21 January 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:7
The fast is over, and the Church celebrates the joy of God who forgives. Ezekiel hears God swear: “As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live.” Micah sings: “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity…? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing clemency… You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” After three days of turning, we hear God's answer: mercy.
In the Gospel tax collectors and sinners come near to Jesus, and the Pharisees grumble. Jesus tells of a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to find one lost sheep, and of a woman who sweeps her house to find one lost coin. When they find them, they call their neighbours: “Rejoice with me.” “Just so… there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.” John the Elder writes: “I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” The fruit of the fast is joy: God's joy over us, and our joy in walking in his truth.
Theme: “Joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.”
After the fast: the God who delights in mercy, and the joy of the found.
“Say to them, As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?” Ezekiel 33:11
“The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
Apply: Thank God for his patience with you.
“He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:19
“When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’” Luke 15:5–6
Apply: Do not dig up sins God has forgiven.
“The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” Zephaniah 3:17
“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:7
Apply: Reach out to one person who has drifted away.
The fast ends in God's joy.
Let us rejoice, and seek the lost.
Take-home resolution: Pray this week for one person far from God, by name.
Dear friends, the Three Days' Fast is over, and today the Church celebrates God's joy. Through Ezekiel God swears: as I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live (Ezekiel 33:11).
Micah sings: who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity? He delights in showing clemency. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:18–19). What we brought to God in these three days, he has thrown into the sea.
In the Gospel Jesus tells of a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to find one, and of a woman who searches her whole house for one coin. When they find them they say: rejoice with me. Just so, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:6–7).
John the Elder writes: I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth (3 John 4). Let the fruit of our fast be joy, and let us become seekers of the lost. Amen.
Children, a shepherd found his lost sheep and was so happy! God is that happy when we come back to him. Thank God for these three days of fasting.
God of mercy, you take no pleasure in the death of sinners and you cast our sins into the depths of the sea. Thank you for the grace of these days of fasting. Let us share heaven's joy over every sinner who returns, and walk always in your truth. Amen.
The fast is over, and the day after it is a day of thanksgiving. The readings tell us what God was doing during the fast. Ezekiel gives us God's oath: “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked”. Micah sings of a God who throws our sins into the sea. The elder writes to Gaius of his joy that his children walk in the truth. And Jesus tells of the shepherd and the woman who search until they find, and of the joy in heaven when a sinner turns. The word for today is joy, and first of all the joy of God.
Setting.
Ezekiel is a priest among the exiles in Babylon, in the sixth century BC. Chapter 33 stands at the turning point of the book: he has been appointed a watchman (33:1–9), and very soon the news will come that Jerusalem has fallen (33:21). The people have stopped making excuses and have fallen into the opposite danger, which is despair: “how then can we live?” The same teaching appears at more length in chapter 18.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?” (33:10)
This is true guilt, and it could lead either to God or to despair. Judas and Peter both knew this weight. The difference lies in what one does next.
“As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (33:11)
This is one of the great verses on God's heart in the whole Old Testament. See also 18:23, 32. It is echoed in 2 Peter 3:9.
“None of the sins that they have committed shall be remembered against them; they have done what is lawful and right, they shall surely live.” (33:16)
God's memory of sin ends with conversion. Yet the same passage warns that past goodness is not a bank account (33:13). What matters is the direction of one's life today.
How the Church reads it.
St Clement of Rome, near the end of the first century, already quotes this teaching to urge repentance on the Church of Corinth (1 Clement 8, in substance). The Catechism teaches that conversion is a turning of the whole life to God, and that it is God who gives the heart strength to begin anew (CCC 1431–1432). Giving back what has been taken is also a matter of justice: restitution is part of repentance (CCC 2412).
Setting.
Micah preached in Judah in the eighth century BC, defending the poor. The book's closing verses (7:8–20) read like a liturgy, and many scholars think that they were shaped in the time after the exile. Lady Zion speaks in the first person, in darkness but with hope. The final hymn is a song to God's mercy, and in Jewish custom these verses are read at the Tashlikh rite at the new year, when people go to flowing water and symbolically cast off their sins.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.” (7:8)
A verse for the morning after any failure. Falling is not the last event. The Christian also hears here the light that the season of Denha proclaims.
“I must bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he takes my side and executes judgment for me.” (7:9)
She accepts what she has done, without self-pity. The judge she has sinned against will turn out to be her advocate.
