21 February 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”” Matthew 20:28
The flood comes in the first reading with terrible exactness: “In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.” The number is not an accident. Forty days of rain, forty years in the wilderness, forty days of Moses on the mountain, forty days of Jesus in the desert: in Scripture forty is the length of God's great washings and testings, and the Great Fast is our share in it. Before the waters rise, one small sentence holds the whole story: “and the LORD shut him in.” Noah did not seal the ark himself; God closed the door. Inside, the ark “rose high above the earth”, and “the ark floated on the face of the waters.” Outside, “only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.” The Fathers saw in the ark an image of the Church, and the Catechism still says that the Church is prefigured by Noah's ark, “which alone saves from the flood” (Catechism 845). In the season of the fast we are not saved by our own swimming. We are saved by being inside, where the Lord has shut us in.
In the second reading Joshua stands near Jericho and sees a man with a drawn sword. He asks the natural question: “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?” The answer is: “Neither; but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” The question is not whether God is on our side, but whether we are on his. Joshua falls on his face and is told: “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” Many of our people still leave their footwear at the door of the church, and in that small gesture they say what Joshua learned: before we fight any battle, we must first bow. Then the strategy for Jericho is given, and it is not a military one. The people are to walk round the city, with seven priests carrying seven trumpets before the ark, once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh, and “the wall of the city will fall down flat.” A procession, trumpets, the ark, patience: it looks like liturgy, not war. The walls of sin in our lives, the habits we have built up over years, do not fall to one angry blow. They fall when we walk around them again and again in prayer, carrying the Lord with us.
Paul knows such walls from the inside. “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” Every honest Christian has said these words in some form in the third week of a fast. Paul's cry breaks out: “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” And at once the answer: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” The rescue is not a technique but a Person. In the Gospel that Person is walking up to Jerusalem, and for the third time he tells the twelve what awaits him: he will be handed over, mocked, flogged and crucified, “and on the third day he will be raised.” At that very moment the mother of James and John asks for the two best seats in his kingdom. Jesus does not mock her; he asks the brothers, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They say, “We are able,” and he answers, “You will indeed drink my cup.” James would be the first of the twelve to die for him. Then Jesus turns the world's idea of greatness upside down: “whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Halfway through the Great Fast, this is the question: not which seat we shall have, but whether we will drink his cup and serve.
Theme: “just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
The ark shut by God, the bare feet of Joshua, the cry of Paul, and the cup of the Servant.
“And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.” Genesis 7:16
“For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24:38–39
Apply: Do not miss Sunday Holy Qurbana for the rest of the Great Fast.
“The commander of the army of the LORD said to Joshua, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.” Joshua 5:15
“By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.” Hebrews 11:30
Apply: Pray every day for seven days about the habit of sin that has resisted you longest.
“I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.” Psalm 40:1–2
“Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:24–25
Apply: Bring your struggle honestly to the sacrament of reconciliation this Lent.
“Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.” Isaiah 53:11
“just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”” Matthew 20:28
Apply: Take on one humble task this week that usually falls to someone else.
We are saved inside the ark, by the Lord who shuts the door and carries us above the flood.
Bow before you fight, cry to the One who rescues, and choose to serve.
Take-home resolution: Stay faithful to Sunday Holy Qurbana, pray for seven days against one habit of sin, and take the lowest task at home this week.
Dear brothers and sisters, the first reading tells us that the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights (Genesis 7:12). And before the waters rose, one small sentence: and the LORD shut him in (Genesis 7:16). Noah did not close the door himself. God did. Noah was saved because he was inside.
That is how we are saved in these forty days of the Great Fast. Not by our own swimming, but by staying inside the ark of the Church: in her sacraments, her prayer, her Sunday Qurbana.
Joshua near Jericho asks the commander of the LORD's army: are you for us or for our enemies? The answer is: neither (Joshua 5:13–14). The question is not whether God is on our side, but whether we are on his. Joshua removes his sandals and bows. And the walls of Jericho fall, not by force, but by a procession of prayer around the city.
Saint Paul cries out: I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me? And he answers: thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:19, 24–25). Our rescue is a Person.
