14 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11
“When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be consumed in the punishment of the city.’” The prophet Ezekiel would later name the sin of Sodom as pride, excess of food, prosperous ease, and neglect of the poor and needy (Ezekiel 16:49), and Genesis has just shown its violence against strangers. Lot knows the city is doomed, and still: “But he lingered.” It is one of the most human sentences in the Bible. We too linger at the door of conversion, knowing what we must leave and not quite leaving it. And then mercy acts: “so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city.” God does not wait for Lot to be brave; he takes him by the hand. Genesis adds that God did this because “God remembered Abraham” (Genesis 19:29), whose bold prayer for the city comes just before this story (Genesis 18:23–32). The command is urgent: “Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain.” Lot bargains even now for a small town nearby, and God grants it. “But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” She was out of the city, but her heart was still in it. Jesus gave his disciples a sermon of three words on her: “Remember Lot's wife” (Luke 17:32). One week before Hosanna Sunday, the Great Fast takes us by the hand and says: do not look back, do not stop on the plain; the hills of Easter are ahead.
The second reading closes the long account of the conquest with a sentence of pure gratitude: “Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to their ancestors that he would give them.” And then: “Not one of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” Joshua sends the tribes who had settled east of the Jordan back to their homes, but not without a charge: “to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, and to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” The promised land is not the end of the covenant but a place to keep it. Paul then turns to a quarrel in the church of Rome. Some believers ate everything; others, out of conscience, would not eat meat or drink wine; each side judged the other. Paul tells the strong: “Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.” And he gives a principle that every Lent needs: “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Our families keep the Great Fast in different ways, from the strict fifty days of our grandparents to the lighter practice of busy young people abroad; the measure is not whose plate is emptier but whose heart is more loving. And Paul's warning reaches further: “it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.” Many families in Kerala have been wounded by drink. A father who gives up alcohol for the sake of his son, or a host who serves no liquor at a feast for the sake of one guest who struggles, is doing exactly what Paul asks: “Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.”
In the Gospel Jesus speaks the words that the Church loves to hear at the threshold of his Passion: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” He contrasts himself with the hired hand who “sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,” because “a hired hand does not care for the sheep.” A shepherd is known by what he does when danger comes. Then he speaks of a knowledge as deep as the life of God: “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” His gaze goes beyond the flock in front of him: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” The St Thomas Christians, one Church for many centuries, have been divided into several Churches since the seventeenth century; we pray with respect and hope for the day when all will be one flock. Finally Jesus says what makes the coming week intelligible: “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.” The Passion we will celebrate is not an accident or a defeat; it is the free self-offering of the Son, who lays down his life in order to take it up again. Every bishop of our Church carries a shepherd's staff, and every priest stands at the altar to make present that one sacrifice. Let us pray for our shepherds, that they may not be hired hands, and let us listen this week for the voice of the Good Shepherd, who is already walking toward Jerusalem for us.
Theme: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Lot who lingered and was taken by the hand, the promises that never failed, the brother for whom Christ died, and the Shepherd who lays down his life of his own accord.
“But he lingered; so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city.” Genesis 19:16
“Remember Lot's wife.” Luke 17:32
Apply: Make a definite break before Hosanna Sunday with the one thing you keep looking back at.
“Not one of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” Joshua 21:45
“For in him every one of God's promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God.” 2 Corinthians 1:20
Apply: Write down three promises God has kept in your life, and thank him for them at the family prayer.
“You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:14
“For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Romans 14:17
Apply: Give up for the rest of the fast one thing that might make someone close to you stumble.
“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD.” Ezekiel 34:15
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11
Apply: Pray each day this week for your bishop, your parish priest, and vocations from your parish.
God's mercy takes us by the hand when we linger, and every one of his promises is Yes in Christ.
Let us never be a stumbling block, and let us follow the Good Shepherd who goes freely to Jerusalem to lay down his life for us.
Take-home resolution: This week, break with what you keep looking back at, remove one stumbling block, and pray daily for your shepherds.
Dear brothers and sisters, at dawn the angels urge Lot to leave Sodom. But he lingered (Genesis 19:16). How often we too linger, knowing what we must leave. And the angels take him by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and bring him out. God's mercy does not wait for us to be brave.
They tell him: do not look back. But Lot's wife looked back, and became a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26). She was out of the city, but her heart was still in it. Jesus says: remember Lot's wife (Luke 17:32). One week before Hosanna, what am I still looking back at?
Joshua tells Israel: not one of all the good promises of the LORD had failed; all came to pass (Joshua 21:45). And he gives them a charge: love the LORD, hold fast to him, and serve him with all your heart. God keeps every promise; let us keep faith with him.
Paul tells the Romans: the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Let us not judge how others fast, and let us never be a stumbling block. If my drink or my habit makes my brother fall, love tells me to give it up.
Jesus says: I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11). No one takes his life from him; he lays it down of his own accord, and takes it up again. Next week we will see him do it.
Let us pray for our shepherds, our bishops and priests. Let us pray for the unity of all the sheep. And let us follow the voice of the Good Shepherd as he walks toward Jerusalem for us. Amen.
