19 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” John 11:40
Today is the fortieth day since the Great Fast began on Monday 8 February. The Lord fasted forty days in the desert; Moses stayed forty days on the mountain; Elijah walked forty days to Horeb; and the Church, counting with them, keeps this Friday as the Fortieth Friday, Nalpatham Velli. Our forefathers in Kerala called the whole season the fifty-day fast, because it runs on through the Week of the Passion to Easter; the forty days are complete today, and what remains is the road with Christ to Jerusalem. In many parishes the Way of the Cross is made with special devotion today, and some climb a hill shrine on foot, carrying a small cross. In 2027 this day is also the feast of St Joseph, the just man who guarded the Lord's childhood. It is a fitting meeting: the man of silence who obeyed in the night stands at the door of the week in which his foster Son will obey the Father unto death.
The first reading is short and quiet. After the destruction of Sodom, “Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord; and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the Plain and saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace.” The day before, at that very place, he had bargained with God for the city: fifty righteous, forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, ten. Not even ten were found. Yet his prayer was not lost: “So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow.” No intercession is wasted. The second reading tells of a near civil war. The tribes who had settled east of the Jordan built a great altar by the river, and the other tribes, fearing rebellion and a second altar against the Lord's, gathered at Shiloh to make war. They sent Phinehas and ten chiefs to ask: “What is this treachery that you have committed against the God of Israel?” The rest of the chapter tells that the altar was meant only as a witness that both sides of the river belonged to the one Lord, and war was avoided because they spoke before they fought. Paul gives the Christian rule for every such tension: “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” He ends with a blessing worth praying every day of Holy Week: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
The Gospel brings us to Bethany, to the tomb of Lazarus, the last and greatest sign in John's Gospel before the Passion. “Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’” Martha, practical as always, protests: “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus answers with the word that is today's key: “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” The stone is rolled away. Jesus lifts his eyes and thanks the Father aloud, “so that they may believe that you sent me.” Then “he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’” Lazarus returns to ordinary life and will die again; it is a sign, not yet the Resurrection. But it points to the Easter that is coming, when the stone will be rolled away from another tomb, and the grave cloths will be left lying, because the One who comes out will never die again. Notice too that Jesus gives others a part: they must take away the stone, and they must unbind him. The Church does this still. Christ alone gives life; through the ministry of his Church the bonds of sin are loosed in the sacrament of reconciliation. On this Fortieth Friday, what stone needs to be rolled away, and what bands still hold us?
The readings of St Joseph speak of a man who did not fear. “Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand,” says the Lord through Isaiah. Joseph needed that word. He found the woman he was to marry with child, and “being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” Then the angel came in a dream: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” And the Gospel says simply: “When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” Not one word of Joseph is recorded in the Gospels. He speaks through obedience, work and care. He names the child Jesus, “the Lord saves”, and so gives the Son of God his place in the house of David. Pope Francis called him a father in the shadows, and Pope Pius IX declared him Patron of the Universal Church. In many Kerala homes and parishes his feast is marked by a meal for the poor, the oottu, where an elderly man, a woman and a child are honoured at table in memory of the Holy Family of Nazareth. As we enter the Week of the Passion, Joseph teaches us to do what the Lord asks, without speeches, and to trust that “God is with us”, even in the night.
Theme: “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
On the Fortieth Friday and the feast of St Joseph: Abraham's intercession remembered, a quarrel healed by speaking, Lazarus called from the tomb, and the just man who obeyed in the night.
“So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had settled.” Genesis 19:29
“Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” James 5:16
Apply: Pray every day of the Week of the Passion for three people far from God, by name.
“Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?” Malachi 2:10
“Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” Romans 15:7
Apply: Before you judge someone's actions this week, go and ask them what they meant.
“Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.” Ezekiel 37:12
“The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”” John 11:44
Apply: Make your Easter confession before Pesaha, and let the Lord unbind you.
“do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
“When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,” Matthew 1:24
Apply: Do today, without delay or complaint, the one thing you know God is asking of you.
The forty days are complete: God remembers our prayers, heals our quarrels and calls us out of our graves.
With St Joseph, let us enter the Week of the Passion obeying in silence and trusting that God is with us.
Take-home resolution: Make the Way of the Cross today, go to confession before Pesaha, and share a meal with the poor in honour of the Holy Family.
Dear brothers and sisters, today the forty days of the Great Fast are complete. On this Fortieth Friday, and on the feast of St Joseph, the word of God speaks of prayer, peace, life and obedience.
Abraham goes back to the place where he had pleaded with God for Sodom and sees only smoke. But Scripture says: God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow (Genesis 19:29). No prayer for another person is ever wasted.
When the tribes east of the Jordan built an altar, the rest of Israel almost went to war. But they spoke first, and the misunderstanding was healed. Paul tells us: welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you (Romans 15:7).
