternae subjectione charitatis portant. Quare autem quatuor servi et cameli sint duo, supra monstratum est, ubi vaccae duae, et quatuor occiduntur arietes. [Sunt duae vaccae occisae, quia quicunque pro Christo, vel ipsi corpus suum sponte mortificant, ut hostia viva fiant, vel in manus infidelium tradunt occidendum: tales nimirum per arma justitiae, a dextris et sinistris, id est, in prosperis et adversis, contra hostem stare didicerunt. Sunt quatuor aristes occisi, quia sancti doctores et martyres quatuor libros sancti Evangelii fide et operatione conservant, quia quatuor virtutibus primis, prudentia, fortitudine, temperantia, justitia, muniuntur.] Tales adjuvante Raphael producunt Gabelum ad nuptias Tobiae, cum in unitatem Ecclesiae Christi novos populos, ipso divinitus opitulante, sancti praedictores aggregant. Sanctus Beda, In Librum Beati Partis Tobiae Allegorica Interpretatio

Raphael, taking four servants from Raguel and two camels, travelled to Rages in Media and telling him everything concerning Tobias, he received the money and brought him back with him to the wedding. 1 The servants and camels of Raguel are the preachers which are chosen from the nations, by which the Lord gathers others. And they are servants because they serve the needs of those whom they evangelize. And they are camels because they bear their weaknesses in the service of fraternal charity. 2 And why there are four servants and two camels we have shown above in the sacrifice of the two cows and the four rams. 3 That is, the two cows are those who for Christ either readily mortify their bodies that they be a living sacrifice, or give them into the hands of the infidels to be killed. And such folk certainly, by the arms of righteousness, in the right and left hand, that is, in prosperity and adversity, have been taught to stand against the enemy. And four rams are slain because the holy teachers and martyrs cherished four books for the working of faith, because with the four cardinal virtues, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice, they are fortified. Such was the help that Raphael gave for the wedding of Tobias, that is, when the holy preachers with the Divine wealth gather a new people into the unity of the Church of Christ. Saint Bede, from An Allegorical Interpretation of the Book of Tobit 1 Tobit 9.6 2 cf Gal 6.2 3 Tobit 8.22