22 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God.” John 11:52
The Hosanna is over, and the week the St Thomas Christians call Hasha has begun. Hasha is the Syriac word for suffering: this is the week of the Lord's Passion, the last and holiest week of the Great Fast. From today, the calendar notes, the Holy Qurbana is celebrated with the Order of the first Qudasha, the anaphora of Mar Addai and Mari, until the end of the season of the Dedication of the Church. Kerala homes keep the week with a rhythm of their own. The tender palm leaves (kuruthola) blessed yesterday are put away carefully, because on Thursday a small cross made from them will crown the Pesaha appam. Houses are cleaned, the last Lenten confessions are made, and in many parishes the forty hours' adoration brings families to the church by turns, day and night, while pilgrims keep climbing Malayattoor. The Church opens this week with a story from the first family of Israel: the beloved son sent by his father to his brothers. “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children” (Genesis 37:3). Joseph dreams that his brothers' sheaves bow to his sheaf, and then that “the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” His brothers ask, “Are you indeed to reign over us?” “So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.” Then Jacob sends him: “Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.” Joseph wanders in the fields until a stranger asks him, “What are you seeking?” and he answers, “I am seeking my brothers.” They see him from far off and say, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits”. Only Reuben pleads, “Let us not take his life.” From the earliest centuries the Fathers saw in Joseph a picture of Christ: the beloved Son, sent by the Father, who comes looking for his brothers, and whom they plot to destroy. The whole of Hasha week answers the stranger's question in the field. What is he seeking? He is seeking his brothers and sisters. He is seeking us.
The second reading tells of a quarrel that almost became a civil war. The tribes of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh, settled east of the Jordan, build a great altar by the river. The other tribes take it for rebellion, a rival altar, and gather to fight. The eastern tribes answer with a cry: “The LORD, God of gods! The LORD, God of gods! He knows; and let Israel itself know!” They did not build it for sacrifice, they explain, but so that in time to come no one could tell their children, “You have no portion in the LORD.” It was to be “a witness between us and you”, and they swear: “Far be it from us that we should rebel against the LORD”. A misunderstanding between brothers is healed because both sides stopped to listen before they struck. Holy Week asks the same of us: one altar, one Lord, one people. No family quarrel and no parish faction should still be standing on Pesaha evening, when the whole parish gathers at one altar for one Qurbana. The Epistle lifts our eyes to the One who will walk the way of the Cross this week. The letter to the Hebrews gathers the psalms to show that the Son is above every angel: “For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you’?” When he comes into the world, “Let all God's angels worship him.” To the Son God says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever”. Heaven and earth “will perish, but you remain”, and “your years will never end.” The prisoner who will be bound on Thursday night, mocked on Friday and laid in a tomb is the eternal Son. That is why the Passion is not only a sad story: it is God himself who suffers in the flesh for us.
The Gospel takes us into the council that met after the raising of Lazarus. The chief priests and the Pharisees are afraid: “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” They lived under a foreign power that could crush a city for a single riot. Caiaphas, high priest that year, speaks with the cold arithmetic of power: “it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” John sees in these words a prophecy deeper than Caiaphas knew: Jesus was about to die for the nation, “and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God.” We must read this carefully, as the Church does. The decision was taken by a few leaders in a frightened hour. The Church teaches that the Passion cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today (Nostra Aetate 4; Catechism 597), and that all sinners were the authors of Christ's sufferings (Catechism 598). The question of this week is not who killed Jesus long ago, but whose sins he carried; and the answer is ours. Jesus withdraws to a town called Ephraim near the wilderness. In Jerusalem the pilgrims who have come early to purify themselves for the Passover ask one another in the temple, “What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?” He will come. He will come on purpose, to be the one man who dies for the people, so that the scattered children of God, from Jerusalem to Kerala and to every land where our people now live, may be gathered into one.
Theme: “and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God.”
The beloved son sent to his brothers, an altar of witness, the eternal Son above the angels, and the one man who dies for the people.
“And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.”” Genesis 37:13
“The patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him,” Acts 7:9
Apply: Begin each morning of Hasha week by saying to the Father: Here I am.
“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” Psalm 133:1
“For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.” Ephesians 2:14
Apply: Go and listen to one person you have quarrelled with, before Pesaha evening.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
“He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God.” John 11:51–52
Apply: Pray this week for someone who has drifted away from the Church, and invite them to the Pesaha Qurbana.
The Father sends his beloved Son to look for his brothers and sisters, and the Son goes willingly to die for the people.
Let us stop quarrelling, gather at one altar, and let him gather us into one.
Take-home resolution: Heal one quarrel and invite one scattered person home before Pesaha.
Dear brothers and sisters, the Hosanna is over and the Hasha week has begun, the week of the Lord's suffering. The Church opens it with Joseph, the beloved son whom his father sends to his brothers: come, I will send you to them; and Joseph answers, here I am (Genesis 37:13).
