6 February 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” Revelation 3:20
The last of the seven letters in Revelation is written to Laodicea, a rich banking city, proud of its textiles and its famous eye-salve, whose water came by aqueduct and arrived lukewarm. The risen Christ, “the Amen, the faithful and true witness”, speaks to it bluntly: “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Their real sickness is self-satisfaction: “For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” So he offers them what they think they already have: gold refined by fire, white robes, salve for their eyes. His harshness is love: “I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent.” And then the gentlest words in the whole book: “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” The Lord does not break the door down. He knocks, and he waits.
The last Gospel of Denha is a picture of the opposite of Laodicea. Jesus goes up a mountain by the Sea of Galilee and sits down. Great crowds come, “bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them.” These people do not say, I need nothing. They lay their poverty at his feet, and the crowd is amazed “when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.” Through these weeks of Denha Christ has been revealed: at the Jordan, at Cana, to the first disciples, to Nicodemus, to the Samaritans, to the sick. Tomorrow the Great Fast begins. It is not a season for the self-satisfied, but for those who admit that they are poor and blind, open the door to the one who knocks, and let themselves be carried to his feet.
Theme: “I am standing at the door, knocking.”
The lukewarm church, the Lord who knocks, and the crowds who laid their poverty at his feet.
“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26
“I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot.” Revelation 3:15
Apply: Name one area where you have grown lukewarm, and choose one act of fervour for the Great Fast.
“I slept, but my heart was awake. Listen! my beloved is knocking. “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one;” Song of Songs 5:2
“Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” Revelation 3:20
Apply: Open the door with a good confession before or early in the Great Fast.
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.” Isaiah 35:5–6
“Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them,” Matthew 15:30
Apply: Bring a sick or disabled person to Jesus in prayer, and visit them this week.
Christ knocks at the door of every lukewarm heart.
Admit your poverty, open the door, and let him carry you into the Great Fast.
Take-home resolution: Begin the Great Fast with a good confession and one concrete act of fervour.
Dear friends, the risen Christ writes to the church of Laodicea: I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot (Revelation 3:15). They were rich and said: we need nothing. But they did not see that they were poor, blind and naked.
His words are hard, but they come from love: I reprove and discipline those whom I love. And then: listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you (Revelation 3:20).
In the Gospel great crowds bring the lame, the maimed, the blind and the mute and put them at Jesus' feet, and he cures them all. They did not pretend to be rich. They brought their poverty to him.
Tomorrow the Great Fast begins. Let us not be lukewarm. Let us admit our need, open the door with a good confession, and lay ourselves at his feet. Then he will come in and eat with us. Amen.
Children, Jesus says: I am knocking at your door! When we pray and say sorry for our sins, we open the door, and Jesus comes in to be our friend. Will you open the door for Jesus?
Lord Jesus Christ, faithful and true witness, you stand at the door of our hearts and knock. Forgive our lukewarmness and our pride that says we need nothing. Clothe us in white, anoint our eyes to see, and as the Great Fast begins, let us lay all our poverty at your feet and open the door to you, so that you may come in and eat with us. Amen.
This is the last Saturday before the Great Fast, and both readings speak of need. The rich church of Laodicea says, “I need nothing”, and Christ stands outside its door and knocks. The crowds in Galilee know exactly what they need, and they lay their sick at his feet. The readings ask which of these two we resemble as the fast draws near.
Setting.
This is the last of the seven letters to the churches of Asia (Revelation 2–3). Laodicea stood in the Lycus valley in what is now western Turkey, near Hierapolis and Colossae (Colossians 4:13). It was a wealthy city. The Roman historian Tacitus records that after an earthquake in the reign of Nero it rebuilt itself from its own resources, without help from Rome (Annals 14.27).
Many commentators also see local colour in the letter. The city was known for banking, for its woollen cloth, and for a medical school linked with a famous eye remedy, which would give point to the gold, the white robes and the salve of v. 18. Many think too that “lukewarm” recalls its water supply, brought in by aqueduct, in contrast with the hot springs of Hierapolis and the cool water of Colossae. These are scholars’ suggestions, though well founded.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (3:16)
A hard image, and yet the letter is not closing the door. The verb means “I am about to”, and everything that follows is an offer.
“For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (3:17)
The sickness is that they do not know they are ill. The other letters speak of persecution and false teaching. This one, which has no word of praise, speaks of contentment.
“I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent.” (3:19)
He echoes Proverbs 3:12. The harshest letter of the seven contains the plainest word of love.
“Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” (3:20)
This is said to a church, a baptized community, and he is outside it. He does not break the door down. Hearing comes first, and then the meal.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that God tirelessly calls each person to the mysterious encounter of prayer, and that it is he who takes the first step (CCC 2567). St Ambrose, commenting on the Psalms, says that blessed is the one at whose door Christ knocks, and that our door is faith (in substance). St John Paul II began his pontificate in 1978 with the words, “Open wide the doors for Christ”. Those who gather for the Holy Qurbana can hear in “eat with you” the promise that is kept at the Lord’s table.
Setting.
Matthew has just told of Jesus in the region of Tyre and Sidon, where he healed the daughter of a Canaanite woman (15:21–28). Now he returns to the Sea of Galilee and goes up a mountain, and soon he will feed four thousand people (15:32–39). Mark places this period of his work in the Decapolis, a largely Gentile area (Mark 7:31). For that reason, and because the crowd praises “the God of Israel”, many scholars think Matthew means us to picture Gentiles among the crowd. The text does not say so directly.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“he went up the mountain, where he sat down.” (15:29)
To sit was the posture of a teacher, as at the start of the Sermon on the Mount (5:1). On this mountain he teaches by healing.
“Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them,” (15:30)
Most of the sick here cannot reach him alone. Someone carries them. All the work of the crowd is in the carrying, and Matthew reports the rest in three plain words.
“so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.” (15:31)
The list recalls Isaiah 35:5–6: “then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.” The prophet’s promise for the day of God’s coming is taking place on this hillside.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism calls Jesus’ healings messianic signs, by which he delivered some from earthly evils in order to deliver people from the gravest evil, sin (CCC 549), and it says that his compassion for the sick is a resplendent sign that “God has visited his people” (CCC 1503). The Church continues this care in the Anointing of the Sick and in every family and hospital where the sick are brought to Christ in prayer and tended with love.
How can Christ call a church “lukewarm” and also say he loves it?
He says both in the same breath: “I reprove and discipline those whom I love” (3:19). His reproach is that of a physician or a parent, not of an enemy. A warning given while there is still time to change is itself a mercy.