👼Archangel Raphael is one of the
most prominent celestial figures, whose Hebrew name, "Rafa-El," means "God
heals" or "Medicine of God." He is one of the seven Archangels who, according to
his own revelation in the Book of Tobit, "stand in the presence of the Lord."
His most well-known earthly mission is narrated in this Old Testament book,
where he assumes the human form of a traveler named Azarias to guide and protect
the young Tobias on his journey. During the trip, Raphael teaches Tobias how to
use parts of a fish to exorcise the demon Asmodeus, who afflicted Sarah, his
future wife, and to cure the blindness of his father, Tobit. His actions reveal
a God who not only rules from on high but actively intervenes in human life
through His messengers, offering guidance, protection, and, above all, healing
for the wounds of body and soul. He is venerated as the patron saint of
travelers, physicians, the sick, and Christian marriage.
📖Epistle
(Tob 12:7-15)
In those days, the Angel Raphael said to Tobias: It is
good to hide the secret of a king, but it is honorable to reveal and to publish
the works of God. Prayer is good with fasting and alms more than to lay up
treasures of gold. For alms delivereth from death, and the same is that which
purgeth away sins, and maketh to find mercy and life everlasting. But they that
commit sin and iniquity, are enemies to their own soul. I discover then the
truth unto you, and I will not hide the secret from you. When thou didst pray
with tears, and didst bury the dead, and didst leave thy dinner, and hide the
dead in thy house through the day, and bury them by night, I offered thy prayer
to the Lord. And because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that
temptation should prove thee. And now the Lord hath sent me to heal thee, and to
deliver Sara thy son's wife from the devil. For I am the Angel Raphael, one of
the seven, who stand before the Lord.
✝️Gospel (Jn 5:1-4)
At
that time, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now
there is at Jerusalem a pond, called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named
Bethsaida, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick, of
blind, of lame, of withered; waiting for the moving of the water. And an Angel
of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved.
And he that went down first into thepond after the motion of the water, was made
whole, of whatsoever infirmity he lay under.
🤔Reflections
🌊Today's
liturgy weaves a luminous link between celestial healing and divine intervention
in the world, uniting the mission of Saint Raphael the Archangel with the
mysterious pool of Bethesda. The Gospel describes a scene of hope and anguish: a
multitude of the sick awaiting the stirring of the waters by an angel, a sign of
God's mercy descending to heal. This pool, with its waters moved by an invisible
power, is a prefiguration of the Sacraments of the Church, especially Baptism,
where water becomes a vehicle of grace that purifies and regenerates. The
angel's action demonstrates that heaven is not indifferent to human suffering;
God sends His messengers to stir the waters of our existence, creating
opportunities for healing and renewal. However, the healing at the pool was
limited to "the first to enter," symbolizing an era of expectation that would
find its fullness in Christ, the true and universal "Medicine of God."
🙏Saint
Augustine offers a profound interpretation of this passage, seeing in the five
porticoes of the pool a figure of the five books of the Law of Moses. He
explains that the Law could shelter the sick—that is, reveal sin and humanity's
condition of weakness—but it did not have the power to heal them. "The Law
convicted men of their sins, but it did not absolve them" (Sermon 125 on the
Gospel of John). The stirring of the water, for Augustine, symbolizes the
Passion of Christ. The blood and water that flowed from His pierced side
"stirred" history and conferred upon the waters of Baptism the power to heal not
just one, but all who immerse themselves in them with faith. The arrival of
Jesus at the pool, who in the full Gospel text heals a paralytic who had been
waiting for thirty-eight years, demonstrates the superiority of Grace over the
Law. Christ does not need the stirring of the waters; He is the very source of
healing, the Word who with a single command restores the health of the soul and
body.
🧭The mission of Saint Raphael in the book of Tobit, as
recalled in the Epistle, brings this theology of healing and divine
accompaniment to life. Raphael is not just an angel who heals from a distance,
but a guide who walks alongside ("a traveling companion"), protects from evil
(the demon Asmodeus), and teaches the path of righteousness. His words to
Tobias—"Prayer is good with fasting and alms"—echo the perennial teaching of the
Church on penitential practices that open the heart to divine mercy (cf.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1434). He reveals that Tobit's trials were a
test of his faithfulness and that his prayers and works of charity were
presented to God. Thus, Saint Raphael personifies the "Medicine of God" not as a
magical act, but as a process involving faith, prayer, charity, and the
courageous pilgrimage of life, always under the watchful eye and protection of a
God who sends His angels to guide us back to health and communion with Him.
🇬🇧See
English version of the critical articles
here.
