5 February 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” 1 Corinthians 15:43
On the Fridays of Denha the Church remembers those through whom Christ was made visible. On this last Friday, before the Great Fast begins, she remembers all the faithful departed, so that we enter the fast in communion with the whole family of God, living and dead. Ezekiel stands in a valley full of bones, “and they were very dry.” God asks him, “Mortal, can these bones live?” The prophet gives the only honest answer: “O Lord GOD, you know.” Then he is told to prophesy, and the bones come together, bone to its bone, with sinews, flesh and skin; and when the breath comes into them, “they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.” God explains the vision: “I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people”; “I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.” Sirach sings the praises of the ancestors, the famous and the forgotten. “But of others there is no memory”, he admits; yet “these also were godly men, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten.” “Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name lives on generation after generation.” Most of our grandparents and great-grandparents have no monument but a cross in the parish cemetery. God has not forgotten one of them.
Paul tells the Corinthians what kind of body will rise. As a seed is buried and comes up as a plant, so “What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” We bury our dead with the sign of the cross and with candles, because we sow them like seed in hope: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.” The Gospel shows the judgment that awaits every life. The King gathers the nations and says to those on his right, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”, because they fed the hungry, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, cared for the sick and visited the prisoner: “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” The Church believes that those who die in God's grace but still need purification are cleansed before they enter the joy of heaven, and that our prayers, our alms and above all the Holy Qurbana offered for them help them. Praying for the dead is itself a work of mercy. So today we pray the oppees at the graves of our dear ones, and we prepare for the Great Fast by remembering that we too are dust, and that we too are sown for glory.
Theme: “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.”
The valley of dry bones, the resurrection of the body, and the mercy of praying for the dead.
“He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.”” Ezekiel 37:3
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,” John 11:25
Apply: Bring to God one area of your life that feels dry and dead.
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 12:2
“So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” 1 Corinthians 15:42–43
Apply: Visit the cemetery this week and pray with hope at the graves.
“But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, so that they might be delivered from their sin.” 2 Maccabees 12:45
“And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” Matthew 25:40
Apply: Have a Holy Qurbana offered for your departed, and give an alms in their name.
God has forgotten none of our dead; he will raise them in glory.
Pray for them, serve Christ in the least, and enter the Great Fast in hope.
Take-home resolution: Make a list of your departed family members and pray for them every day of the Great Fast.
Dear friends, today, on the last Friday of Denha, we remember all the faithful departed. Ezekiel sees a valley full of dry bones, and God asks: mortal, can these bones live? (Ezekiel 37:3). When God's breath enters them, they live and stand up, a vast multitude.
Sirach praises our ancestors, the famous and the forgotten. Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name lives on generation after generation (Sirach 44:14). God has forgotten none of them.
Paul tells us that the body is like a seed: it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power (1 Corinthians 15:43). We bury our dead in hope, because we believe in the resurrection of the body.
In the Gospel the King says: just as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me (Matthew 25:40). Let us serve Christ in the poor, pray for our departed, have the Holy Qurbana offered for them, and so prepare for the Great Fast that begins this Sunday. Amen.
Children, God showed Ezekiel dry bones that came to life again! God will raise up our grandparents and everyone who loved him. Tonight, let us pray for our family members who have died.
Lord Jesus Christ, resurrection and life, you opened the graves of your people and breathed your Spirit into dry bones. Have mercy on all our departed brothers and sisters, our parents, grandparents and ancestors, and all who have no one to pray for them. Purify them and bring them into the joy of your kingdom. Teach us to serve you in the least of your brothers and sisters, so that on the last day we too may hear: come, you that are blessed by my Father. Amen.
On the Fridays of Denha the Church remembers those through whom Christ has been made known. On this last Friday before the Great Fast she remembers all the faithful departed, so that we enter the fast in communion with the whole family of God. Ezekiel sees a valley of dry bones and hears God ask whether they can live. Sirach praises the ancestors, including those whom no one remembers any more. Paul speaks of the dead as seed sown in hope. In Matthew the King gathers the nations and blesses those who served him without knowing it. Four words carry the readings: breath, memory, seed and the least.