In the Gospel, while Jesus speaks of his cross, his disciples ask for the best seats. Jesus asks: are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink? And he teaches: whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant; for the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:22, 26–28).
This week, let us stay inside the ark, walk around the walls of our sins in prayer, and choose the lowest place in order to serve. Then we will share his cup, and his glory. Amen.
Children, God shut Noah and his family safe inside the ark when the big flood came. The Church is like the ark: inside, with Jesus, we are safe!
Jesus says that the greatest person is the one who serves others. How will you help someone at home this week without being asked?
Lord Jesus Christ, you shut Noah into the ark and carried him above the flood; keep us within your Church in these forty days. Teach us to remove our sandals before you and to walk around the walls of our sin in patient prayer until they fall. When we cry, who will rescue me?, be our answer. Give us courage to drink your cup and the humility to serve, as you came not to be served but to serve and to give your life a ransom for many. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.
This Third Sunday of the Great Fast joins four readings that all ask the same thing: who saves us? Noah is saved inside the ark, and it is the Lord who shuts him in. Joshua asks an armed stranger whose side he is on, and learns that the real question is whether he is on God's side. Paul cries, “Who will rescue me?” and answers in the next line. On the road to Jerusalem Jesus speaks of his death, two disciples ask for thrones, and he answers with a cup and a ransom. The key words are inside, holy ground, rescue and serve. The forty days of rain belong to the Bible's long line of forties.
Setting.
Genesis 1–11 speaks of beginnings: of the world, of sin and of God's patience. People in the ancient Near East told other flood stories, such as those in the Gilgamesh and Atrahasis epics. In Genesis the one God acts, with grief over sin and with care for one family and for every kind of creature. Many scholars think two older accounts have been woven together here, and this would explain small differences. For example, Noah takes seven pairs of clean animals in 7:2, while here they go in “two and two”. The rain lasts forty days in v. 12, while the waters swell for a hundred and fifty days in v. 24.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.” (7:11)
The exact date in this verse gives a solemn, record-like tone. What sin began inwardly now breaks out in the whole of creation.
“The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.” (7:12)
Forty is the Bible's number of testing and of new beginnings: Moses on the mountain (Exodus 34:28), Elijah on the road (1 Kings 19:8) and Jesus in the desert (Matthew 4:2).
“and the Lord shut him in.” (7:16)
This is the most tender line in the story. Noah does not close the door himself, and Genesis uses here the personal name of God, “the Lord”. Being saved is first of all God's act.
“Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.” (7:23)
Here begins the Bible's idea of a remnant: through a few, God saves many. One family carries forward the future of the human race.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the Church is prefigured by Noah's ark, “which alone saves from the flood” (CCC 845), and it sees in the ark a prefiguring of Baptism, for eight persons “were saved through water” (CCC 1219; 1 Peter 3:20). St Augustine, in the City of God, reads the ark as a figure of the Church, and its door in the side as the wound in Christ's side (in substance; XV, 26). This image does not shut out those who do not know Christ through no fault of their own, as the Church also teaches (CCC 847).
Setting.
Israel has crossed the Jordan and kept the Passover at Gilgal (5:10). Jericho stands closed before them. The book of Joshua took its final form long after the events it tells, and many scholars think it was shaped under the later kings or in the exile. Its purpose is to teach that the land is God's gift. Its stories of war belong to that ancient setting, and the Church reads them in the light of Christ, who “came not to be served”.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?”” (5:13)
It is the natural question, and it is ours too. We tend to ask God to take our side in every quarrel.
““Neither; but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”” (5:14)
The real question is the other way around: are we on God's side?
““Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.”” (5:15)
These are nearly the words spoken to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:5). The new leader begins as the old leader began, barefoot.
“and the wall of the city will fall down flat,” (6:5)
Nothing here depends on siege engines. The first victory in the land is a gift, received in obedience. Hebrews 11:30 says that it was “by faith”.
How the Church reads it.
Early Christian writers such as St Justin Martyr and Origen saw in this commander the Word of God himself, coming to meet the man who shares his name (in substance). Hebrews 4:8 shows the link, because in Greek the names Joshua and Jesus are the same. Origen also reads Jericho as this world of sin, whose walls fall through the trumpet of the Gospel (in substance; Homilies on Joshua). The caption given to this reading takes the same line: the walls of wickedness fall by the Lord's power.