At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus says: take away the stone. Martha fears the stench of death. Jesus answers: did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? (John 11:40). Then he cries: Lazarus, come out! And he tells the people: unbind him, and let him go.
Christ alone gives life; through his Church he unbinds us. In these days, let us come to the sacrament of reconciliation and let the bands of sin be loosed. Lazarus points to Easter, when Christ will rise never to die again.
St Joseph never speaks in the Gospels. When the angel told him in a dream not to be afraid, he woke up and did as the angel of the Lord commanded (Matthew 1:24). As we enter the Week of the Passion, let us learn from him to obey without delay and to trust that God is with us. Amen.
Children, Jesus called out loud to his friend Lazarus who had died: Lazarus, come out! And he came out alive! Jesus is stronger than death.
Today we also remember St Joseph, who took care of Jesus and Mary. Let us help our fathers and mothers today, just as St Joseph helped his family.
Lord Jesus Christ, resurrection and life, you wept at the tomb of your friend and called him out with a loud voice. On this fortieth day of our fast, roll away the stones that shut us in, call us out of every grave of sin, and let your Church unbind us and set us free. Through the prayers of St Joseph, the just man who did all that the angel commanded, give us his silent obedience and his fearless trust, and bring us with him to the glory of God. To you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory for ever. Amen.
This year the Fortieth Friday, Nalpatham Velli, meets the feast of St Joseph. The readings belong to the Friday, and they stand at the door of the Week of the Passion. Abraham looks out at the smoke of Sodom, and we learn that God remembered his prayer and brought Lot out. Israel nearly goes to war over an altar by the Jordan, and sends envoys first. Paul asks Christians to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed them, and names the root of Jesse, the royal line in which Joseph, son of David, gave Jesus his place. At Bethany Jesus calls a dead man out of the tomb, days before his own burial. The key words are remember, one altar, welcome and come out. Over all of them stands the quiet man who guarded the Lord’s childhood, whose prayers the Church seeks for the grace of a good death.
Setting.
This short passage follows the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In chapter 18 Abraham stood before the Lord and pleaded for the city, bringing the number of the righteous down from fifty to ten (18:22–33). In chapter 19 not even ten are found, and Lot and his family are led out by the two messengers. Now Abraham, who has heard nothing since, comes back in the morning to the place of his prayer.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord;” (19:27)
He goes back to where he prayed, without knowing the answer. Prayer here includes the courage to come back and look.
“God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow,” (19:29)
Notice the wording: the rescue of Lot is credited to the memory of Abraham’s prayer. Abraham had asked for the city and was given his nephew. He saw only smoke. The reader knows what he did not know: his prayer was heard, in a way he could not see.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Abraham’s heart is attuned to the Lord’s compassion and that he dares to intercede for others with bold confidence (CCC 2571); intercession belongs to a heart in tune with God’s mercy (CCC 2635). For anyone praying for a child or a spouse far from God, this verse is a comfort: we do not always see what our prayer has done.
Setting.
Two and a half tribes (Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh) had received land east of the Jordan on condition that they fight beside the others (Numbers 32). They kept their word (Joshua 1:12–18) and have just been sent home with a blessing (22:1–9). On the way they build a huge altar near the river. The law asks for one place of worship (Deuteronomy 12:5–14), and the tabernacle now stands at Shiloh (18:1). To the western tribes the new altar looks like a breakaway.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“the whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh, to make war against them.” (22:12)
Their anger comes from a real love of God’s law. Good zeal can still act on a wrong reading of the facts.
“Then the Israelites sent the priest Phinehas son of Eleazar” (22:13)
This is the turning point. Before anyone draws a sword, someone goes to ask. The Great Fast may ask the same of our families and parishes.
“take for yourselves a possession among us;” (22:19)
Under the anger there is real generosity. If your land seems unclean, come and live with us. They would rather give up some of their own land than lose their brothers.
“Did not Achan son of Zerah break faith in the matter of the devoted things,” (22:20)
Sin is never wholly private in the Bible. It wounds the whole body.
How the Church reads it.
St Paul says, “there is one body” (Ephesians 4:4) and calls Christ “our peace” who broke down the dividing wall (Ephesians 2:14). St Ignatius of Antioch urges Christians to keep one Eucharist, for there is one flesh of the Lord, one cup and one altar, as there is one bishop (To the Philadelphians 4; in substance). The Catechism speaks of the altar of the New Covenant as the Lord’s Cross, from which the sacraments flow (CCC 1182), and of the wounds to the Church’s unity as something we must pray and work to heal (CCC 817–822).
Setting.
Paul writes to Rome around AD 57. Chapters 14–15 deal with a real tension in the community between the “strong” and the “weak” over food and days. Many scholars think this tension ran largely, though not wholly, between believers of Gentile and of Jewish background. This passage rounds off the discussion, and with it the main body of the letter. Christ himself is the model, and Scripture is the proof.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” (15:7)
The measure of our welcome is the welcome we received: while we were sinners (5:8). The goal is God’s glory, which shines when people who differ sit at one table.
“Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God” (15:8)
“Truth” here includes God’s faithfulness to his promises. Because God keeps faith with Israel, the Gentile believer can trust him as well.
“The root of Jesse shall come,” (15:12)
Today this line turns our minds to St Joseph. Matthew and Luke trace Jesus’ legal descent through Joseph, “son of David” (Matthew 1:20). The Catechism says that God called him so that Jesus should be born into the messianic lineage of David (CCC 437).
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (15:13)
Paul’s title for God is unusual and beautiful. Hope is the last word of the main body of the letter, and it is above all a gift of the Spirit.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism defines hope as the virtue by which we desire the kingdom and eternal life, relying on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit (CCC 1817). The Second Vatican Council adds that the Church awaits the day, known to God alone, when all peoples will address the Lord with one voice (Nostra Aetate 4). On St Joseph’s day it is fitting to remember that Christian hope reached its goal through a family, and that God’s promises to Israel came through the patient obedience of one man of David’s house.
Setting.
This is the last and greatest of the signs in John’s Gospel before the Passion. Lazarus of Bethany has died, and Jesus delayed his coming on purpose (11:6, 15). He has told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25), and he has wept (11:35). Bethany is near Jerusalem (11:18). This sign leads the council to plan his death (11:47–53), so the giving of life to Lazarus will cost Jesus his own.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”” (11:39)
Jesus could move the stone himself. He asks people to do what they can. The objection comes from a woman of faith, and it is honest: “already there is a stench”. A later Jewish tradition held that the soul stayed near the body for three days. The four days make plain that Lazarus is truly dead.
“Father, I thank you for having heard me.” (11:41)
He gives thanks before anything has happened. The Catechism notes that thanksgiving comes first here, and that the Father always hears his Son (CCC 2604). He prays aloud so that the crowd may know that he comes from the Father (v. 42).
“When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”” (11:43)
It is a call by name, as the shepherd calls his own (10:3), and it fulfils his own word about the dead hearing his voice (5:28–29). John uses the same strong verb for the shouts at the entry into Jerusalem (12:13) and before Pilate (19:6). Here it is Jesus who cries out, and the cry gives life.
“Unbind him, and let him go.” (11:44)
He gives life, and asks others to do the rest. St Augustine sees here the ministry of the Church, which looses the penitent whom Christ has called to life (in substance).
“Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.” (11:45)
All the people in this scene are Jews: Jesus, Martha, Mary, Lazarus, and the mourners who came to comfort the sisters. Many believe. When John goes on to speak of opposition, he means certain authorities (11:47), not the people as a whole.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person (CCC 994), and that the raising of Lazarus was a return to ordinary earthly life, unlike Christ’s Resurrection, which passes beyond death (CCC 646). St Augustine reads the four days as a soul long buried in the habit of sin, and he finds hope for such a soul in Christ’s loud cry (in substance). So a sinner who feels too long in the tomb can hear this Gospel as his own.
Abraham prayed for Sodom and it was still destroyed. Did his prayer fail?
Not ten righteous people were found, so the city fell. And yet “God remembered Abraham” and rescued Lot. Abraham’s prayer did more than he could see. God’s answer to our prayer is often larger or different than what we can see from where we stand.
Why does the Church honour St Joseph so greatly, when Scripture gives him no spoken word?
Because of what he was given to do. He was the husband of Mary and, in the place of a father, guarded and raised the Son of God. Matthew calls him “a righteous man” (Matthew 1:19). Pius IX declared him Patron of the Universal Church in 1870, and St John Paul II wrote about him in Redemptoris Custos (1989), as Pope Francis did in Patris Corde (2020). In the Gospels he speaks by what he does. The Church also entrusts the dying to him as patron of a happy death (CCC 1014).
Lazarus died again. So what was the point?
The sign points beyond itself. It shows that Jesus has power over death, and that those who believe in him will live even though they die (11:25–26). Lazarus returned to this life. Christ opens the way to a life where death has no more power (CCC 646).
Nalpatham Velli marks the completing of the first stage of the Great Fast and the turn toward the Passion of the Lord. In many Syro-Malabar parishes the Way of the Cross is made with special devotion, and some climb a hill shrine on foot. Where the feast of St Joseph is kept today, many places also hold the meal for the poor (oottu) in honour of the Holy Family. How fast and feast are kept together on this day follows the direction of one’s own eparchy. It is a fitting meeting. The man who took the Child and his Mother and rose in the night to obey is the patron of families and of the dying. As Lazarus is called out of the tomb, we may ask St Joseph to walk with us through the coming days, and to stay with us at the hour of our own death.