Setting.
Ezekiel was a priest taken to Babylon with the first group of exiles in 597 BC (1:1–3). News of the fall of Jerusalem reached him in exile (33:21), after the city was destroyed in 587/586 BC. The people had lost the land, the king and the Temple. Their despair is quoted in v. 11: “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost”.
The vision is God’s answer. In its first meaning it promises that the nation will be raised up and brought home (vv. 12, 14). It is not yet a direct teaching about the resurrection of each person, a faith that became clear later in Israel (Daniel 12:2; 2 Maccabees 7). But the power that it shows, of God bringing life out of death, is what that later faith would rest on. Jewish tradition treasured this passage too: it is painted on the wall of the third-century synagogue at Dura-Europos in Syria.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”” (37:3)
An honest answer, and a humble one. Ezekiel does not say yes, because he can see the bones. He does not say no, because he knows who is asking.
“and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.” (37:10)
The two stages recall Genesis 2:7, where God first forms the man from the dust and then breathes into him. What happens in this valley is a new creation.
“They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’” (37:11)
Those who grieve and those who have lost heart will know these words. God takes them seriously and quotes them back.
“I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live,” (37:14)
The sinews and skin are not the end. Only God’s own Spirit gives life. Jesus’ breathing on the disciples on Easter evening (John 20:22) stands in this same line.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that God revealed the resurrection of the dead to his people progressively (CCC 992), and it counts Ezekiel 37 among the prophetic texts about the sending of the Spirit (CCC 715). St Irenaeus uses this passage to answer those who denied the resurrection of the flesh: the God who first formed us from the dust can raise the same body again (Against Heresies, Book 5; in substance). Reading it at a commemoration of the dead, the Church hears a promise for those who sleep in the graves of our parishes.
Setting.
Jesus Ben Sira taught in Jerusalem about 180 BC, and his grandson later translated the book into Greek in Egypt (see the prologue). It is among the books the Catholic Church receives as canonical, and it has been called Ecclesiasticus, “the Church’s book”, because of its long use in teaching. Chapters 44–50 are a long hymn in praise of the great figures of Israel, from Enoch and Noah to the high priest Simon of Ben Sira’s own time.
Today’s reading is the introduction to that hymn. It praises rulers, counsellors, prophets and poets, and it then does something unexpected: it remembers those who have left no memory at all. Ben Sira’s hope for the dead rests on their good name and their descendants. He has not yet the clear hope of resurrection found in Paul’s letter today. The two readings need each other.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Let us now sing the praises of famous men, our ancestors in their generations.” (44:1)
“Ancestors” here is literally “fathers”, but we rightly think today of the mothers too, in the many generations who handed on the faith.
“But of others there is no memory; they have perished as though they had never existed;” (44:9)
It is a plain and painful line. Most of our great-great-grandparents are known to no one on earth.
“But these also were godly men, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten;” (44:10)
Forgotten by us, not by God. Those whose names we have lost are the reason a Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed exists.
“Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name lives on generation after generation.” (44:14)
Compare the burial prayer that many Christians know: “may they rest in peace”. The peace of the grave is not the last thing said of them.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches, in the words of the Second Vatican Council, that from the earliest times the Church has honoured the memory of the dead and offered prayers for them (CCC 958; Lumen Gentium 50). In praying for all the faithful departed she includes those who have no one left to pray for them.
Setting.
Some in the church at Corinth were saying, “there is no resurrection of the dead” (15:12). Greek thinking often looked for the soul’s escape from the body, and the idea of a body rising seemed foolish to many. Paul has answered with the Resurrection of Christ (15:1–28). Now he takes up the practical question, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” (15:35), and begins with the image of a seed (15:36–38).
His argument is that God makes many kinds of bodies, so the risen body need not be just like this one. It is this body, changed. It stands to the present body as a plant stands to its seed.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” (15:42–43)
Anyone who has stood at a grave knows what dishonor and weakness are. Paul does not deny them. He says that they are not the end of the story.
“It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body.” (15:44)
“It” is the same in both clauses. The one who is raised is the one who was buried, not someone else.
