23 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24
Yesterday the brothers saw Joseph coming; today they act. “So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.” The next sentence is one of the coldest in the Bible: “Then they sat down to eat”. Their brother is in a dry well within earshot, and they eat. A caravan of traders appears, and Judah has an idea that sounds almost merciful: “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And so Joseph is sold “for twenty pieces of silver”. Reuben comes back to the empty pit and cries, “The boy is gone; and I, where can I turn?” The brothers dip the robe in a goat's blood and let their father draw his own conclusion. Jacob tears his garments and “refused to be comforted”. The whole tragedy began with jealousy, the small, quiet sin that grows in families until a brother becomes a price. Many Kerala families know how a dispute over property or money can make strangers of those who shared one table. In Joseph the Fathers saw the Lord again: the beloved Son stripped of his garments (John 19:23), handed over for silver (Matthew 26:15), counted among the dead while he was still alive. Yet the pit is not the end of Joseph's story, and the tomb will not be the end of Christ's.
The second reading shows the opposite of Joseph's brothers: tribes who had every reason to suspect one another, and who chose to trust. When Phinehas the priest hears the explanation about the altar by the Jordan, he is satisfied, and he says: “Today we know that the LORD is among us, because you have not committed this treachery against the LORD”. The altar is named Witness, and “A long time afterward, when the LORD had given rest to Israel from all their enemies all around”, the land has peace. Where brothers keep faith with one another, the Lord is known to be among them. The Epistle shows us the high priest who will make that peace for ever. “Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness”. Christ did not take this honour for himself; the Father called him: “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” Then comes a line that opens the door of Gethsemane two days early: “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered”. He was heard: not by being spared the Cross, but by being raised from death. On Thursday we will thank God for the gift of the priesthood, born at the Last Supper; today we can pray for our priests, who are chosen from among us and share our weakness, so that they may deal gently with the wayward.
The Gospel brings strangers to the festival. “Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’” In many churches those words are carved where only the preacher can read them, as a reminder of what the people really came for. Philip tells Andrew, and the two of them tell Jesus. His answer seems at first to ignore the request: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Then he explains what that glory is: “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The Greeks will see him, but they will see him lifted up on the Cross, and the grain buried in the earth will rise as a harvest for every nation. Every farmer in Kerala knows that seed kept safe in the granary feeds no one. The St Thomas Christians have always believed that the apostle Thomas, too, was a grain that fell into the earth of India, and our Church is part of its fruit. Jesus adds the law of every disciple: “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.” On Thursday that grain of wheat will be placed in our hands as the Bread of Life.
Theme: “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Joseph stripped and sold, the high priest who prayed with tears, and the grain of wheat that dies to bear fruit.
“When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.” Genesis 37:28
“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: Name one jealousy in your heart and pray today for the good of the person you envy.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?” Psalm 22:1
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” Hebrews 5:7
Apply: Bring one sorrow you have carried alone to God in prayer tonight, and pray for your priests.
“And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.” Genesis 45:5
“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24
Apply: Give up one comfort today for someone else's good, and offer it with the grain of wheat.
What the brothers meant for evil, God turned to good; what looked like defeat on the Cross became the harvest of the world.
Let us not keep our lives in the granary, but fall into the earth with Christ and bear fruit.
Take-home resolution: Uproot one jealousy, pray for one priest, and give up one comfort for another's good this week.
Dear friends, Joseph's brothers stripped him of his robe and threw him into a pit with no water in it. Then they sat down to eat (Genesis 37:24–25). And they sold their own brother for twenty pieces of silver. It all began with jealousy.
Let us be honest: jealousy still divides our families, over property, money or a parent's love. The Fathers saw Christ in Joseph: stripped of his garments, handed over for silver. But God did not abandon Joseph in the pit, and he will not abandon his Son in the tomb.
Hebrews tells us that in the days of his flesh Jesus offered prayers with loud cries and tears, and learned obedience through what he suffered (Hebrews 5:7–8). He is a high priest who knows our weakness. Let us pray today for our priests, chosen from among us, that they may be gentle with the wayward.
Some Greeks came to Philip and said: sir, we wish to see Jesus (John 12:21). Jesus answered with a grain of wheat. Unless it falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24). His glory is the Cross.
