13 February 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:12
On Thursday Paul left us with every mouth silenced: no one is righteous, not even one. Today he opens a door: “But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” The sentence that follows is one of the most important in the New Testament: “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.” This matters at the end of the first week of the Great Fast. We do not buy God's favour with our fasting. Grace comes first, freely, through the blood of Christ. Our fasting, prayer and almsgiving are our response to that gift, and grace itself makes them fruitful. Whoever forgets this turns the fast into a ledger of achievements; whoever remembers it fasts with gratitude.
The Gospel gives us the prayer that holds the whole Great Fast together: “Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.” The Holy Qurbana of our Church opens with this prayer and returns to it before Communion. Each line is a Lenten programme: God's name first, his kingdom before our plans, bread asked for one day at a time by people who are fasting, forgiveness given and received, and rescue in the time of trial, as Jesus himself was tested in the wilderness. Of all the petitions, Jesus comments on only one: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” The week that began with the gift left before the altar ends with the same lesson: the forgiven must forgive.
Theme: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
Grace given freely, the prayer Christ taught, and the forgiveness that the forgiven must give.
“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Isaiah 55:1
“they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” Romans 3:24
Apply: Thank God today for one grace you know you did not earn.
“Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Isaiah 64:8
““Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Matthew 6:9
Apply: Pray the Our Father slowly each night of the coming week.
“Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray.” Sirach 28:2
“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;” Matthew 6:14
Apply: Forgive one person by name before receiving Holy Qurbana tomorrow.
The fast begins and ends in grace: God gives first, and we answer with gratitude.
Pray as Jesus taught, and forgive as you have been forgiven.
Take-home resolution: Pray the Our Father slowly with your family every night until Easter.
Dear friends, Paul says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23–24). Our fasting does not buy God's love. His love comes first.
So we fast with gratitude, not with pride. Our prayer, fasting and almsgiving are our answer to a gift already given, and God's grace makes even that answer possible.
Jesus gives us the prayer of the whole Great Fast: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name (Matthew 6:9). We pray it at the beginning of the Holy Qurbana and again before Communion. In it we ask for daily bread, for forgiveness, and for rescue in the time of trial.
Jesus explains one line only: if you forgive others, your heavenly Father will also forgive you (Matthew 6:14). As this first week of the fast ends, let us forgive from the heart, so that we can pray this prayer honestly. Amen.
Children, Jesus taught us to call God our Father! Tonight, pray the Our Father slowly with your family, and think of someone you need to forgive.
Our Father in heaven, all of us have sinned and fallen short of your glory, and you justify us freely by your grace in Christ Jesus. Let us fast with gratitude and not with pride. Hallow your name in us, bring your kingdom, give us today our daily bread, forgive us as we forgive, and rescue us from the evil one. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
On Saturday there are two readings, and they meet at one point: forgiveness. Paul in Romans, after showing on Thursday that all are under sin, now opens the door: God justifies by his grace as a gift. Jesus in Matthew gives the prayer of those who live by that gift, and adds that the forgiven must forgive. At the end of the first week of the Fast they remind us that the Fast does not buy God's favour; it answers it. The key words are grace, Father and debts.
Setting.
Paul writes to the Christians of Rome, a Church he did not found, probably from Corinth about AD 57 or 58. Since 1:18 he has been showing that Gentile and Jew alike stand in need of God's mercy, and that section ended with every mouth silenced (3:19). These six verses are the turning point of the letter. Many scholars count them among the most packed sentences Paul wrote.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets,” (3:21)
“But now” is one of the great turns in Scripture. Note what Paul holds together: it comes “apart from law”, yet the law itself bears witness. He is not setting Israel's Scriptures aside. He reads them as a promise.
“the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” (3:22)
A note on the text. The Greek phrase can be read “faith in Jesus Christ” or “the faith of Jesus Christ”, that is, his own faithfulness; the NRSV notes this in its margin. Scholars still discuss it. Either way, the source of salvation is Christ, and our part is to believe.
“since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;” (3:23)
“All” is the point: Paul has no one in mind to look down on. Many read this “glory” as what Adam's race was meant to carry, the likeness of God that Tuesday's reading spoke of.
“they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” (3:24)
“As a gift” (dōrean) and “by his grace” say the same thing twice. Nobody pays for this.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes this very passage to say that justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ (CCC 1992), and it teaches that grace comes first, while good works done in grace are themselves God's gift and bear fruit (CCC 1996; 2006–2011). The Council of Trent taught that nothing before justification, whether faith or works, merits the grace of justification (Session 6, chapter 8). In 1999 Catholics and Lutherans declared together: “By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part”, we are accepted by God (Joint Declaration, 15).
Setting.
The prayer stands near the centre of the Sermon on the Mount, immediately after the warning against many words. Luke gives a shorter form (11:2–4). Matthew's form is the one the Church's worship has prayed from early times. The Didache (8:2–3) tells Christians to say it three times a day. Each petition has roots in the prayers of Israel; calling God Father was known in Israel, and it is the mark of Jesus' own prayer.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (6:9)
“Our”: even in the shut room we pray in the plural. God's name is made holy first by God, and then in the lives of those who bear it.
“Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (6:10)
In Gethsemane Jesus will pray in the same words (26:42). This is not resignation. It asks that earth become as obedient as heaven.
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (6:12)
The only petition with a condition, and the only one on which Jesus comments (vv. 14–15). God's mercy is never earned, but a closed heart cannot receive it (CCC 2840). This takes up the reconciliation of Monday's Gospel.
“but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (6:15)
A hard word in a hard case: forgiving does not always mean feeling peaceful or forgetting. The Catechism says that it is not in our power not to feel or forget an offence, but the heart that offers itself to the Spirit turns injury into compassion (CCC 2843).
How the Church reads it.
Tertullian calls this prayer the summary of the whole Gospel, as the Catechism recalls (CCC 2761), and St Augustine says that all other prayers of Scripture are contained in it (in substance; CCC 2762). The last petition asks for rescue from “the evil one”, and the Catechism says that evil here is no abstraction but a person, Satan (CCC 2851).
If grace is a gift, why do we fast at all?
Because a gift is received with a life. We do not fast in order to make God love us. We fast because he loves us, and because the body and heart need clearing to receive what he gives. Paul himself speaks of “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). Merit in Catholic teaching is itself the work of grace (CCC 2008).
The Holy Qurbana of the East Syriac tradition opens with the Lord's Prayer and prays it again before Communion. In its liturgical form the Syro-Malabar Church prays “our debts and our sins”, keeping both senses of the word.