7 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
““Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”” John 7:37–38
The first reading begins in a household that has gone wrong. Sarai, unable to bear children, had given her Egyptian slave-girl Hagar to Abram; Hagar conceived and looked down on her mistress; Sarai complained; and Abram washed his hands of it: “Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please.” “Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her.” A pregnant foreign servant, alone, runs into the desert toward Egypt. And there, of all places, “The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness.” He asks her the question the Great Fast asks each of us: “Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” He promises her a son and gives him a name, Ishmael, God hears, “for the LORD has given heed to your affliction.” Then Hagar does something no one in Scripture has done before her: she gives God a name. “So she named the LORD who spoke to her, ‘You are El-roi’; for she said, ‘Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?’” El-roi, the God who sees. The first person in the Bible to name God is not a patriarch or a priest, but a runaway slave woman. Thousands of women from Kerala work as housemaids and carers far from home, some of them treated harshly behind closed doors where no one sees. God sees. And he asks us whether we see them too, in our own homes, in the women who work for us, and in the women of our families whose hurts are hidden.
The second reading finishes last Friday's story. Three days after the treaty, Israel discovers that the Gibeonites are neighbours, not travellers from afar. The congregation murmurs, but the leaders hold firm: “We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, and now we must not touch them.” An oath made in God's name is kept, even when it was obtained by a trick and even when it costs. The psalm praises the one “who stand by their oath even to their hurt” (Psalm 15:4). Our marriage vows, our baptismal promises and our word given in business are to be kept the same way. And notice how the story ends. The Gibeonites are spared, and Joshua makes them “hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD.” The outsiders who came with mouldy bread end their story beside the altar of the God of Israel. Christian readers have seen in this wood and water carried to the altar a hint of the wood of the Cross and the water of Baptism, by which God brings strangers near to his altar.
Paul now turns from the mercy of God to the life it makes possible: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” This is what the Great Fast is for. We do not fast because the body is bad, but because the body is to be offered: eyes, tongue, hands, appetite and time placed on the altar with Christ. And the sacrifice is not private. “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” Paul ends with a list that could hang on the wall of every Christian home: “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.”
The Gospel takes us to the festival of Booths in Jerusalem. During the feast, as Jewish tradition describes it, water was carried in procession from the pool of Siloam and poured out at the altar, and great lamps were lit in the temple courts so that the whole city glowed. Into that water and that light Jesus speaks. “On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.’” John explains: “Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive.” Then, in the treasury near the great lamps, he says: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” Water and light: these are the two signs of our Baptism, the Mamodisa, when we were washed in water and a burning candle was placed in our hands. At the Easter Vigil the Church will bless the water and carry the new light into a dark church, and those preparing for Baptism will receive both. Hagar found a spring in the desert and met the God who sees; the Gibeonites carried water to the altar; Christ himself is the spring from which rivers of living water flow, and the light that the darkness cannot overcome. His hour “had not yet come”, but it is coming: on the Cross water will flow from his side, and on Easter morning the light will rise.
Theme: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.”
Hagar and the God who sees, an oath kept and strangers brought to the altar, the living sacrifice, and Christ the living water and the light of the world.
“So she named the LORD who spoke to her, “You are El-roi”; for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”” Genesis 16:13
“But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:6
Apply: Notice one person who serves you unseen; thank them by name and pay them justly.
“But on that day Joshua made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, to continue to this day, in the place that he should choose.” Joshua 9:27
“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”” Mark 10:45
Apply: Keep one promise you have delayed, and offer one humble service in your parish.
“The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Romans 12:1
Apply: Choose one discipline of eyes, tongue or hands and offer it each morning this week.
“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Isaiah 12:3
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”” John 8:12
Apply: Light a candle at home on the anniversary of your Baptism, or this Sunday evening, and renew your baptismal promises as a family.
The God who saw Hagar sees us; the God who brought the Gibeonites to his altar brings us near; the Son pours out the Spirit like rivers and shines as the light of the world.