““The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (15:45)
Paul quotes Genesis 2:7. Adam received breath; the risen Christ gives it. The valley of Ezekiel 37 is fulfilled in this verse.
“Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.” (15:49)
A note on the text. Most ancient manuscripts, including P46, read “let us bear”, a call to live now as those who belong to Christ. A smaller number read “we will bear”, which the NRSV and the Malayalam POC follow as better suiting the argument. The difference in Greek is one vowel. Both are true: what we shall be, we must begin to live.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the “how” of the resurrection exceeds our imagination and understanding, and that it is accessible only to faith (CCC 1000). It teaches that we believe in “the true resurrection of this flesh that we now possess” (CCC 1017), and that Christ is raised with his own body, and “all of them will rise again with their own bodies” (CCC 999). St Augustine, in The City of God (Book 22), explains the spiritual body as true flesh, wholly and gladly subject to the spirit (in substance).
Setting.
This is the last great scene of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew, just before the Passion narrative begins (26:1–2). The Son of Man of Daniel 7:13–14 comes in glory, and he is also called “the king” (v. 34) and pictured as a shepherd, as in Ezekiel 34:17. The Church reads only the blessing today, vv. 31–40. The sentence on those at the left follows in vv. 41–46.
In that part of the world sheep and goats often grazed together and were separated at the end of the day. In this scene the separation turns not on what people could say about the King but on how they treated him without knowing it. This does not make faith unimportant: the same Gospel calls all nations to discipleship and baptism (28:19–20).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;” (25:34)
The kingdom was prepared long before they did anything. It is an inheritance, a gift of the Father, and they receive it as children receive what is theirs.
“for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” (25:35)
He does not say that they gave food to “the poor”. He says “me”. The list that continues in v. 36 has six works, and Christian tradition, recalling Tobit 1:17–18, adds a seventh: burying the dead (CCC 2447). So today’s commemoration belongs here too.
“‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?” (25:37)
They are astonished. They did not do good by keeping count, and they do not remember doing anything great. Love that is real does not keep accounts.
“‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” (25:40)
“One” is enough. No one has to feed the world. Each person is asked about the one who was at the door.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Jesus identifies himself with the poor of every kind and makes active love toward them the condition for entering his kingdom (CCC 544). It teaches that our attitude to our neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love on the last day (CCC 678), and it quotes St John of the Cross: “At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love” (CCC 1022). St John Chrysostom says to those who would honour Christ’s Body in the church: do not neglect him outside, where he is cold and naked (Homilies on Matthew, 50; in substance). The same Father urges us to help the dead with our prayers and offerings (CCC 1032).
Does Ezekiel 37 teach the resurrection of the body?
In its first meaning it promises the restoration of the exiled nation, as v. 11 says plainly. It was natural, later, for Jews and Christians to read it of the resurrection, because the God who can do this for a people can do it for a person. God revealed the resurrection gradually (CCC 992), and the full light came with Christ.
Paul says “spiritual body”. Does that mean we rise as spirits or ghosts?
No. The risen Jesus said, “a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). Paul’s “spiritual” means fully alive with the Spirit of God. We shall rise as ourselves, body and soul, transformed and no longer subject to death.
If each person is judged at death, why do we pray for the dead?
The Church teaches that those who die in God’s friendship but are not yet fully purified undergo a purification before entering heaven, and that from the beginning she has honoured them and prayed for them, above all in the Eucharistic sacrifice (CCC 1030–1032). She bases this on Scripture (the Catechism cites 2 Maccabees 12) and on her constant practice. Love does not stop at the grave.
The East Syriac tradition gives the Fridays of Denha to the great witnesses of the faith and closes the series with all the faithful departed. So the season’s last Friday looks at those through whom the faith reached us: parents, grandparents, catechists and priests. Many families will pray and light candles at the graves of their dead, and each Holy Qurbana offered for them joins them to the one offering of Christ. The Great Fast begins next Monday, and it is fitting to enter it with our dead in mind, asking pardon for what we owe them and thanking God for what we received from them.