25 January 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10
Today's readings set two great calls side by side. Moses, a fugitive shepherd in the desert, sees a bush that burns and is not consumed, and hears his name: “Moses, Moses!” God reveals himself: “I AM WHO I AM.” Saul, a zealous persecutor on the road, is thrown to the ground by a light from heaven and hears his name: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asks, “Who are you, Lord?” and hears: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” The God of the burning bush has a human face and a name, and he identifies himself with his suffering Church.
Saul is led blind into Damascus. Ananias, frightened but obedient, lays hands on him; “something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored.” He is baptized, and “immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’” Years later Paul looks back with humility: Christ appeared to Cephas, to the Twelve, to more than five hundred, to James, “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles.” And then the great sentence: “by the grace of God I am what I am.”
The Gospel explains this grace. The owner of the vineyard hires workers at dawn, at nine, at noon, at three, and even at five o'clock, and pays them all the same. Those hired first grumble. He answers: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” Paul was hired at the eleventh hour, and received the full wage of grace. None of us earns salvation; all of us receive it. This is the good news for every latecomer, and the end of all envy in the Church.
The weekday readings carry the same grace further. In a Philippian prison at midnight Paul himself, the converted persecutor, is singing hymns when an earthquake opens the doors; the trembling jailer asks, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”, and Paul answers, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” That same night the whole family is baptized. In Luke a man covered with leprosy begs, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean”, and Jesus touches him: “I do choose. Be made clean.” The grace that met Saul on the road keeps finding the latecomers and the outcasts.
Theme: “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
Two calls by name, and the generous wage of grace.
“When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”” Exodus 3:4
“He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”” Acts 9:4
Apply: Answer God today: Here I am.
“God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”” Exodus 3:14
“He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Acts 9:5
Apply: Treat the Church as the Body of Christ.
“What shall I return to the LORD for all his bounty to me?” Psalm 116:12
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10
Apply: List three graces you did not earn.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” Isaiah 55:8
“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’” Matthew 20:15
Apply: Rejoice in someone else's blessing.
God calls by name and gives grace beyond merit.
Let gratitude replace envy, and unity replace division.
Take-home resolution: Pray daily this week for Christian unity.
Dear friends, today two great calls are set side by side. Moses, a shepherd in the desert, sees a bush burning and not consumed, and hears: Moses, Moses! God reveals his name: I AM WHO I AM (Exodus 3:14).
Saul, on the road to Damascus, is thrown down by a light from heaven and hears: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He asks: who are you, Lord? The answer: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting (Acts 9:4–5). The God of the burning bush now has a human face, and he suffers in his Church.
Blind, Saul is led into Damascus. Ananias lays hands on him; something like scales fall from his eyes; he is baptized, and immediately proclaims Jesus as the Son of God.
Years later Paul writes: last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. And: by the grace of God I am what I am (1 Corinthians 15:8, 10).
The Gospel explains this grace. Workers hired at five o'clock receive the same wage as those hired at dawn. The owner says: are you envious because I am generous? (Matthew 20:15). Paul came late and received the full wage of grace.
None of us earns salvation; all of us receive it. Let us give thanks for grace, rejoice in others' blessings, and pray today that all Christians may be one. Amen.
Every conversion story has two heroes: the one who is converted, and the one who dares to welcome him. Today we look at Ananias.
📖 Jonah 1:1–3
📖 Acts 9:10–14
Apply: Tell God honestly what you fear about someone.
📖 1 Samuel 16:7
📖 Acts 9:15–16
Apply: Pray for someone you have written off.
📖 Genesis 33:4
📖 Acts 9:17–18
Apply: Welcome a newcomer or a returning Catholic as brother or sister.
Without Ananias there might have been no Paul.
God still needs disciples brave enough to say brother.
Take-home resolution: This week I will reach out to one person I have been afraid of or have given up on.
Dear friends, today we celebrate the conversion of Paul. But there is another hero in the story, a quiet disciple in Damascus named Ananias.
The Lord said to him: get up and go to the street called Straight, and look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. Ananias answered honestly: Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints (Acts 9:11, 13). He was afraid, and he had good reason to be.
But the Lord said: go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings (Acts 9:15). God sees what we cannot see. The man everyone feared was the man God had chosen.
So Ananias went, laid his hands on Saul and said: Brother Saul (Acts 9:17). His first word was brother. Something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he was baptised.
Who is the Saul in my life? The person I fear, avoid, or have given up on? Perhaps God is sending me, as he sent Ananias, to say: brother, sister. And let us bring that person to the Holy Qurbana in our prayer today. Amen.
Saul did not change his zeal, his intelligence or his energy. He changed his centre. Conversion is not becoming someone else but becoming who God meant.
📖 Jeremiah 9:23–24
📖 Philippians 3:7–8
Apply: Name one thing you are proud of and offer it to Christ.
