3 December 2026 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.”” Mark 16:15
St Francis Xavier (1506–1552), Jesuit companion of St Ignatius, arrived in Goa in 1542 and spent years among the fishing communities of the southern coast of India, including Travancore, teaching the catechism and baptising thousands. He went on to Malacca and Japan and died on the island of Sancian, within sight of China. His body rests in Goa. The Church honours him as patron of the missions.
The readings for his feast speak of mission: God's own people, holy to the Lord (Deuteronomy); the call to “all the ends of the earth” to turn and be saved (Isaiah); the apostle who is “poor, yet making many rich” (2 Corinthians); and the Twelve sent two by two with nothing but a staff (Mark). In this season of announcements, Xavier reminds us that the Good News must be announced to everyone.
Theme: “Go into all the world.”
St Francis Xavier, apostle of the southern coast of India and patron of missions.
“Today the LORD has obtained your agreement: to be his treasured people, as he promised you, and to keep his commandments.” Deuteronomy 26:18
“He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.” Mark 6:7
Apply: Renew your baptismal call to holiness.
“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:22
“And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.”” Mark 16:15
Apply: Pray for missionaries from Kerala.
“I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6
“So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent.” Mark 6:12
Apply: Share your faith with one person this week.
Xavier was poor, yet made many rich.
The Gospel must be announced to all.
Take-home resolution: Support a mission diocese or missionary this season.
Dear brothers and sisters, today we celebrate St Francis Xavier, the great missionary who preached on the coasts of South India, including Travancore, nearly five centuries ago. Many of our Latin and Syro-Malabar brothers and sisters along the coast trace their faith to his work.
The readings speak of mission. Isaiah calls: turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth (Isaiah 45:22). God's salvation is not for one nation but for all. Francis took this literally: he travelled from Spain to India, Malacca, the Moluccas and Japan, and died within sight of China.
St Paul describes the life of a true apostle: in hardships, calamities, sleepless nights, hunger; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything (2 Corinthians 6:4–10). This was Francis's life. He slept little, ate little, and gave everything; yet he was full of joy.
In the Gospel Jesus sends out the Twelve with nothing but a staff: no bread, no bag, no money (Mark 6:8). They were to depend on God and on the hospitality of those who received them. And they went out, preaching repentance, casting out demons and healing the sick.
Mission is not only for priests and sisters. Every baptised person is sent. You are sent to your family, your workplace, your school, your neighbourhood. Many of us are in mission territory without knowing it: offices in the Gulf, campuses in Bengaluru, hospitals in Europe.
How do we bring Christ? Francis taught the catechism with simple songs, cared for the sick, and above all loved people. We too can witness by honesty, kindness, prayer before meals in public, and a willingness to share our faith when someone asks.
Let us pray for missionaries today, especially for priests and sisters from our own Church serving in North India, Africa and elsewhere. And let us ask St Francis Xavier to make each of us a missionary where we live. Amen.
Children, St Francis Xavier taught children prayers with songs. Sing a prayer song today and teach it to a friend!
Lord Jesus, you sent St Francis Xavier to bring your Gospel to our land and to the East. Give us his zeal, his poverty and his love, and send labourers into your harvest. Amen.
On the day of St Francis Xavier, the readings trace the whole road of mission. In Deuteronomy, God and Israel bind themselves to one another, and Israel becomes a people set apart. In Isaiah, the God of that one people calls to “all the ends of the earth”. In Second Corinthians, Paul shows what it costs to carry such a message. In Mark, Jesus sends the Twelve out with almost nothing in their hands. The line runs from chosen to called to sent. A people is chosen not to keep God for itself but so that all may hear.
Setting.
Deuteronomy presents itself as the last words of Moses to Israel on the plains of Moab, before they cross into the land. Chapters 12–26 give the laws by which they are to live. These four verses close that long section, and the blessings and curses of chapters 27–28 follow.
The passage is one of the clearest statements of the covenant in the Bible, and it has the form of a double declaration: what Israel says about the Lord, and what the Lord says about Israel.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“This very day the Lord your God is commanding you to observe these statutes and ordinances; so observe them diligently with all your heart and with all your soul.” (26:16)
The same pair as the great commandment in 6:5. The law is not meant to be kept only on the outside.
“Today you have obtained the Lord’s agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways” (26:17)
This is the formula of the covenant in its simplest form: “I your God, you my people”. God allows himself to be bound by a promise to people.
“for you to be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.” (26:19)
Holiness comes last, and it is God’s gift “as he promised”. Being set “high above all nations” is not about pride. In the wider Scripture Israel’s election serves the nations, as today’s second reading will show.
How the Church reads it.
The Second Vatican Council teaches that God chose the race of Israel as a people and set up a covenant with it, as a preparation for the new covenant in Christ (Lumen Gentium 9; CCC 781). The Church honours this first covenant, which was never revoked (CCC 121, 839), and receives from it the language in which she describes herself.
Setting.
This passage belongs to Isaiah 40–55, addressed to the Jews in exile in Babylon. Chapter 45 opens by naming Cyrus, the Persian king God will use to release them. Then the horizon widens beyond Israel. God summons “you survivors of the nations”, the people left after the fall of empires, to a kind of courtroom, and invites them to look at the record.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“those who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.” (45:20)
The next chapter draws out the contrast: the gods of Babylon are loaded on tired animals, while the Lord says to Israel “I will carry” (46:1–4). An idol has to be carried, but the true God carries us.
