4 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.” Romans 11:2
Lot had chosen the well-watered plain and moved his tent toward Sodom. Now the kings of the region go to war, Sodom is plundered, and “they also took Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.” Abram could have said: he chose it; let him live with it. Instead, “When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred eighteen of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.” He fights by night, routs the raiders, and “brought back his nephew Lot with his goods, and the women and the people.” This is the love that goes after the one who walked away. Many of us have a Lot in the family: a son who chose another road, a sister who moved far from the faith, a relative who is now caught in debt or drink. The Great Fast asks us not to say “he chose it” but to go after them with prayer, patience and practical help. In the verses that follow, Melchizedek, priest of God Most High, comes out to meet Abram with bread and wine (Genesis 14:18). The Letter to the Hebrews sees in him a figure of Christ the eternal priest, and the Church sees in his offering a figure of the bread and wine of the Holy Qurbana.
After the victory at Ai, Joshua does something unexpected: he stops to worship. He builds on Mount Ebal “an altar of unhewn stones, on which no iron tool has been used”, offers sacrifices, writes the law on stones, and then reads it aloud. “There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens who resided among them.” Word and altar, everyone gathered, no one left out: this is the shape of every Holy Qurbana. First the word of God is proclaimed to the whole assembly, then the offering is made on the altar. And notice who is there: women, little ones and strangers. Children belong at the Holy Qurbana, not only when they behave; and the readings belong to them too, if parents take a minute on the way home to ask what they heard.
Paul asks the question many Christians have asked carelessly: “has God rejected his people? By no means!” He answers as an Israelite himself: “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.” When Elijah complained that he alone was left, God answered: “I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” “So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.” The Second Vatican Council, drawing on these chapters, taught that the Jews remain most dear to God for the sake of their fathers, for God does not take back his gifts or his call (Nostra Aetate 4). Elijah's complaint is also our temptation: to think we are the only faithful ones left. God always has his seven thousand. In the Gospel the festival of Booths is near, the great autumn feast when Israel lived in shelters to remember the desert. Jesus' relatives urge him to go up and make a name: “no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret.” John adds sadly: “(For not even his brothers believed in him.)” Jesus answers: “My time has not yet come”, and later goes up “not publicly but as it were in secret.” The crowds argue about him, but no one speaks openly “for fear of the Jews”, which in John means fear of certain authorities, since the crowds themselves were Jews. Jesus does not follow the timetable of publicity. He waits for the Father's hour, and in this fast he teaches us to do our good works in secret too.
Theme: “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.”
Abram goes after Lot, Joshua gathers all the people around the word and the altar, God keeps a remnant by grace, and Jesus waits for the Father's hour.
“When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred eighteen of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.” Genesis 14:14
““Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” Luke 15:4
Apply: Contact one person who has drifted away, simply to show that you care.
“There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens who resided among them.” Joshua 8:35
“Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”” Luke 4:21
Apply: After this week's Holy Qurbana, ask each child at home what they heard in the readings.
“Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”” 1 Kings 19:18
“So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.” Romans 11:5
Apply: Do one good work this week in secret, and do not mention it to anyone.
God goes after the lost, gathers all his people, and never takes back his call.
Let us go after those who have strayed, make room for everyone at the word and the altar, and trust the Father's hour.
Take-home resolution: This week, reach out to one person who has drifted away, and bring the children to the word and the altar.
Dear friends, Lot chose to live near Sodom, and when enemies captured him, Abram did not say: it is his own fault. He took his men, went in pursuit as far as Dan, and brought Lot home (Genesis 14:14–16). Is there a Lot in our family? Let us go after him with prayer and with love.
After the battle, Joshua builds an altar and reads every word of the law before all the people, the women, the little ones and the strangers (Joshua 8:35). This is the shape of our Holy Qurbana: the word read to all, and the offering on the altar. Let us bring our children, and help them hear.
Paul says: God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew (Romans 11:2). God keeps a remnant chosen by grace. We honour the Jewish people, and we never think that we alone are faithful.
Jesus' relatives want him to go and make a name for himself. He says: my time has not yet come, and he goes up to the feast in secret (John 7:6, 10). In this fast, let us also do our good in secret, and trust the Father's time. Amen.
Children, Abram's nephew got into big trouble because of his own choices, but Abram still went to rescue him! Can you be kind today to someone who has been naughty or unkind? That is what Jesus does for us.