“He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” (7:19)
After three days with Jonah, this comes as a fine picture. The sea that was once Jonah's punishment and the Egyptians' end becomes the place where sins are lost, as Pharaoh's army was (Exodus 15:4–5).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that God keeps steadfast love for thousands, and that in spite of human unfaithfulness he reveals himself as rich in mercy (CCC 211). The forgiveness of sins that the prophets long for comes in Christ, who gave his Church the power to forgive (CCC 976, 981).
Setting.
This is the shortest book of the Bible in Greek, a real private letter of the kind found in the ancient world. The writer calls himself “the elder”. Tradition identifies him with John the Apostle, while many scholars see a leader of the Johannine communities. Travelling preachers needed hospitality from local Christians, and some leaders were refusing it (Diotrephes in v. 9). Gaius has welcomed them. This is one of very few glimpses of how the first mission actually paid its way.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul.” (1:2)
An ordinary greeting from a letter of the time, turned into a prayer. It shows care for the whole person. It is not a promise of wealth.
“I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (1:4)
Every parent and every priest can pray this verse. Here is the joy that the day's other readings speak of, but now in a human heart.
“for they began their journey for the sake of Christ, accepting no support from non-believers.” (1:7)
Literally “for the sake of the Name”. They would not take money from pagans, so that the Gospel would not look like a religious trade. Therefore someone had to help them.
“Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we may become co-workers with the truth.” (1:8)
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that all members of the Church share in the apostolate, each in his or her own way (CCC 863). The Didache, an early Christian writing, gives rules for welcoming travelling teachers, which show how important this was (Didache 11–13). The whole Church's support of mission work continues this today.
Setting.
Luke 15 is the heart of Luke's Gospel: three parables of the lost, of which the third is the Prodigal Son. The occasion is given in vv. 1–2. Tax collectors and sinners are drawing near, and the Pharisees and scribes object that Jesus eats with them. In that culture, sharing a table meant accepting someone. Jesus' answer is addressed to good people, and it is an invitation: come in to the feast.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (15:2)
It was meant as an accusation, and it has become one of the best descriptions of Jesus. It is also a description of the Holy Qurbana.
“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” (15:4)
“Until he finds it”. The search has no time limit. Honest shepherds might well answer “not me”, and this is why the parable is so surprising.
“When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.” (15:5)
There is no word of blame. The shepherd carries the sheep himself. This is the same picture as Sunday's first readings: God carries his people.
“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?” (15:8)
Jesus pairs a man's work with a woman's, and God is pictured in both. A drachma was about a day's wage: for a poor house, this is real money.
“Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (15:10)
At the end of a fast, this is the verse to remember. The joy is first in heaven.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism points to these parables as the revelation of God's mercy to sinners (CCC 1846; compare 1439), and it recalls that Jesus scandalized the Pharisees by eating with tax collectors and sinners (CCC 588; compare 1443). St Gregory the Great, preaching on this Gospel, says that the shepherd laid the sheep on his shoulders because in taking our human nature Christ bore our sins (in substance; Homily 34 on the Gospels).
If God does not want the death of the sinner, why is there a hell?
Because God does not force love. The Church teaches that hell is the state of definitive self-exclusion from God, and that God predestines no one to it (CCC 1033, 1037). This is why he pleads so hard: “why will you die?”
Were the ninety-nine in the parable truly in no need of repentance?
This is gentle irony. All of us need repentance (Luke 13:3). Jesus is inviting those who think they do not need it to come and share the joy. Many Pharisees were close to Jesus, and the door is held open for them, as it is for us (CCC 575).
Should every Christian support missionaries?
Yes, each in the way open to them: with prayer, offerings and hospitality. The Church teaches that the whole Church is missionary (CCC 849–856). In many of our parishes, Mission Sunday and support of mission dioceses continue what Gaius did.
In the East Syriac tradition, the Thursday after the Three Days' Fast is a day of thanksgiving for the mercy received, and the calendar calls it so. The readings are the right ones for it: we have asked for mercy, and now we hear how much God desired to give it. At today's Holy Qurbana, give thanks not only for what we received in the fast, but for God's own joy. Keep something of the fast's fruit: one forgiveness offered, one sin confessed, one work of mercy continued, and let them be the first steps toward the Great Fast.