Setting.
After defending the Law (7:7–13), Paul describes what it is like to know the good and still fail to do it. He continues in the first person, and now in the present tense. The Roman poet Ovid has a similar line about seeing the better and following the worse (Metamorphoses 7), so the experience is not only a Christian one.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (7:15)
Every honest person knows this verse. This is the state in which many of us come to the Great Fast, and it is where grace begins.
“For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,” (7:22)
Paul does not say that human beings are totally corrupt. The longing for good is real. The trouble is the power to carry it out.
“Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (7:24)
He asks “who” and not “what”. No method can answer this question, only a person.
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25)
This is the answer, and Romans 8:1–2 develops it: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism draws on this passage when it speaks of the gap between wanting and doing (CCC 2542). It teaches that concupiscence, the inclination to sin, remains in the baptized as a struggle to be fought with the help of grace (CCC 1264, 2515), and that human nature is wounded but not totally corrupted (CCC 405). St Augustine at first took this “I” as a person under the Law, and later as the believer who still struggles (in substance). Both readings are found in the tradition.
Setting.
Jesus has left Galilee and is going up to Jerusalem. This is the third time in Matthew that he foretells his Passion (16:21; 17:22–23), and it is the most detailed; here for the first time he says “crucified”. Immediately after this comes the mother's request. Mark tells that James and John ask for themselves (Mark 10:35); Matthew has their mother ask with them. She will appear once more, looking on from a distance at the Cross (27:55–56).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“and on the third day he will be raised.”” (20:19)
Every foretelling ends here. Jesus goes to Jerusalem knowing both the worst and the end.
“one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”” (20:21)
Matthew will use the same picture at Calvary, where two bandits are crucified, “one on his right and one on his left” (27:38). This is what the place beside this King looks like.
““You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.”” (20:22)
They mean it, and they do not yet know what they are saying. They will run away (26:56), and Jesus will still keep his word.
“He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup,” (20:23)
James was the first of the Twelve to die for Christ (Acts 12:2). Tradition says that John lived long and bore witness to old age. There is more than one way to drink this cup.
“just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”” (20:28)
Daniel's Son of Man was to be served by all peoples (Daniel 7:14). Jesus keeps the title and turns it around. This is the reason for the rule in vv. 26–27: the Master has done it first.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes this verse to explain that the Redemption consists in Christ's giving his life as a ransom (CCC 622), and that this was for all (CCC 605). It teaches that ministry in the Church is service (CCC 876, 1551). The Second Vatican Council says of the Church's mission that Christ entered this world to serve and not to be served (Gaudium et Spes 3).
Did the flood really cover the whole earth?
The Church asks us to attend to the literary form and purpose of each biblical text (Dei Verbum 12; CCC 110). Genesis 1–11 tells of real truths: God's holiness, the seriousness of sin, his mercy, and his covenant. It uses images and forms of its own time to do so, and it does not set out to give modern geography or science. Catholics do not have to prove a world-wide flood in order to believe what the passage teaches.
To whom was the ransom paid? To the devil?
St Gregory of Nazianzus takes up this question and rejects both answers: it was not paid to the evil one, and God the Father did not demand it as a price (in substance; Oration 45). “Ransom” is an image for what it cost to set us at liberty, and for the love that paid it (CCC 601, 622).
Is Paul in Romans 7 saying that I cannot help sinning?
No. He is describing the struggle honestly, and the very next chapter speaks of the Spirit's power. Grace does not remove every struggle at once, but it enables us to win (CCC 1264, 1987–1989). A person who falls should neither despair nor stop trying. The Lord waits in the sacrament of Reconciliation.
In the Syro-Malabar Church, the second reading has a particular force for us. Joshua's Hebrew name, Yehoshua, is the same name as that of Jesus, whom we call Isho in the form that comes to us through Syriac. Many of our people still leave their footwear at the church door, and so say what Joshua learned. When we receive from the kasa in the Holy Qurbana, we answer the Lord's question with James and John: by your grace, we are able. We then go out from the Qurbana to serve, because we have been served at the table of the One who gave his life.