Lord Jesus Christ, you went after us when we had chosen the road to Sodom, and you brought us back. Give us the heart of Abram for those who have strayed, the faith of Joshua who gathered all the people around the word and the altar, and the patience to wait for the Father's hour. Keep us from thinking we alone are faithful, and bless the people of the first covenant, whom you have never rejected. Amen.
Family ties run through today’s two main readings. Abram gathers his household and goes to rescue Lot, the nephew who chose the better land for himself and has been carried off as a prisoner. In John, Jesus’ own “brothers” do not believe in him and urge him to show himself at the festival. Between them, Joshua builds an altar on Mount Ebal and reads the whole law to the people, and Paul asks, “has God rejected his people?”, and answers, “By no means!” God does not give up on those who are his, and neither does Abram.
Setting.
Genesis 14 is unlike the chapters around it. It reads like an old war record: four kings from the east against five kings of the cities of the Plain. The rulers named have not been securely identified in other ancient sources, and scholars differ about the date of the chapter. Lot, who “settled among the cities of the Plain” (13:12), now lives in Sodom (14:12), and so he is caught up in its defeat.
The reading stops just before the best-known part of the chapter, when Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, brings out bread and wine and blesses Abram (14:18–20).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“they also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who lived in Sodom,” (14:12)
The narrator reminds us of the family bond and of the place. Lot’s choice in the last chapter has brought him to this.
“When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house,” (14:14)
Abram does not say that Lot deserves what has happened. He gave up the better land without a quarrel, and now he risks his life for the man who took it. The Epistle of Barnabas (9) saw a sign of Jesus and the Cross in the number of these men, 318, written in Greek letters (in substance); this is the kind of symbolic reading some early writers loved, and not the plain sense of the text.
“and also brought back his nephew Lot with his goods,” (14:16)
Everything comes back, “the women and the people” as well. Abram takes nothing for himself, as he will tell the king of Sodom (14:22–23).
How the Church reads it.
The next verses of the chapter give the Church one of her oldest images of the Eucharist. The Catechism names Melchizedek as a figure of Christ’s priesthood (CCC 58), and sees in his offering of bread and wine a prefiguring of the Church’s own offering (CCC 1333; see also 1544). So the road of Abram’s rescue ends at a meal of bread and wine, which is a good thought for those who keep the Great Fast on the way to the Holy Qurbana of Easter.
Setting.
The Festival of Booths (Hebrew Sukkot; Leviticus 23:33–43) was a joyful autumn pilgrimage. For seven days the people lived in shelters of branches, remembering the desert, and an eighth day closed the feast. Chapters 7–8 of John take place at this festival.
In v. 1 and v. 13 John’s “the Jews” cannot mean the Jewish people as a whole. Jesus, his brothers and the crowd are all Jews, and people go in fear of “the Jews” (v. 13). John means the authorities in Jerusalem who were hostile to him (see CCC 597).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“(For not even his brothers believed in him.)” (7:5)
A sad note from the evangelist. Living close to Jesus does not by itself bring faith. On the word “brothers”, see the question below.
“My time has not yet come,” (7:6)
His brothers are thinking of publicity, but Jesus lives by the Father’s timetable. “Your time is always here” means that they have nothing they must wait for from God.
“Yet no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews.” (7:13)
The people are afraid of their leaders, not of their own people. On v. 8, “I am not going to this festival”, many ancient manuscripts have “not yet going”. The NRSV and the POC follow the shorter text. Either way, Jesus refuses to go at his brothers’ urging and for their purpose, and goes later at the Father’s time, “not publicly” (v. 10).
How the Church reads it.
St John’s Gospel keeps asking when and how Jesus will be shown to the world. The Catechism teaches that his “hour” comes at the Passion, when he gives the Spirit (CCC 729–730). For all the opposition reported here, the Church reads these chapters with care: there were believers and doubters among the leaders and among the people, and there was long-standing dispute about him (CCC 595–597).
If Jesus had “brothers”, how can Mary be ever-virgin?
Hebrew and Aramaic have no separate common word for “cousin” or “kinsman”, and “brother” covers them. Today’s first reading is the clearest example: Lot is Abram’s nephew, and the Hebrew calls him his “brother” (14:14, 16). The Catechism cites this very passage when it explains that those called the brothers of Jesus are close relations (CCC 500, citing Genesis 13:8; 14:16). St Jerome made the same argument against Helvidius (in substance).