15 December 2026 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”” Matthew 3:3
“By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Paul reminds us that we were dead through trespasses, and God, “rich in mercy”, made us alive with Christ. Salvation is gift; good works are the path God prepared for us to walk in.
John the Baptist appears in the wilderness: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” People confess their sins and are baptised in the Jordan. Repentance is not earning grace; it is opening the door to it. This week is a good time for the sacrament of confession.
Theme: “Prepare the way of the Lord.”
Saved by grace; called to repentance by John.
“A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”” Isaiah 40:3
“In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”” Matthew 3:1–2
Apply: Make your Christmas confession this week.
“Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together.” Isaiah 40:4–5
“This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”” Matthew 3:3
Apply: Settle one crooked matter this week.
“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you.” Ezekiel 36:26
“For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10
Apply: Thank God for his mercy tonight.
Grace comes first; repentance opens the door.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Take-home resolution: Go to confession before Christmas.
Dear friends, St Paul reminds the Ephesians where they came from: you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived (Ephesians 2:1). Not merely weak or sick, but dead. A dead person cannot raise himself.
Then come two of the most beautiful words in the Bible: but God. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ; by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4–5).
Paul insists: by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:8–10). We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works.
In the Gospel John the Baptist appears in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming: repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. People from Jerusalem and all Judea went out to him and were baptised in the Jordan, confessing their sins (Matthew 3:1–6).
John's message and Paul's message meet. Repentance is not our way of earning grace; it is the turning of the face towards the God who is already coming to meet us. The people confessed their sins because they hoped in mercy.
The word ‘but God’ is for every situation that looks dead: a marriage, a son who has left the Church, an addiction, a business failure. Let us bring these to the Lord this week, confess our part, and trust that God, rich in mercy, can make the dead alive. Amen.
Children, John the Baptist told people to get ready for Jesus. Get your heart ready by saying sorry for your mistakes!
God, rich in mercy, you saved me by grace. Give me true repentance and help me prepare the way for your Son. Amen.
Both readings ask what comes first, God's action or ours. Paul looks back at the Christians of Asia Minor as people who were dead, and says that God made them alive by grace alone. In the Gospel John the Baptist stands in the wilderness and calls for repentance, because the kingdom has already come near. In the season of the Annunciation, the two belong together: God's gift comes first, and repentance is how we open the door to it.
Setting.
Ephesians comes from prison (3:1; 4:1; 6:20) and is traditionally by Paul; some scholars think a later disciple wrote it. It looks at the whole plan of God for the Church. Chapter 1 ended with the power God used "when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places" (1:20). Now Paul makes a daring step: what God did for Christ, he has done for us.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (2:4–5)
Everything turns on the words "But God". Paul has given a dark picture of human life without grace, and God interrupts it. The dead cannot help themselves, and so the initiative is entirely his.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (2:8)
The word "this" is neuter in Greek, so most commentators take it to mean the whole event of being saved, and not faith alone. Even our response is held up by grace.
“created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” (2:10)
Not saved by works (v. 9), but saved for works. Paul holds the two together without strain. Good works are not the price of salvation; they are the road God has laid out for the saved to walk on.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that justification comes from the grace of God, and that since the initiative belongs to God, no one can merit the first grace of forgiveness (CCC 1996, 2010). St Augustine says that when God crowns our merits he crowns his own gifts (in substance; see CCC 2006). In the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (1999), Catholics and Lutherans together confessed that we are accepted by God by grace alone, and not because of any merit of ours, and that good works follow.
Setting.
After the infancy stories, Matthew moves straight to the adult John with the words "In those days". John's place is important. The wilderness is where Israel was formed after the Exodus, and the Jordan is the river Israel crossed to enter the land (Joshua 3). People go out from the city, back to where it all began, to start again.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (3:2)
The order matters. The kingdom is not a reward for those who first repent. It is coming, and that is the reason to turn.
“Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist” (3:4)
Any reader who knew the Scriptures would recognize Elijah, "a hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist" (2 Kings 1:8). Malachi had promised Elijah's return before the day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5), and Jesus will say that John is the one to come (Matthew 11:14). Locusts were clean food under the Law (Leviticus 11:22).
“and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” (3:6)
The baptism goes together with a spoken confession. Repentance is not left vague; people name what they have done.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism calls John the Lord's immediate forerunner, sent to prepare his way (CCC 523), and teaches that his baptism was one of repentance (CCC 535). Inner repentance, it says, is a radical reorientation of the whole life, a turning back to God with all our heart (CCC 1431). The days before the Lord's birth are a time for this turning, and for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Was John's baptism the same as Christian baptism?
No. John's baptism was a sign of repentance that prepared for the one to come. Christian baptism is given in the name of Jesus and joins us to his death and resurrection, with the gift of the Spirit. See Matthew 3:11 and Acts 19:3–5.