Let us see the unseen, keep our word, offer our bodies, and come thirsty to Christ.
Take-home resolution: This week, thank one unseen servant by name, keep one delayed promise, and renew your baptismal promises with a lit candle.
Dear brothers and sisters, Hagar was a servant, a foreigner and a pregnant woman, treated harshly and alone in the desert. But the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water and asked: where have you come from and where are you going? (Genesis 16:8). That is the question of the Great Fast for each of us.
Hagar gave God a name: El-roi, the God who sees (Genesis 16:13). The first person in the Bible to name God was a runaway slave woman. God sees those whom no one sees. Let us ask him to give us his eyes for the servants, the migrants and the hidden sufferers around us.
Israel discovered that the Gibeonites had tricked them, yet the leaders said: we have sworn to them by the Lord, and we must not touch them (Joshua 9:19). They kept their word even when it cost. Our vows and promises must be kept the same way. And the outsiders ended up carrying wood and water for the altar of the Lord: God brings strangers near.
Paul says: present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (Romans 12:1). That is why we fast. Our eyes, tongue, hands and time are placed on the altar with Christ, and we are transformed by the renewing of our minds.
At the feast of Booths, when water was poured at the altar and great lamps lit up the temple, Jesus cried out: let anyone who is thirsty come to me; and he said: I am the light of the world (John 7:37; 8:12). Water and light are the signs of our Baptism.
This week, let us see one person we have overlooked, keep one promise we have delayed, offer one discipline as a living sacrifice, and come thirsty to Jesus. At Easter he will give us the living water and the light. Amen.
Children, Hagar was alone in the desert and thought nobody cared. But God found her and she called him: the God who sees me! God sees you too, when you are happy and when you are sad.
Jesus said: if you are thirsty, come to me. He is like a spring of fresh water and a bright light in the dark. When you see water or a candle this week, remember Jesus!
Lord Jesus Christ, spring of living water and light of the world, you are El-roi, the God who saw Hagar in the desert and who sees us now. See the hidden sufferings of the poor, the servants and the strangers, and teach us to see them with your eyes. Make us faithful to our word, bring near to your altar all who are far away, and receive our bodies as a living sacrifice. Pour out your Spirit like rivers in our hearts, and let us walk in your light until we come to the light of Easter. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.
Water runs through this Sunday’s readings, and with it the question of who is seen and who is given a place. A runaway slave woman is found by a spring in the wilderness, and she gives God a name: the God who sees. The Gibeonites, spared because of an oath, become “drawers of water” at the altar of the Lord. Paul asks us to offer our whole lives as a living sacrifice, in one body where each has a gift. And on the great day of the festival, in a Temple bright with water and light, Jesus cries out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me”, and says, “I am the light of the world.” In the middle of the Great Fast, those who are thirsty and those on the margins are the ones to whom God comes first. The key words are seeing, serving and thirst.
Setting.
Ten years have passed in the land, and Sarai still has no child (16:3). She gives her Egyptian slave Hagar to Abram, following a custom known in the ancient Near East, by which a slave’s child could count as her mistress’s. Hagar conceives and looks on Sarai with contempt (16:4), and Sarai turns on Abram (16:5). Our reading starts at the moment Abram hands the matter back.
The irony is sharp. An Egyptian slave is now oppressed by the family of Abram. Generations later, Hebrew slaves will be oppressed in Egypt, and God will hear them too.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her.” (16:6)
Genesis does not hide this. The father and mother of the promise fail badly here, and Abram’s “do to her as you please” is a shameful word from the man of faith.
“Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” (16:8)
No one in this story has yet spoken to her or used her name. Abram and Sarai said only “my slave-girl” and “your slave-girl”. The angel calls her by name. The two questions are the questions of every person in the Great Fast.
“for the Lord has given heed to your affliction.” (16:11)
God hears the prayer that was never spoken: the text gives no word of prayer from her. The POC has “your cry”, which brings out the same sense.
