4 December 2026 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it.” Matthew 13:16–17
“If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above… Set your minds on things that are above.” Paul asks the baptised to put to death what is earthly and to “clothe yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.”
Jesus tells his disciples that they are blessed: prophets and righteous people longed to see what they see. In the Annunciation season we stand where the prophets longed to stand, at the threshold of the Incarnation. On this First Friday we look at the Heart of the One the prophets longed to see.
Theme: “Blessed are your eyes.”
Seek the things above; we see what the prophets longed to see. First Friday: the Sacred Heart.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.” Isaiah 9:2
“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” Matthew 13:16
Apply: Thank God for the gift of faith.
“See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” Malachi 3:1
“Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” Matthew 13:17
Apply: Visit the Blessed Sacrament today.
“I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:8
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Apply: Consecrate your family to the Sacred Heart.
We are blessed to see Christ.
Let us set our hearts on him.
Take-home resolution: Fast from one kind of screen content during the 25 days.
Dear friends, on this First Friday of December St Paul lifts our eyes: if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (Colossians 3:1–2).
This does not mean despising the world. It means ordering our lives. Our houses, jobs, savings and plans are good, but they are not our final home. A person who knows heaven is his home lives differently on earth: more generously, more peacefully, less anxiously.
Then Paul becomes very concrete. Put to death what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, evil desire and greed. Get rid of anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive language. Do not lie to one another (Colossians 3:5–9). It is like taking off old, dirty clothes.
And put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator (Colossians 3:10). In the old Syriac liturgy, the newly baptised were clothed in white. The Christmas fast is a time to wash those white garments again in confession.
In the Gospel Jesus says to his disciples: blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear; many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it (Matthew 13:16–17). We have what the prophets only dreamed of: the Gospel, the sacraments, the Holy Qurbana, the Church.
Yet we can have eyes and not see. We can hear the Gospel every Sunday and not let it touch us. The First Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart is an invitation to let Christ's love open our eyes.
Today, if possible, make a good confession and receive Holy Communion in honour of the Sacred Heart. Take off one old garment of sin, and ask Jesus to give you eyes that truly see and ears that truly hear. Amen.
Children, Jesus says: happy are your eyes, because you can know me! Thank Jesus today that you know Him.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, the prophets longed to see you; I am blessed to know you. Lift my mind to the things above and renew me in your image. Amen.
Both readings are about learning to see. Paul tells the Colossians that their true life is hidden with Christ, so they must look up and strip off what no longer fits. In Matthew, Jesus says that some look and do not perceive, and he calls his disciples blessed because their eyes see what the prophets longed to see. On a First Friday in this season of waiting, both ask the same thing: what are the eyes of my heart set on?
Setting.
Colossae was a small town in the Lycus valley in what is now western Turkey. The letter comes from prison (4:3, 18) and is traditionally by Paul; some scholars think a later disciple wrote it. A “philosophy” with its rules about food and festivals and its interest in angels was troubling the community (2:8, 16–18). Paul’s reply is that in baptism they have already died and risen with Christ (2:12). Chapter 3 draws the consequences.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (3:1)
This is not a call to ignore the world. The rest of the chapter is about speech, family and work. “Above” is where Christ reigns, and it is from there that a Christian measures everything.
“for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (3:3)
The sentence explains the whole of Christian hope. A believer may look like anyone else, and may look like a failure. What is true of him is out of sight.
“and greed (which is idolatry).” (3:5)
Greed is called idolatry because what we want most becomes what we serve. A note on the text: in v. 6 some ancient manuscripts have “on those who are disobedient”, as in the NRSV, while others stop at “the wrath of God is coming”, as in the Malayalam POC. The sense is the same.
“and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.” (3:10)
“Is being renewed”: the verb is in the present. The change of clothes happened once in baptism, but the renewing goes on all through life.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches from this passage that Christian life is already a sharing in the Resurrection: we have in a certain way already risen with Christ, and our life remains “hidden with Christ in God” (CCC 1002–1003). The Tenth Commandment’s warning against greed takes up the same warning (CCC 2534–2536).
Setting.
Chapter 13 is the third of the five great discourses in Matthew, the parables of the Kingdom. After the parable of the sower, the disciples ask why he speaks in parables (13:10). His reply is today’s Gospel. Matthew quotes Isaiah 6:9–10, the words given to the prophet at his call, in the Greek form of the Old Testament.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance” (13:12)
The proverb is about openness, not wealth. Whoever receives the word finds that it grows. Whoever refuses it finds that even what he once had slips away.
“The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’” (13:13)
Compare Mark 4:12, which says “in order that”. Matthew’s form says “because”: the parables are a response to a closed heart. Both Evangelists are using Isaiah’s language of God’s purpose working through human refusal.
“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” (13:16)
The disciples are not cleverer than others. Their eyes are blessed because of what stands in front of them. The people Jesus calls blessed here are Jews, as he is, and the words “this people” in Isaiah are a prophet’s sorrowful warning to his own, not a sentence on a nation (CCC 597–598).
“many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it” (13:17)
This is one of the verses that best fits this season. All the waiting of the Old Testament reaches its goal in the one who is speaking.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that the parables are a kind of mirror: one must enter the Kingdom, that is, become a disciple of Christ, in order to know its secrets, and for those who remain outside, everything remains enigmatic (CCC 546). In the liturgy of the season before Christmas, which for us is the season of Annunciation, it adds, the Church makes present the ancient expectancy of the Messiah, sharing the long preparation for his first coming (CCC 524).
Does Jesus speak in parables so that people will not be healed?
No. Isaiah’s words are the language of a prophet who knows his message will be refused, and they end with what God wants: “and I would heal them.” Matthew’s “because” places the difficulty in the closed heart. A parable is also a mercy: it does not force anyone, and it stays in the memory, waiting for the day the hearer is ready.
Today is a First Friday, which many Syro-Malabar families keep in honour of the Heart of Jesus, a devotion that spread from the revelations to St Margaret Mary Alacoque in the seventeenth century. Matthew’s words about a heart grown dull give it a sharp edge. The Catechism says that Jesus knew and loved each of us with a human heart (CCC 478). To come before that Heart is to ask for one’s own to be softened.