📖 Isaiah 43:18–19
📖 2 Corinthians 5:17
Apply: Make a good confession this week.
📖 Ezekiel 36:26–27
📖 Galatians 2:20
Apply: Pray each morning: Lord, live in me today.
Conversion keeps our gifts but changes our centre.
Paul's zeal became love for Christ and for all peoples.
Take-home resolution: Each morning this week I will pray Galatians 2:20: it is Christ who lives in me.
Dear brothers and sisters, what changed when Saul became Paul? Not his intelligence: he remained a brilliant scholar. Not his energy: he remained tireless. Not his zeal: he remained on fire. What changed was the centre of his life.
He writes: whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ (Philippians 3:7). His birth, his learning, his religious record, all the things he had been proud of, he now laid at the feet of Christ.
He discovered that if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is what happens in every good confession: the old passes, the new begins.
And he could finally say: it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
God does not want to destroy our gifts but to set them on the right centre. Let us offer him our pride, make a good confession, and pray each day: Lord, live in me. And receive him in the Holy Qurbana as Paul's whole life. Amen.
Children, St Paul started by hurting Christians, but Jesus changed him into his best messenger. God's love is for everyone, even people who come late!
Let us be happy when others get good things, because God is generous.
Lord God, you appeared to Moses in the burning bush and to Saul on the road to Damascus. By your grace make us what you want us to be, free us from envy at your generosity, and through the prayers of St Paul unite all Christians in one faith. Glory to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.
Today’s readings set two great calls side by side. A shepherd in the wilderness hears “Moses, Moses!” from a burning bush. A persecutor on the road hears “Saul, Saul!” from a light in the sky. The God who says “I am” to Moses says “I am Jesus” to Saul. Years later Paul looks back and says only: “by the grace of God I am what I am.” The parable of the labourers explains that grace: the wage is not earned by the hour, and the owner goes out even at the end of the day. The key words are called, grace and last.
Setting.
Moses, raised in Pharaoh’s house, has killed an Egyptian and fled to Midian (2:11–22). He is now keeping someone else’s sheep. Meanwhile the Israelites groan under slavery, and God has heard (2:23–25). Horeb is another name for the mountain also called Sinai, where Moses will one day return with the whole people (3:12).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.” (3:2)
The fire does not need the bush for fuel, and God does not need the world to exist. Yet he comes into it without destroying it.
“Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” (3:5)
Nothing is holy about the land itself. It is holy because God is there. Holiness begins with distance and reverence, as the Catechism notes (CCC 208).
“I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry” (3:7)
Four verbs in a row (vv. 7–8): seen, heard, known, come down. Having named himself the God of the fathers, this is what God says next about himself: he is not far from suffering.
“But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”” (3:11)
God does not answer the question. He does not say who Moses is. He says who will be with him.
“I am who I am” (3:14)
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism gives a whole section to this passage (CCC 203–213). God reveals himself as the living God, who is also near and saves (CCC 205–207), and the Name reveals a mystery that goes beyond what we can name (CCC 206). St Gregory of Nyssa saw in the bush that burned and was not consumed a figure of the Virgin, who bore the divine light and was not harmed (Life of Moses 2, in substance). Jesus himself uses the passage to teach the resurrection (Mark 12:26). Today the Church hears it beside the road to Damascus.
Setting.
Saul first appears at the stoning of Stephen (7:58; 8:1). Paul later describes himself as a Pharisee and a zealot for his ancestors’ traditions (Philippians 3:5–6; Galatians 1:13–14). Damascus, a city in Syria with a Jewish community, lay some 200 km from Jerusalem. The followers of Jesus there are called those of “the Way” (9:2). Acts tells this story three times (chapters 9, 22 and 26), a sign of how central it was to Luke. Paul’s own brief account is in Galatians 1:15–17. His name is not changed here: Acts goes on calling him Saul, and later says “Saul, also known as Paul” (13:9). Jews in the Roman world often had two names.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”” (9:4)
God calls by name, twice, as with Abraham and Moses. There is no accusation of a crime and no sentence, only a question. The text mentions no horse; that comes from later Christian art.
“He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (9:5)
The whole of Paul’s later teaching on the Body of Christ is already here.
““Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem;” (9:13)
Ananias has good reason to be afraid. He is one of the great minor figures of the Bible. He objects honestly, then goes.
“So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul,” (9:17)
“Brother”: the first word a Christian says to him. Paul was received into the Church through the hands and courage of a man we know nothing else about.
“And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized,” (9:18)
Sight and baptism come together, and the early Church called baptism “enlightenment” (CCC 1216).
“and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”” (9:20)
The Catechism notes that this confession stands at the centre of the apostolic faith (CCC 442). In v. 22 Saul is a Jew arguing with fellow Jews in the synagogue; the phrase “the Jews who lived in Damascus” does not set Christians against a people. That division lay in the future.
How the Church reads it.