“So she named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are El-roi”;” (16:13)
She has been treated as property, as someone not seen. Now she says: he sees me. The well is called Beer-lahai-roi, “the well of the Living One who sees me” (NRSV note).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism counts the rescue of Hagar and her child among the works of the angels (CCC 332). It also teaches that the cry of the oppressed, of the foreigner, the widow and the orphan, is a cry that reaches heaven (CCC 1867), and that the Church’s love for the poor and the oppressed has a special place (CCC 2448). Slavery is condemned by the seventh commandment (CCC 2414). St Paul uses the story of Hagar and Sarah as an allegory in Galatians 4:21–31, about life under the law and life in Christ; he is making a point about the Christian life, not passing judgment on a people. Genesis itself shows God’s care for Ishmael, and the Church regards with esteem Muslims, who link their own faith to Abraham (Nostra Aetate 3).
Setting.
Friday’s reading told how the people of Gibeon, a city only a few miles from Jerusalem, came in worn-out clothes with dry bread and pretended to be from far away. The leaders took them at their word and “did not ask direction from the Lord” (9:14). Deuteronomy 20:10–18 had distinguished between far cities and the cities of the land, and so they had every reason to lie.
Now the truth is out. Many scholars think that this story took shape, in part, to explain how a non-Israelite people came to live within Israel and to serve at its sanctuary. Whatever its history, it is a story about an oath that holds.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel.” (9:18)
The oath was obtained by a trick, and the people want to break it. The leaders refuse. God’s name, once called on, cannot be used and then thrown away. Long afterwards, Saul’s violence against the Gibeonites was remembered as a great sin that brought famine (2 Samuel 21:1–2).
“so we were in great fear for our lives because of you,” (9:24)
The Gibeonites speak with honesty at last, and their fear is that of ordinary people caught in a war. Like Rahab (Joshua 2:9–11), they have heard what God has done, and they want to live.
“hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord,” (9:27)
The harsh sentence has a strange result. The people under a curse are placed beside the altar, the holiest place. They stay close to God’s worship “to this day”. We should not defend what was unjust in the arrangement, but we can see God’s mercy working through it.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that promises made to others in God’s name engage the divine honour, and that they must be respected in justice (CCC 2147, 2150). Psalm 15:4 praises those “who stand by their oath even to their hurt”. Origen, preaching on this chapter, took the Gibeonites as a warning to those who come into the Church and are content with minor tasks, and he urged his hearers to go further (Homilies on Joshua 10; in substance). For those who keep the Great Fast, the page has a gentler message too: whoever comes in fear and honesty to the house of God will find a place in it.
Setting.
For eleven chapters Paul has spoken of what God has done: sin, grace, faith, the Spirit, the mystery of Israel. Chapter 11 ended in praise. Now comes “therefore” (12:1), and the letter turns to how we live. The moral life flows out of God’s mercies. Paul writes to a mixed community of Jews and Gentiles, and the call to one body in vv. 4–5 speaks directly to it.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” (12:1)
Fasting belongs here: the body takes part in worship. Paul’s words about sacrifice do not take the place of the Church’s offering at the altar. They flow from it and return to it.
“but be transformed by the renewing of your minds,” (12:2)
Change begins in the way we think, not only in what we do. Without this we simply take the shape of the age around us.
“so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” (12:5)
Not only members of Christ, but members of each other. No one in the Church can say that the others do not concern him.
“Let love be genuine;” (12:9)
The Greek says “without hypocrisy”, without a mask. After speaking of gifts, Paul goes straight to love, as he does in 1 Corinthians 12–13.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes this very verse when it teaches that the moral life is spiritual worship, nourished in the liturgy and the sacraments (CCC 2031). Romans 12–15 is among the great moral catechesis of the apostles (CCC 1971). The Second Vatican Council quotes v. 1 when speaking of the common priesthood of all the baptized (Lumen Gentium 10). St Augustine, in The City of God 10.6, draws together this chapter and the altar: the whole redeemed community is offered to God as one sacrifice through Christ, and this is what the Church celebrates in the Sacrament of the altar (in substance). In the Eucharist the lives of the faithful are joined to Christ’s one offering (CCC 1368).