Every farmer knows that seed kept in the granary feeds no one. This week, let us sow something of ourselves: a comfort given up, a jealousy uprooted, an hour given to God. On Thursday, the grain of wheat that died for us will be placed in our hands. Amen.
Children, a seed has to go into the ground before it can grow into a big plant full of fruit. Jesus gave his life for us like that seed. Can you give up something today to make someone else happy?
Lord Jesus Christ, you were stripped of your garments and sold for silver like Joseph, and you offered prayers with loud cries and tears to the Father. Uproot the jealousy that divides our families, keep us faithful to one another, and make us a people among whom you are known to dwell. Teach us to follow you as the grain of wheat that falls into the earth, so that our lives may bear much fruit. Bless our priests, chosen from among us, and make them gentle with the wayward. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.
Joseph’s story moves from plot to deed: he is stripped, thrown into a pit and sold, and his father is left in grief. In John, some Greeks ask to see Jesus, and he answers that the hour has come and speaks of a grain of wheat that must die. Both readings say that what looks like an end is the way God brings fruit. Between them, Joshua 22:30–23:1 shows brothers who listen before they fight, and peace is restored, the very thing Joseph’s brothers would not do. Hebrews 5:1–10 names the Son who “learned obedience through what he suffered” (5:8).
Setting.
The plan of vv. 18–22 is carried out, but not as anyone intended. Reuben meant to rescue Joseph; Judah proposes the sale; Jacob is deceived with a robe dipped in blood, as he once deceived his own father with goatskin (27:16).
The chapter speaks of both Ishmaelites and Midianites as the traders (vv. 25, 28, 36). Many scholars think two forms of the story have been joined here. What the text says clearly is that Joseph’s own brothers bear the guilt: Joseph later says to them, “whom you sold into Egypt” (45:4).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The pit was empty; there was no water in it.” (37:24)
A small detail that means slow death. Zechariah speaks of prisoners in a “waterless pit” (9:11), a passage read on Hosanna Sunday.
“Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” (37:27)
Judah’s words sound like mercy, but they make a profit out of a brother. Judah and Judas are the same name, and Christian readers have noticed the link between this sale and the one Judas makes.
“sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.” (37:28)
Twenty shekels is the value Leviticus 27:5 sets on a male between five and twenty years old. Thirty was the compensation for a slave (Exodus 21:32), the sum paid to Judas (Matthew 26:15).
“All his sons and all his daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted,” (37:35)
Those comforting him know what he does not know. Genesis does not hurry past a father’s grief, and this week neither should we.
How the Church reads it.
Psalm 105 sings: “he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave” (105:17). Nothing in the sale was good, and yet God was “sending” him. Joseph says it himself at the end: “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good” (50:20). The Catechism uses this as its example of providence (CCC 312). The Fathers saw Christ here: St Ambrose, among others, sees in Joseph the one who was stripped and sold and who became the saviour of those who sold him (in substance).
Setting.
Jesus has entered Jerusalem to the crowd’s cry of Hosanna (12:12–19). Now some “Greeks” come to worship at the festival. They are probably people of Gentile birth drawn to the God of Israel. They approach Philip, who has a Greek name and comes from Bethsaida, a town on the edge of Greek-speaking territory. That the nations are now coming is the signal Jesus has been waiting for.
Up to now the hour has “not yet come” (2:4; 7:30; 8:20). Now he says it has come.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” (12:21)
It is a good prayer for anyone. They are not told that they saw him. Jesus’ answer tells them where he will be seen: lifted up.
“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (12:24)
Jesus says this first about himself. The Greeks and all the nations will come to him through his death and not around it.
“Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.” (12:26)
Where he is this week is the Cross. And where he is after that is with the Father. The promise covers both.
How the Church reads it.
St Augustine reads the grain as Christ himself, who dies and is multiplied in the faith of the nations (in substance). St Ignatius of Antioch, on his way to martyrdom, applied the image to himself: he called himself God’s wheat, to be ground by the teeth of beasts so as to become the pure bread of Christ (Letter to the Romans 4, in substance). The grain is thus also a word about the Holy Qurbana, where wheat becomes the bread of life.