2 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.” Romans 9:16
Yesterday Abram set out in faith; today, a few verses later, he is afraid. “Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien.” At the border he makes a plan to save his own skin: “Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account.” The father of faith tells a half-lie, and Sarai pays for it: she is taken into Pharaoh's house. It is the pagan king who has to rebuke the man of God: “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?” Scripture does not polish its heroes. Faith is not a straight line from call to glory; it stumbles, it is afraid, it uses others to protect itself. And yet God does not abandon the promise or the woman who carries it: “the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.” There is a word here for every marriage. Fear can make a husband or a wife sacrifice the other to save themselves; God stands on the side of the one who is sacrificed.
The second reading follows the confession of Achan. Israel had been routed at Ai; now the sin has been brought into the light, and God speaks again: “Do not fear or be dismayed; take all the fighting men with you, and go up now to Ai.” The place of defeat becomes the place of a new beginning. These battle stories belong to a hard and ancient world, and the Church does not read them as a pattern for treating any people; the Fathers read them as pictures of our own struggle against sin. Read that way, the lesson is clear and consoling. After a fall and a good confession, God does not send us somewhere easier. He sends us back to the same Ai, the same temptation, the same weak place, but now he goes with us.
Paul faces a hard question: if God chooses, is God unjust? “By no means!” he answers, and quotes the word God spoke to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” Then comes the sentence that stands over the whole Great Fast: “So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.” Our fasting is not wasted effort, but it is not a payment either. We fast to make room for a mercy we could never earn. In the Gospel Jesus reveals where that mercy comes from: “the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.” The Father “loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing”, and has given him the power to give life and to judge, “so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.” This is the faith of the Church: Jesus is not merely a good teacher but the eternal Son, one with the Father. That is why, at the Holy Qurbana, we bow before him and adore.
Theme: “So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.”
Abram's fear in Egypt, Israel sent back to Ai, the mercy of God, and the Son who does what the Father does.
“Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account.” Genesis 12:13
“So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.” Ephesians 4:25
Apply: Correct one half-truth this week, especially one that has hurt someone close to you.
“Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear or be dismayed; take all the fighting men with you, and go up now to Ai.” Joshua 8:1
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” John 14:27
Apply: Name the place where you usually fall, and plan one change there with prayer.
“I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” Exodus 33:19
“So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.” Romans 9:16
Apply: Offer your fast today not as a payment but as thanksgiving for mercy received.
Our heroes stumble, our battles are lost and won again, and everything rests on mercy.
The Son shows us the Father's face: honour him, and do what you see him doing.
Take-home resolution: This week, tell the truth where fear has made you hide it, and thank God each night for one mercy received.
Dear friends, Abram, who left everything in faith, becomes afraid in Egypt. He tells his wife: say you are my sister, so that my life may be spared (Genesis 12:13). The father of faith tells a half-lie, and Sarai pays the price. But God protects her and keeps his promise.
After Achan's confession, God says to Joshua: do not fear or be dismayed; go up now to Ai (Joshua 8:1). God sends him back to the very place of defeat. After a good confession, God often sends us back to the same weak place, but now he goes with us.
Paul says: it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy (Romans 9:16). Our fast does not buy God's mercy; it opens our hearts to receive it.
Jesus says: the Son does whatever he sees the Father doing, so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father (John 5:19, 23). Let us honour him today, at the altar and in our lives, and do what we see him doing. Amen.
Children, Abram was afraid and told a lie, but God still took care of everyone. When you are afraid, do not tell a lie: tell Jesus you are afraid, and tell the truth. He will help you!
Merciful Father, Abram was afraid and you kept your promise; Israel was defeated and you sent them out again. Do not look on our fears and our half-truths, but on your mercy. Teach us to honour your Son as we honour you, and to do what we see him doing. Lead us back to the places where we fell, and walk there with us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Yesterday Abram set out in great faith. Today, at the first hard test, he goes down to Egypt and gives way to fear, and God keeps the promise even so. The second reading sends Joshua back to Ai after his defeat, with the word “Do not fear”. Paul in the epistle teaches that everything rests on the God who shows mercy. In John, Jesus says that all he does comes from the Father. Taken together, the readings point away from our own strength: what God has begun depends on him, and on what the Son receives from the Father.
Setting.
Abram has only just reached the land when a famine drives him out of it. Famine sent people from Canaan down to Egypt, whose food came from the yearly flood of the Nile. Genesis tells a like story twice more, of Abraham in Gerar (Genesis 20) and of Isaac (Genesis 26).
Many readers notice that this story runs ahead of the Exodus: famine, a going down to Egypt, danger to the family, plagues on Pharaoh, and a departure with great wealth. What will happen to the people happens first to their father.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Now there was a famine in the land.” (12:10)
The land of promise greets Abram with hunger. Following God’s call does not remove trouble, and a true call can lead straight into difficulty.
“Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you,” (12:13)
Yesterday’s man of faith is afraid for his life and puts his wife in danger. Abram did not ask God before he made this plan. The Bible does not hide the faults of its great figures, and that is one reason why it can be trusted.
“What is this you have done to me?” (12:18)
The sharpest words in the passage come from a pagan king, who speaks the question of conscience to the man of promise. Abram has no answer, and the narrator gives him not a word.
How the Church reads it.
The promise stands because God keeps it, not because Abram is perfect. It is God who acts in v. 17 to protect Sarai, the mother of the promise. St Augustine, answering critics in Against Faustus 22, argued that Abraham concealed the truth rather than told a lie, since Sarah was his close kinswoman (in substance). The Catechism’s own teaching on lying is clear (CCC 2482–2486), and we need not defend every act of the patriarchs in order to honour their faith.
Setting.
This is the start of Jesus’ reply to the charge that he made himself equal to God (5:18). The discourse runs to the end of the chapter. It does not deny the charge, but it explains it: the Son’s equality with the Father is a total dependence and communion. These verses are one of the clearest places in the Gospels for the relation of Father and Son.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing;” (5:19)
This does not mean that the Son is lesser. Only one who shares the Father’s life can do “whatever the Father does”. The image of a son learning his father’s trade may stand behind the verse, but the claim goes far beyond it.
“just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.” (5:21)
The healing of the man at the pool was a sign of this. The “greater works” of v. 20 begin here and reach their end at the empty tomb.
“so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.” (5:23)
No one can honour God rightly and put the Son aside: the verse says plainly that the two honours are one.
How the Church reads it.
The Church confesses the Son as “one in being with the Father” at the Council of Nicaea. St Augustine, preaching on this passage, taught that Father and Son do not do different works but the same works inseparably (Tractates on John 20; in substance). The Catechism teaches that the whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons (CCC 258), and that the Father “has given all judgment to the Son” (CCC 679, quoting John 5:22).
If “the Son can do nothing on his own”, how can he be equal to the Father?
The verse speaks of origin, not of rank. All that the Son has he receives from the Father, from eternity, and he receives all of it. Because of that he does “whatever the Father does” (5:19). This is what the Church means in the Creed by “God from God, Light from Light”.