13 November 2026 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.” John 3:35–36
Paul speaks reluctantly of being “caught up to the third heaven… into Paradise” and hearing things that cannot be told. Yet he refuses to boast except of his weaknesses. The heavenly vision does not make him proud; it makes him humble.
John's Gospel tells us why: only the one who comes from above can speak of heavenly things. “The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands.” We do not climb to heaven by our own visions; heaven came down to us in the Son. To believe in him is already to have eternal life.
Theme: “All things in his hands.”
Paul's vision makes him humble; Jesus, who comes from above, gives eternal life to those who believe.
““You cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.”” Exodus 33:20
“The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands.” John 3:35
Apply: Thank Jesus for revealing the Father.
“But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother.” Psalm 131:2
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
Apply: Admit one weakness honestly to God.
“The LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.” Numbers 6:25
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God's wrath.” John 3:36
Apply: Make an act of faith at midday.
Heaven came down to us in the Son.
Let us place all things in his hands.
Take-home resolution: Pray “Jesus, I trust in you” whenever you are anxious this week.
Dear friends, Paul speaks reluctantly of being caught up to the third heaven, into Paradise, and hearing things that cannot be told (2 Corinthians 12:2–4). Yet he refuses to boast except of his weaknesses. The heavenly vision does not make him proud; it makes him humble.
John's Gospel tells us whose testimony to believe: the one who comes from above is above all; he testifies to what he has seen and heard. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life (John 3:31–36).
We do not need to chase spiritual experiences; it is enough to believe in the Son who came from the Father's side. Let every grace we receive make us humbler. Tonight let us thank God for one grace and offer Jesus one weakness. Amen.
Children, when God gives us good gifts, we should not boast but say thank you. Thank Jesus today for one gift!
Lord Jesus, you came from above to show us the Father. Into your hands the Father has placed all things; I place my life there too. Give me the faith that is eternal life. Amen.
Two voices speak of heaven. Paul, forced to defend himself, tells of being caught up into Paradise, yet refuses to boast except of his weaknesses. In John, the one who comes from above testifies to what he has seen and heard, and whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. We know heaven not by our own ascents but because the Son came down.
Setting.
Paul is still answering the “super-apostles”, who seem to have boasted of visions and revelations. Reluctantly he matches them. He speaks of “a person in Christ” in the third person, but the context (12:7) shows that he means himself. Fourteen years before this letter, written around AD 55–57, would be the early 40s, before his great missionary journeys.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven” (12:2)
“Caught up” (harpazō) is the verb used for being taken up to meet the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Paul did not climb; he was taken.
“was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.” (12:4)
“On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses.” (12:5)
The apostle's credentials are not his visions but his weakness, where Christ's power is seen.
How the Church reads it.
St Augustine took this passage as the starting point for his teaching on the kinds of vision: bodily sight, the seeing of images in the spirit, and the intellectual vision of the mind, which he thought Paul was granted in the third heaven (in substance; The Literal Meaning of Genesis, Book 12). The Church learns from Paul's restraint: the Catechism teaches that later private revelations do not complete Christ's definitive Revelation but help us to live by it (CCC 67). Paul himself puts the vision beneath the Cross: power made perfect in weakness.
Setting.
It is not clear whether these verses continue the words of John the Baptist or are the evangelist's own reflection; many modern translations close the Baptist's words at v. 30. Either way, they sum up the themes of chapter 3: above and below, testimony, the Spirit, the Son, and eternal life.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.” (3:34)
“The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands.” (3:35)
All things: the world, judgment, life. The same hands will be stretched out on the Cross.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (3:36)
“Has”, in the present: eternal life begins now, in faith. The opposite of believing is “disobeying”: in John, faith is not just an opinion but obedience.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes 3:36 to teach that believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him is necessary for salvation (CCC 161), and 3:34 to show that Jesus' whole life and mission are carried out in total communion with the Spirit whom the Father gives him “without measure” (CCC 1286). The God who sends his Son is a Father who loves: in John, judgment is light refused, not love withheld.