Children, Lot was slow to leave a bad city, so the angels took him by the hand and led him out. God takes our hand too when we are slow to do good!
Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He knows each of us by name, and he loves us so much that he gave his life for us. Let us listen to his voice!
Lord Jesus Christ, Good Shepherd, you lay down your life for the sheep of your own accord, and you take it up again. When we linger at the door of conversion, take us by the hand as the angels took Lot, and do not let us look back. Keep us faithful to your promises, every one of which is Yes in you. Make us careful never to place a stumbling block before those for whom you died, and gather all your scattered sheep into one flock under your one staff. As you walk toward Jerusalem, let us hear your voice and follow you. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.
This is the last Sunday before Hosanna Sunday, and the four readings ask whose hand we are holding as the Great Fast comes near its end. In Genesis, angels take a lingering man by the hand and pull him out of a doomed city. In Joshua the promises of God stand fulfilled, and the people are told to hold fast to him. Paul asks the strong to give up what they have every right to, for the sake of a brother or sister “for whom Christ died”. And in John the Good Shepherd lays down his life of his own accord, for sheep he knows by name. The line runs from God’s mercy on Lot to the shepherd who will go up to Jerusalem next week. Its key words are mercy, faithfulness and laying down.
Setting.
The chapter follows Abraham’s bold prayer for the city (18:23–32). Two angels have come to Sodom, Lot has taken them in, and a crowd has surrounded the house to do violence to the guests (19:1–11). Lot himself cuts a poor figure in that scene (19:8), and yet the New Testament can call him “a righteous man” (2 Peter 2:7). Now the angels tell him to leave. The site of Sodom has never been established with certainty. The tradition of the Bible places it in the Dead Sea plain, a land of salt and sulfur, where salt formations still stand.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“But he lingered; so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him,” (19:16)
This is one of the most human sentences in the Bible. Lot knows the danger, and he still does not move. God does not wait for him to be brave. The hand that holds him is the mercy of God.
“Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain;” (19:17)
Three commands in short bursts. Conversion has an urgency, and it also has a direction: it means leaving behind the place where one is standing.
“Look, that city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one.” (19:20)
Even on the road to safety, Lot argues. And God grants it (19:21). Grace works with weak people and meets them where they are, without calling their weakness strength.
“But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” (19:26)
She had come out of the city, but the text suggests that her heart had not. Genesis does not explain her thoughts. Wisdom calls the pillar “a monument to an unbelieving soul” (Wisdom 10:7), and Jesus gives us the shortest of warnings: “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32).
How the Church reads it.
St Clement of Rome says that Lot was saved for his hospitality and piety, and that his wife became a sign to the double-minded (1 Clement 11, in substance). The Catechism says that interior conversion is a radical reorientation of the whole life, a turning away from evil (CCC 1431). And because “God remembered Abraham” (19:29), the Church sees here the power of intercession: since Abraham, asking on behalf of another has marked a heart in tune with God’s mercy (CCC 2635).
Setting.
This reading stands at a turning point. The long division of the land is finished (Joshua 13–21). Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh had received land east of the Jordan from Moses on condition that their fighters would cross and stand with the other tribes until all had rest (Numbers 32; Joshua 1:12–18). Now they are sent home.
Many scholars think that this book took its final form long after the events, perhaps around the time of the Exile, when a people who had lost the land needed to hear that God keeps his word. The book itself knows that things were not finished: “very much of the land still remains to be possessed” (13:1). Its summary here is a confession of faith about God.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Not one of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” (21:45)
This sentence is the summit of the book. A people that has often failed is told that God has not. It can be said honestly only after a long road, and it is said here so that later generations can hold on to it in the dark.
“you have not forsaken your kindred these many days,” (22:3)
These tribes already had their land, and they could have stayed at home. Faith here means staying in the fight until the rest have received what you have. This is a rule of love that Paul will echo today.
“to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, and to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (22:5)
The language is that of Deuteronomy (see Deuteronomy 6:5; 10:12). Five verbs, and love comes first. Having received the land, they now need to keep the giver.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that God’s words are true and that his promises always come true (CCC 215). Paul says, “in him every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes’” (2 Corinthians 1:20). The Letter to the Hebrews reads the rest given through Joshua as pointing further: “a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). This does not take away the gift given to Israel, for “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). Passages about conquest belong to a harsh age and are read in the light of Christ (Dei Verbum 15).
Setting.
Paul writes to Rome, probably from Corinth, around AD 57. The Roman believers were divided over food and holy days (14:1–6). Paul speaks of the “weak” and the “strong” without naming groups. Many scholars think that the weak were mainly Jewish Christians who kept the food laws or feared impure meat, and that the strong were mainly Gentile believers. This remains a reconstruction. Paul counts himself among the strong (15:1), and yet it is the strong whom he asks to yield. He has no contempt for anyone’s fidelity to conscience.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.” (14:15)
The price of the other person is the blood of Christ. Anyone who sets a dish against that has lost all sense of proportion. Chrysostom makes this point sharply in his homilies on Romans (in substance).
