Reflection on June 27, 1984 – (Paragraph 4-5)

https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb111.htm

The prayer of Tobias brings the couple into the context of where they are in the history of creation. They understand themselves as another link in the chain that began with Adam and Eve. You often hear about family trees, but thinking about it, isn’t a chain a better analogy. Just think about what a chain is if it is missing one link. It is nothing. Each link is vital. Now think of yourself as a link in a chain that goes back to Adam and Eve. Yes, it is a very complicated chain and goes off in many different directions, but there is that link back, connecting you to the very beginning. That is the context Tobias prayer puts them in. They look back to the beginning, both of the stories. The look at man (male/female) being created and man created and woman created as a helper for him. Both tell us about our nature, both tell us about our union with the other, both are where our chain starts and a link that they are becoming.

They ask for purification before uniting. They understand the importance of uniting fully, fully giving and fully receiving. They are well aware of the meaning of their unity and why it is meant to a full gift of self. They also know they are not sinless, that they need God in order to give a gift that is pure. They are aware what sin has taken away from them, but fully rely on God to help restore that ability to be a gift fully given. We get the same language of the body from this prayer as we do from Song of Songs, but it seems a much more practical scripture for us. It is much more meaningful because we are sinners and can relate to their situation. It is more practical because we are in their shoes. Song of Songs is a relationship that teaches us what we might have been in the beginning, but Tobias gives us a prayer we can use in our marriages today.