Did St. Raphael lie when he said, "I am Azarias"?

October 24^th, Feast of St. Raphael (traditional calendar)

And Raphael the angel answered: I am Azarias the son of the great Ananias. (Tobit 5:17,18)

There are three angels mentioned by name in the Canonical Scriptures – Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. The last of these is explicitly present only in the book of Tobit, while Michael is reference in three books (Daniel, Jude, and Revelation) and Gabriel in two (Daniel and Luke).

While all the archangels (named and un-named) are celebrated on September 29^th in the post-Vatican II Liturgy, St. Raphael has traditionally been commemorated on October 24^th.

We do well to consider today not only the significance of Raphael’s name and his role in the Scriptures, but also the difficult question of whether he told a falsehood when he presented himself as Azarias the son of the great Ananias.

What does “Raphael” mean?

The name “Raphael” signifies either “God’s healing” or “God’s medicine” or “the physician of God”. Indeed, St. Raphael is presented in the Scriptures as a healing angel.

This will be important to remember when we discuss the question of the Angel’s self-identification as Azarias.

Did St. Raphael lie?

And Tobias said to him: I pray thee, tell me, of what family, or what tribe art thou? And Raphael the angel answered: Dost thou seek the family of him thou hirest, or the hired servant himself to go with thy son? But lest I should make thee uneasy, I am Azarias the son of the great Ananias. And Tobias answered: Thou art of a great family. But I pray thee be not angry that I desired to know thy family. And the angel said to him: I will lead thy son safe, and bring him to thee again safe. (Tobit 5:16-20)

When Tobit (aka Tobias, the father) asks the archangel for his name and family of origin, St. Raphael states, I am Azarias the son of the great Ananias. This could seem to be a lie, since he is an angel and not a man, nor is he the son of any man.

However, we know that the good angels have never sinned and will never sin, for they are wholly confirmed in grace and in glory. But it is always a sin to lie; therefore, this statement by Raphael, must not have been a lie.

[for those interested in other possible cases of saints and patriarchs lying in the Bible, please see our earlier article (here)]

Is it always a sin to lie?

The best tradition of the Catholic Church has been confirmed in the most recent universal Catechism – lying is always wrong. “A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving. […] By its very nature, lying is to be condemned.” (CCC 2482, 2485)

It is always a sin to lie, because it is wrong in its very nature. We have already published numerous article about lying here at NTM, but the simplest to read can be found [here], “The Nature of a Lie”.

Further, none can claim that a good intention can make a lie to be acceptable: “A good intention (for example, that of helping one’s neighbor) does not make behavior that is intrinsically disorder, such as lying and calumny, good or just.” (CCC 1753)

Broad mental reservation is not lie

While one may never tell a lie, it is permissible (for a just cause) to employ what the moral theologians call “broad mental reservation”. This is when a person uses discreet language which may be ambiguous but is not directly a lie. While it is true that the other person may be deceived, the deception is not from the words themselves being false, but from the hearer making a false assumption based on true words.

An example will illustrate this point well. Consider that a parishioner makes my favorite type of dessert (cheesecake), and serves it to me after dinner. If she asks me, “Father, do you like this cheesecake?”, I may well be thinking to myself that it is not a particularly good tasting cheesecake and (if I were particularly ungrateful) I may even consider that a store-bought cheesecake would have tasted better. However, I may well answer, “I loved that cheesecake! Thank you so much!”

Did I lie in saying that I liked the cheesecake? No, because I did not say that I loved the taste of the cheesecake, but only that I loved the cheesecake – and what I really meant was that I loved the cheesecake on account of the fact that it was made by her and was a very kind act on her part. Even if the cheesecake didn’t taste very good, I still truly did love the dessert since it was such a kind gesture on her part. Thus, I can truly say that I loved the food, while I could not truly say that I loved the taste of the food.

[lest any of my parishioners read this, I must insist that this is a purely hypothetical example; surely, I am not thinking of any particular parishioner or dessert! I have never had a parishioner’s home-made cheesecake that was not better than store-bought!]

St. Raphael did not lie

This theory of broad mental reservation may then explain how it is that St. Raphael did not lie when he said, I am Azarias the son of the great Ananias.

There is no falsehood in this statement, since “Azarias” means “the healer of YHWH” and “Ananias” means “The goodness of YHWH” or “The grace of YHWH”. Now, the Angel was then only disguising his true name (which means “God’s healer”) and testifying that he is sent into the world by God’s goodness. Thus, he gives his name through a certain riddle – but Tobit was thereby led to believe that the Angel was only a man.

Furthermore, Raphael truly states who he appeared to be. That is, the Angel truly declares who he came as. While it would have been a lie for Raphael to say, “I am not angel but only a man”, he said no such thing. Rather, he identified himself in an obscure manner and, thereby, withheld from Tobit a truth which he had no right to know.

St. Raphael, Pray for us!