“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” (45:22)
This is one of the widest invitations in the Old Testament. Because there is only one God, he must be the God of all, and his salvation must be meant for all.
“To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” (45:23)
St Paul quotes this line twice. In Romans 14:11 it speaks of God. In Philippians 2:10–11 he applies it to Jesus: “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend”. It would be hard to find a stronger way for a Jew of that time to speak of who Jesus is.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes vv. 22–24 together with Philippians 2 in its teaching on the one God: the God revealed to Israel is the only God, and at the name of Jesus every knee bends (CCC 201). The Church reads this oracle as the Old Testament root of her mission to all peoples (compare CCC 849–851).
Setting.
Paul wrote this letter from Macedonia (2:13; 7:5), probably in the mid 50s, after a painful period in his relations with the Corinthians. Some there compared him unfavourably with more impressive preachers. So he describes his apostolic ministry, not by its successes but by what it has cost. Ancient writers, among them the Stoic philosophers, sometimes listed a wise man’s hardships. Paul uses that form to show the power of God, not his own.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,” (6:4)
This list comes from experience: compare 11:23–28, and the riots and imprisonments of Acts.
“truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;” (6:7)
A soldier held a weapon in the right hand and a shield in the left. Paul’s meaning is that he is armed for attack and defence, but only with righteousness. A note on translation: In v. 6 the Greek en pneumati hagiō can mean “holiness of spirit”, as in the NRSV, or “in the Holy Spirit”, as in the Malayalam POC. Both are possible, and the second is common among interpreters.
“as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (6:10)
Paul is not saying that suffering is good in itself. He is saying that those who have nothing but Christ have lost nothing. The words echo his own teaching about Christ, who became poor so that we might become rich (8:9).
How the Church reads it.
St John Chrysostom, the great admirer of Paul, says in his sermons in praise of the Apostle that Paul counted suffering for Christ as joy, and feared only offending God (in substance). The Council teaches that the Church, led by the Spirit, must walk the road Christ walked, a way of poverty and obedience, of service and self-sacrifice (Ad Gentes 5; CCC 852).
Setting.
This passage comes straight after the rejection of Jesus in his own town of Nazareth (6:1–6). Rejection does not stop the mission: it spreads it. Jesus chose the Twelve “to be with him, and to be sent out” (3:14), and now the second part begins. Mark then places the death of John the Baptist (6:14–29) between the sending and the return of the Twelve (6:30), so that the reader knows what the preacher of repentance can expect.
The instructions fit travellers in Galilee, where a stranger depended on hospitality. Staff and sandals are for walking; the bag is what a beggar might carry for gifts received; coins were commonly kept in the belt.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.” (6:7)
They do not go on their own power. The first thing given is authority, and it is Jesus’ own.
“He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts;” (6:8)
The poverty of the messenger is part of the message. Those who bring the Kingdom must themselves live on trust, and must let others give to them.
“If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” (6:11)
A public sign that the messenger has done his part and that the responsibility now rests with the hearers (compare Acts 13:51). It leaves judgment to God: the disciples do not stay to argue or to take revenge.
“They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.” (6:13)
The Twelve do what Jesus has been doing: proclaiming, casting out, healing. The Lord’s work now goes on through other hands.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism sees in this verse the Church’s ministry to the sick (CCC 1506). The Council of Trent, quoted in the Catechism, says that the Anointing of the Sick is alluded to by Mark and promulgated by James (James 5:14; CCC 1511). St Gregory the Great, on the parallel in Luke 10, says that the Lord sends disciples in twos because there are two commandments of love, and love needs at least two people (in substance). The Council teaches that the Church is missionary by her very nature (Ad Gentes 2).
Mark says to take a staff and sandals, but Matthew and Luke forbid a staff. Which is right?
Matthew 10:10 and Luke 9:3 do say “no staff”. The Evangelists hand on the Lord’s teaching faithfully, but they shape the details for their readers, and the point is the same in all three: travel light and depend on God. In Mark the staff and sandals may also recall the Exodus, when Israel ate the Passover “your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand” (Exodus 12:11). The Twelve are a people on the move.
If there is “no other” god, does the Church say that followers of other religions are lost?
No. The Church proclaims Christ as the one Saviour, and she also teaches that those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel but seek God sincerely and try to do his will can attain salvation (Lumen Gentium 16; CCC 847). She rejects nothing that is true and holy in other religions (Nostra Aetate 2). Mission is not contempt for others. It is the wish to share the best thing we have been given.
Is the anointing in Mark 6:13 the same as the sacrament?
Not yet in its full form. The Twelve’s anointing is a sign and a preparation. The Church teaches that Christ instituted the sacrament, that Mark alludes to it, and that James recommends it to the faithful and promulgates it (CCC 1511).
St Francis Xavier (1506–1552), one of the first companions of St Ignatius, landed at Goa in 1542 and laboured among the fisherfolk of the southern Indian coast, and then in Malacca and Japan. In a letter he wrote that he often thought of going round the universities of Europe and crying out to the learned that souls were being lost for lack of anyone to teach them (in substance). He died on the island of Sancian, within sight of China, and his body is venerated in Goa. For Syro-Malabar Christians, who trace their faith to St Thomas long before him, his day is a reminder that an apostolic Church must be a sending Church. Our own priests and religious now serve in the mission fields of North India and beyond, carrying little and depending on others, as Mark 6 describes.