His brothers see him coming and say: here comes this dreamer; come now, let us kill him (Genesis 37:19–20). The Fathers saw Christ in Joseph. The Father sends his beloved Son to us, his brothers and sisters, knowing that he will be rejected. He comes anyway. He is seeking us.
The tribes of Israel almost go to war over an altar by the Jordan, but they stop and listen, and the quarrel is healed. This week the whole parish will gather at one altar on Pesaha evening. Let no quarrel in our family or parish still be standing then.
Hebrews tells us who it is that suffers this week: the Son whom all God's angels worship, whose throne is forever and ever (Hebrews 1:6, 8). The one who is bound, mocked and crucified is the eternal Son of God.
In the council Caiaphas says it is better for one man to die for the people. John tells us that Jesus died not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God (John 11:52). Not one people against another, but all our sins put him on the Cross, and his love gathers us all. Let us go up with him to Jerusalem this week. Amen.
Children, Joseph's father sent him to find his brothers, and Joseph said: Here I am! God the Father sent Jesus to find us. This week, when someone calls you, can you answer happily: Here I am?
Lord Jesus Christ, beloved Son of the Father, you came looking for your brothers and sisters, and you answered the Father, Here I am. In this Hasha week gather us, scattered by our sins and quarrels, into one family around your one altar. You are the eternal Son, whom the angels worship, and you chose to die for the people: let us not stand far off, but follow you to the Cross and to the joy of your Resurrection. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.
Hasha is the Syriac word for suffering, and from today the Church walks with the Lord toward his Passion. Two plots stand side by side: Joseph’s brothers plan to kill the beloved son whom their father sends to them, and the council in Jerusalem resolves that Jesus must die. In both, people intend one thing and God is working another. The second reading (Joshua 22:21–29) tells of an altar built as a witness, which was mistaken for rebellion and nearly caused a war. The epistle (Hebrews 1:5–14) tells us who it is that is being plotted against: the Son, above all the angels. The words to watch are dream, sent and gather.
Setting.
The story of Joseph fills most of Genesis 37–50. Jacob, also called Israel, loves Joseph more than his other sons and has given him a long robe, and the brothers “could not speak peaceably to him” (37:4). Today’s reading begins there. It leaves out vv. 14–17, where Joseph searches for his brothers and a stranger points him from Shechem to Dothan.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.” (37:11)
The same event produces envy in some and pondering in another. Readers often think of Mary, who “treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).
“He answered, “Here I am.”” (37:13)
Joseph knows that his brothers hate him, and still he goes when his father sends him.
“Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” (37:20)
This is the irony of the whole story: the plot meant to end the dreams becomes the road by which they come true. In the Greek Old Testament “come, let us kill him” is the very phrase of the wicked tenants when they see the son in Jesus’ parable (Matthew 21:38).
How the Church reads it.
St Stephen tells this story before the council: “The patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him” (Acts 7:9). The Persian sage Aphrahat, a Father of the Syriac tradition, sets Joseph and Jesus side by side in his Demonstration on Persecution, and St Ambrose wrote a whole work on Joseph in which he sees Christ in him (in substance). A figure is not an accusation: the brothers do not stand for any one people, but for every sinner, since sinners themselves were the authors of Christ’s sufferings (CCC 598).
Setting.
Jesus has just raised Lazarus. Many believed, and some went to report it to the Pharisees (11:45–46). The greatest sign in John’s Gospel leads straight to the decision that Jesus must die: he gives life, and it costs him his own. The Passover draws near.
Caiaphas was high priest from about AD 18 to 36, so “that year” does not mean a yearly office, but that decisive year. The men of this council feared Rome, which had the power to destroy Temple and nation. John names the chief priests and the Pharisees of the council. The Catechism recalls that the authorities in Jerusalem were not unanimous about Jesus (CCC 596). Where v. 54 says “the Jews”, John means the authorities in Judea who opposed him; Jesus and his disciples were themselves Jews.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” (11:50)
As political advice it is cold calculation. In God’s plan it is the Gospel in one line.
“and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God.” (11:52)
John corrects and widens the sentence. Jesus dies for his own nation and for more than his nation; the Church in Kerala is among those gathered.
“What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?” (11:56)
The crowd’s question leads into Hosanna, already behind us in the liturgy. He does come, and he comes for this.
How the Church reads it.
St Augustine says that Caiaphas spoke the truth without knowing it: a wicked man uttered a prophecy because of the office he held, not because of any holiness of his own (in substance). The Second Vatican Council takes up v. 52 when it says that the one People of God is to gather the scattered children into one (Lumen Gentium 13). The Catechism’s teaching on responsibility for the Passion is the frame for reading this passage (CCC 596–598; Nostra Aetate 4).
Did God make Joseph’s brothers and Caiaphas sin?
No. God is in no way the cause of moral evil. But in his power he can bring good out of the evil his creatures do, and the Catechism gives Joseph’s words to his brothers as its example (CCC 312). The same is true of the Passion, where human sin served a plan of love without ceasing to be sin (CCC 600).