“For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (14:17)
This does not cancel the Fast. It tells us what the Fast is for. Food is neither the way in nor the barrier. The gifts of the Spirit are the signs of the kingdom. The Catechism quotes this verse in explaining the prayer for the coming of the kingdom (CCC 2819).
“it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.” (14:21)
The Catechism quotes this among the rules of conscience (CCC 1789). Paul makes the same choice in Corinth (1 Corinthians 8:13). It does not mean that one must follow every scruple of the loudest person. It means that love is prepared to give up a right.
“for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (14:23)
In this context “faith” means the settled conviction before God about what one is doing. To act against one’s own conscience is wrong, even when the thing itself is allowed (CCC 1790). See the question below.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism treats scandal as a grave offence against a brother or sister, especially against the weak (CCC 2284–2287). It also says that charity always proceeds by way of respect for one’s neighbour and his conscience (CCC 1789). Paul’s own words sum it up: “Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (14:19).
Setting.
Chapter 9 ended with the healing of a man born blind and a dispute with some Pharisees who said, “We see” (9:41). The sayings of chapter 10 continue that dispute without a break. Israel’s Scripture lies behind them: “The Lord is my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1), the God who says “I myself will search for my sheep” (Ezekiel 34:11), and Ezekiel’s complaint against leaders who feed themselves (Ezekiel 34:2). Jesus speaks to some leaders of his day, and his words test leaders of every age, in the Church above all.
A shepherd in that land lived with his flock, led it from the front, knew each animal and defended it against wolves, which were a real danger then. The sheep were often brought at night into a walled fold.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (10:11)
This is unheard of in ordinary farming: a shepherd who dies leaves his flock to the wolf. Here the death is what saves them. The Malayalam POC says “ജീവൻ അർപ്പിക്കുന്നു”, a word for offering, which gives the verse its priestly tone.
“The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.” (10:13)
St Gregory the Great says that a hireling can run away without moving, when he sees sin and stays silent out of love for his own comfort (Homilies on the Gospels 14, in substance). St Augustine’s Sermon 46, on pastors, is a long meditation on Ezekiel 34.
“I know my own and my own know me,” (10:14)
In the Bible, to know is to be in a bond, not simply to have information. The next verse sets the measure: “just as the Father knows me and I know the Father”. The life of the Trinity is the pattern for how Christ knows you.
“So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (10:16)
John later explains: Jesus would die “to gather into one the dispersed children of God” (11:52). The Second Vatican Council names the restoration of unity among all Christians as one of its chief concerns (Unitatis Redintegratio 1).
“No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” (10:18)
The Catechism quotes these words to show the sovereign freedom of the Son going to his death (CCC 609). It also quotes them on the Resurrection, which is the work of the Father, the Son and the Spirit together, the Son rising by his divine power (CCC 648–649). The arrest and the Cross are not something that overpowered him.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the Church is a sheepfold whose one gate is Christ, and a flock whose shepherd is God himself (CCC 754). The image of the Good Shepherd is one of the oldest in Christian art, already painted in the catacombs of Rome, carrying the sheep on his shoulders. The Second Vatican Council asks each bishop to keep the example of the Good Shepherd before his eyes, who came to serve and to give his life (Lumen Gentium 27). Holy Qurbana is where this reading is fulfilled for us: he who said “I lay down my life” gives that life to his sheep.
What was the sin of Sodom?
Scripture names more than one thing. Genesis shows a crowd ready to do violence to strangers under Lot’s roof (19:4–9). Ezekiel says: “she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy” (Ezekiel 16:49). Jude speaks of sexual immorality (Jude 7). The Catechism refers to this chapter when it teaches that homosexual acts are contrary to the natural law (CCC 2357), and it immediately requires that persons with this inclination be treated with “respect, compassion, and sensitivity” (CCC 2358). No one may use this story as a stone to throw. It calls all of us to conversion.
“Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin”: does this mean that everything non-Christians do is sin?
No. Paul is speaking here about one Christian’s conscience about a question of food. The Church has rejected the idea that all works done without faith are sins (Council of Trent, Session 6, canon 7). The Second Vatican Council says that those who seek God with a sincere heart and try to do his will, moved by grace, can attain salvation (Lumen Gentium 16).
Who are the “other sheep”?
Most of the Fathers and most modern interpreters take them to be the Gentiles, who would come to Christ alongside the believers from Israel (see 11:52). Readers have also rightly heard here a call to all who have not yet heard his voice, and a call to work for Christian unity. The promise is the Lord’s, and he is the one who brings them: “I must bring them also.”
This is the Sixth Sunday of the Great Fast (Sauma Ramba). Next Friday is the Fortieth Friday (Nalpatham Velli), and the Sunday after this one is Hosanna. Many of our families keep this Fast with care, leaving aside meat and fish and other foods as our ancestors did. Romans 14 is a good page to read in our homes this week: it asks us to keep our own fast faithfully without measuring a neighbour’s plate, and it reminds us why we fast. John 10 turns our minds to our shepherds. At every Holy Qurbana we pray for the Pope, for our Major Archbishop and for the bishop of our eparchy. This week let us also pray for our priests, and let each parent, teacher and catechist ask who has been entrusted to their care.