St Augustine often returned to the words “why do you persecute me?”, saying that the Head in heaven cries out on behalf of his members on earth (in substance); this is the teaching of the whole Christ (CCC 795). St John Chrysostom preached a series of homilies in praise of St Paul, and he never tired of the grace that turned such zeal to Christ. The Church does not celebrate today a change of character only, but the risen Lord who met him. Paul himself lists it among the appearances of the risen Christ, as the next reading shows.
Setting.
Some in Corinth were saying “there is no resurrection of the dead” (15:12). Before he answers them, Paul reminds them of what they already received. Writing in the mid-50s, he quotes a formula that he himself was given, and many scholars think it goes back to within a few years of the events. The Catechism points to this same text as very early witness (CCC 639).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,” (15:3)
“and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,” (15:4)
“Buried” underlines that he really died. “Raised” is a passive: the Father’s act. No single Old Testament verse is quoted; the whole of the Scriptures is seen as pointing to it (compare Isaiah 53; Hosea 6:2).
“Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (15:8)
Paul puts Damascus in the same list as Easter morning. It was not a private inner experience in his eyes but a meeting with the risen one.
“For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” (15:9)
He never forgets it. Grace does not erase memory, but heals it. The Latin word paulus means “small”.
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.” (15:10)
“Grace” occurs three times in this one verse. It answers “I am who I am” in the first reading. The Lord alone can say that sentence of himself; everyone else must say it Paul’s way.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism uses this passage as a chief witness to the Resurrection, a real event known from those who met the Lord (CCC 639, 642). The Church’s faith rests on the apostles’ testimony, handed on. So every Creed we recite in the Holy Qurbana has this ancient formula within it. The grace Paul speaks of is that which comes first: it is God who begins, and merit is itself his gift (CCC 2007–2008).
Setting.
The parable is found only in Matthew. Peter has just asked, “What then will we have?” (19:27), and Jesus has answered with a saying: “many who are first will be last, and the last will be first” (19:30). The parable then illustrates that saying, and it ends with the same words reversed. Day labourers were hired in the marketplace, and the Law required them to be paid the same day, before sunset (Deuteronomy 24:14–15).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’” (20:7)
They were not lazy. They were unwanted. The owner’s going out so late has no business reason. It only makes sense if he is thinking about them.
“Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.” (20:8)
The order is the point of the story. If he had paid the first ones first, they would have gone home content and we would have no parable.
“These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” (20:12)
They have a real case, and every honest reader feels it. The word “equal” is the one they cannot bear.
“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (20:15)
He has done no wrong to anyone (v. 13). Justice is the floor of God’s dealing with us, not the ceiling.
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (20:16)
A note on the text. Many later manuscripts and the Latin Vulgate add “for many are called, but few are chosen”, which comes from 22:14. The oldest manuscripts do not have it here, and the NRSV and the POC omit it.
How the Church reads it.
The Fathers read the hours in more than one way. St Gregory the Great took them as the stages of a human life, so that no one should despair at any age (Homilies on the Gospels 19, in substance). The Easter sermon that bears the name of St John Chrysostom, still read in the Byzantine East, welcomes those who came at the eleventh hour (in substance). The Catechism teaches that we have no strict right to merit before God (CCC 2007), and it ends the section with St Thérèse, who wished to appear before God with empty hands (CCC 2011). Some older readings took the first-hired as Israel and the latecomers as the Gentiles, but the parable says that the owner keeps his agreement with the first, and the Church teaches that God’s covenant with Israel stands (CCC 839).
Was Paul a Jew who left his faith?
Paul never stopped being a Jew. He calls himself “a member of the people of Israel” (Philippians 3:5) and insists that God has not rejected his people (Romans 11:1). In Galatians he describes the event in the language of a prophet’s call (Galatians 1:15; compare Jeremiah 1:5). “Conversion” is the Church’s traditional word, and a true one, because he turned wholly to Christ; many scholars also stress that it was a call.
Did his companions hear the voice or not? Acts 9:7 and 22:9 seem to differ.
Acts 9:7 says they “heard the voice but saw no one”; 22:9 says they “saw the light but did not hear the voice”. A common explanation is that they heard a sound but did not understand the words, since the Greek verb can mean both. In either telling, the call is meant for Saul alone.
Is the owner unfair to the workers? Does this parable teach us how to pay wages?
No. It is about God’s generosity, not labour policy. Nobody gets less than was agreed. The Church teaches firmly that a just wage is a duty, and that to withhold it can be a grave injustice (CCC 2434).
In our Holy Qurbana the Epistle is called the reading of the Apostle (Sliha), and many of these readings come from Paul. Today we meet the man behind the letters we hear Sunday after Sunday. Today also ends the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. Ananias’s first word to a man who had come to bind him was “Brother”. In Kerala, where the children of Mar Thoma are found in several Churches, this is a word to pray with and to practise.