27 February 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:32
Paul writes about the most ordinary place of holiness: the way we talk to one another. “So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.” A lie told to a brother is like one hand deceiving the other. Then a realistic word about anger: “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.” Anger is not always sin, but anger kept overnight becomes a room rented to the devil. The thief is not only to stop stealing but to work honestly “so as to have something to share with the needy.” And speech is to build up: “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.” Paul reminds the baptised that they carry a seal: “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.” The Holy Spirit is grieved by bitterness at the dinner table as much as by great crimes. Many Syro-Malabar families keep a beautiful custom that answers this word: after the night prayer the children greet their parents and elders, “Praise be to Jesus Christ”, and receive the answer, “Now and for ever, Amen.” It is hard to go to sleep angry after saying that. Paul ends with the verse that could be written over every Christian home: “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
In the Gospel Jesus tells a short parable in the temple. A father asks his two sons to work in the vineyard. One says, “I will not”; but later he changed his mind and went. The other answers politely, “I go, sir”; but he did not go. “Which of the two did the will of his father?” The answer is obvious, and it is aimed at people who had always said yes to God with their lips. “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” They had said no to God for years, but when John came preaching repentance, they changed their minds and believed. The religious leaders saw it happen, “and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.” The parable has two warnings and one hope. Saying yes is not the same as going; and a past no is not the last word. The Great Fast is the time of “later he changed his mind.” On Saturday evenings in these weeks, the queues for confession grow longer in many parishes. Every person standing in that line is the son who once said no, and is now going into the vineyard.
Theme: “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
Truth and anger among members of one body, words that give grace, and the son who changed his mind.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Proverbs 15:1
“Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,” Ephesians 4:26
Apply: End no day this week without settling the day's quarrels.
“Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.” Psalm 141:3
“Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.” Ephesians 4:29
Apply: Say one word of encouragement to each member of your family today.
“Again, when the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life.” Ezekiel 18:27
“For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.” Matthew 21:32
Apply: Do today what you promised God and have not yet done.
We are members of one another: let the sun never set on our anger, and let our words give grace.
A yes without going is empty; a no can still become a yes. Now is the time to go into the vineyard.
Take-home resolution: Make your Lenten confession, if you have not yet made it, before the Fourth Sunday of the Great Fast.
Dear friends, Paul speaks to us about our everyday words. Speak the truth to your neighbours, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger (Ephesians 4:25–26).
Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, he says, but only words that build up and give grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29). Bitterness at the table grieves the Holy Spirit with whom we were sealed.
Jesus tells us of two sons. One says I will not, but later changes his mind and goes. The other says I go, sir, but does not go (Matthew 21:28–30). Which one did the will of his father?
Saying yes is not the same as going, and a past no is not the last word. The Great Fast is the time to change our minds. Let us make peace before the sun goes down, and go into the Father's vineyard today. Amen.
Children, Jesus told a story about two sons. One said no but then went to help his father. The other said yes but never went! Let us not only say yes to God, let us do it.
Lord Jesus Christ, you sealed us with your Holy Spirit for the day of redemption. Keep us from grieving him with bitterness, anger and slander; let our words give grace to those who hear them, and let the sun never set on our anger. Where we have said yes to you and not gone, and where we have said no, change our minds and send us into your vineyard. Amen.
Today’s readings are about what a changed life looks like. The Letter to the Ephesians is practical: tell the truth, end your anger before sunset, work so that you can share, forgive. In Matthew, a father asks his two sons to work in the vineyard, and what counts is not the first answer but what they do in the end. Tax collectors and prostitutes who changed their minds are going in ahead. The Great Fast is the season of the second thought.
Setting.
The letter’s second half turns from what God has done to how the baptized should live. Just before this, the writer has spoken of putting off the old self and clothing oneself with the new (4:22–24). Now he makes that concrete. The Church receives the letter as from Paul in prison; many scholars think a disciple wrote it in his name, while others defend Paul’s authorship.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.” (4:25)
The first words echo Zechariah 8:16. The reason given is striking. Lying in the Church is like one part of the body deceiving another.
“Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,” (4:26)
The first phrase comes from the Greek form of Psalm 4:4, which the Malayalam POC’s psalm also reflects. Anger as such is not called a sin, but it has a time limit. A simple rule for any home: do not go to sleep on it.
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.” (4:30)
The verse sits among rules on speech. An unkind word causes pain to more than the one who hears it. In baptism and chrismation we were sealed, and the Spirit is a Person who can be grieved.
“and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” (4:32)
The word “as” gives both the model and the power. We forgive because we have been forgiven.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism defines anger as a desire for revenge and warns against it (CCC 2302), and it speaks of the Spirit’s seal (CCC 698, 1274). When it comes to the petition “forgive us our trespasses”, it quotes this verse and says that such forgiveness is impossible by our own strength, and possible through the Spirit (CCC 2842).
Setting.
Jesus is in the Temple in the last days before his Passion. The chief priests and the elders have asked by what authority he acts (21:23), and they will not answer his question about John’s baptism (21:25–27). This parable, the first of three, is addressed to them. “You” in this passage means those leaders, not the Jewish people, many of whom were themselves the ones who believed John.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went.” (21:29)
A note on the text: the ancient manuscripts tell this parable in more than one order. In the NRSV the first son refuses and then goes. In the Malayalam POC, following other manuscripts, the first agrees and does not go, and the second refuses and then goes, so the answer is “the second”. The teaching is the same: the one who did the work is the one who did the will of the father.
“Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” (21:31)
Tax collectors worked for the occupying power, and were known for extortion. These were people whom nobody would expect to go first. Jesus does not call their sin good: they are ahead because they “believed” and turned.
“and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.” (21:32)
The leaders have seen conversions before their eyes. Sometimes the sign God gives us is the changed life of someone we had written off.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that the prayer of faith consists not only in saying “Lord, Lord” but in disposing the heart to do the Father’s will (CCC 2611). This is the point of the parable, and of Matthew 7:21. The change Jesus calls for is first of all interior, a turning of the whole life (CCC 1430–1431). The Catechism also notes how Jesus scandalized some by eating with tax collectors and sinners (CCC 588), because no one is outside God’s call.
Does this mean that sin does not matter, as long as one turns back at the end?
No. The tax collectors and prostitutes go ahead because they have believed and changed their lives. The parable warns the person who says “I go” and does not go, and it encourages the one who said “no” for years. It would be presumption to plan a late conversion (CCC 2092); nobody knows how long the day is. But it is never too late to go to the vineyard today.