Setting.
John has been following Jesus at the Festival of Booths. The Mishnah, a later collection of Jewish tradition, describes two rites of the feast. Each morning a priest brought water in procession from the Pool of Siloam and poured it out at the altar. And in the Court of the Women great lamps were lit, so that the whole city was bright (Sukkah 4–5). Zechariah 14 had joined the feast of Booths to living waters and a day without night (14:7–8, 16). Jesus speaks into that setting.
“The treasury” (8:20) was in the Court of the Women, near where those lamps stood. The reading skips 7:40–8:11, including the story of the woman taken in adultery, and joins the two sayings directly.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me,” (7:37)
Jesus stands up, though teachers usually sat, and he cries out at the height of the festival. He does not offer the crowd a new rite: he offers himself.
“Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” (7:38)
No one verse of the Old Testament says exactly this; compare Isaiah 12:3, Ezekiel 47:1–12 and Zechariah 14:8. The Greek says “out of his inner being” (literally “belly”) without saying whose, and the ancient texts had no punctuation to settle it. Many Greek Fathers, with the NRSV and the POC, read it as the believer. Some Western writers read it as Christ, whose heart is the source. Both are true: the water comes from him and through him flows to others.
“Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive;” (7:39)
John says that the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. He is not saying that the Spirit did not exist. The promise is kept at the Cross and at Easter (19:34; 20:22).
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (8:12)
“Follows” is the word for discipleship and also for walking behind the pillar in the desert. The lamps of the feast shone only for its few nights; this light does not go out.
“If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” (8:19)
The argument about witnesses ends here. To know the Son is the way to the Father. This is said to those Jesus is debating with, within a discussion among Jews about the law they all honour. His “your law” (8:17) does not mean that he stands outside it: he is showing what they themselves accept.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that the Spirit is “the living water” welling up from Christ crucified as its source and from him springing up in us for eternal life (CCC 694; see 1137). It names Jesus as the light of the world in whom the whole of God’s truth is made known (CCC 2466). Vatican II opens its great Constitution on the Church with the same image: Christ is the light of the nations (Lumen Gentium 1). St Augustine preached on these verses at length, and he taught that the Spirit was to be given in a new way after Christ’s glorification, not that he was absent before (Tractates on John 32; in substance).
Why does the angel send Hagar back to a mistress who has mistreated her?
This is a hard verse, and we should not hide it. The text does not approve of slavery, and the Church teaches that enslaving human beings is a grave wrong (CCC 2414). Within the story, returning means that her child will be born in Abram’s house and so will be recognized as his son (16:15). The promise given to her is her own, and it comes directly from God. Later God will care for Hagar and Ishmael again, in the wilderness (Genesis 21:17–20).
Does God accept an oath that was gained by a lie?
Joshua 9 is not a lesson in the law of contracts. It shows ancient Israel’s deep respect for a promise made in God’s name. Today the Church would ask whether a promise obtained by fraud binds at all. The lasting point is that God’s name must never be used lightly (CCC 2147–2150).
What does “there was no Spirit” mean, when the Spirit is already in the Old Testament?
The Holy Spirit is eternal God and was at work in creation and in the prophets (CCC 702). John means that the outpouring on all believers, which the prophets promised, was not yet given. It comes when Jesus is glorified (CCC 729–730).
The Syro-Malabar faithful fast through these weeks of the East Syriac year and gather on Sunday for the Holy Qurbana, on the road toward the Pasch. Hagar’s spring, the altar of Joshua 9, Paul’s living sacrifice and the rivers of John 7 all meet there: the thirsty come, those on the edge find a place, and our lives are offered with Christ’s one offering. Water, oil and light in the sacraments of the Church also speak of the same gift of the Spirit that Jesus promised at the festival.