24 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32
Joseph is now in an Egyptian prison, and two of Pharaoh's officers are thrown in with him: the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. One morning he finds them troubled and asks, “Why are your faces downcast today?” They have dreamed, and no one can explain the dreams. Joseph answers, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.” The cupbearer saw a vine with three branches; it budded, blossomed and ripened, and “Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.” The baker saw three baskets of bread on his head, and birds eating from the top one. “The three branches are three days,” says Joseph, and within three days the cupbearer will be restored. Then the innocent prisoner adds a plea that goes to the heart: “But remember me when it is well with you; please do me the kindness to make mention of me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this place.” “For in fact I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews; and here also I have done nothing that they should have put me into the dungeon.” Everything happens as Joseph said, on the third day, and then comes the saddest line of the chapter: “Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.” On the eve of Pesaha the Church sets before us a cup of wine, baskets of bread, an innocent man in chains, three days, and a plea to be remembered. On Friday a condemned man will say to Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42), and Jesus will not forget him. Tomorrow evening Jesus will take bread and the cup and say, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24). We are often the forgetful cupbearer; the Holy Qurbana is the place where we learn to remember, and where God remembers us. In Kerala homes this is the day of preparation: rice flour and coconut for the Pesaha appam, jaggery and coconut milk for the paal, and the little palm cross from Hosanna Sunday made ready.
In the second reading Joshua, old and near death, calls all Israel together for his farewell: “I am now old and well advanced in years; and you have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the LORD your God who has fought for you.” He asks one thing: “Therefore be very steadfast to observe and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right nor to the left”, and “hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day.” His last word sums up the whole law: “Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God.” Tomorrow Jesus will give his own farewell at the supper table, and his commandment will be the same, made new: love one another as I have loved you. The Epistle explains what Jesus will do with the cup. Christ “is the mediator of a new covenant”, and a covenant, like a will, takes effect through a death. “Hence not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.” Moses sprinkled the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you.” Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, “but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” And he did not need to do it again and again: “he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.” This is why the Church teaches that the Holy Qurbana is not a new or repeated sacrifice, but the one sacrifice of the Cross made present on our altars (Catechism 1366–1367). The letter ends with hope: Christ “will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
The Gospel lets us hear the Lord's heart on the eve of his Passion. “Now my soul is troubled.” John has no scene in the garden like the other Gospels; this is his Gethsemane. Jesus does not pretend to feel no fear. Yet he does not ask to be spared: “it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” A voice answers from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” Some say it thundered; others say an angel spoke. Jesus tells them, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John adds: “He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.” The Cross is a throne, a magnet, a light raised on a hill. The St Thomas Christians have kept for centuries a cross of their own, the Mar Thoma Sliva, carved without a figure, its arms blossoming, a dove descending upon it: the Cross seen already in the light of the Resurrection. Many still call this day Spy Wednesday, remembering that Judas went to the chief priests and asked, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” (Matthew 26:15). Judas is not someone else's story. Each of us can sell the Lord for small things. But the One who will be lifted up draws all people to himself, even those who betrayed him, if they will only turn and look.
Theme: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
The forgotten prisoner and the Lord who remembers, Joshua's farewell, the blood of the new covenant offered once for all, and the Son of Man lifted up.
“But remember me when it is well with you; please do me the kindness to make mention of me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this place.” Genesis 40:14
“Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”” Luke 23:42
Apply: Thank one person you have forgotten, and ask the Lord to remember you in his kingdom.
“Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, “See the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”” Exodus 24:8
“But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Hebrews 9:26
Apply: Make a good confession before Pesaha, so that you may share worthily in the one sacrifice.
“See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.” Isaiah 52:13
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32
Apply: Spend five quiet minutes tonight before a crucifix and let the Lord draw you.
We forget, but the Lord remembers; we fail, but his one sacrifice stands for ever.
Lifted up on the Cross, he draws all people to himself; tomorrow he will give himself into our hands.
Take-home resolution: Prepare the Pesaha table, make your confession, and thank one forgotten benefactor.
Dear brothers and sisters, Joseph is in prison, though he has done nothing wrong. He explains the dreams of Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker: a cup of wine, baskets of bread, three days. And he begs the cupbearer: remember me when it is well with you (Genesis 40:14).
But the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him (Genesis 40:23). How often we are like him: we forget those who helped us, and we forget God when things go well. On Friday a dying man will say, Jesus, remember me, and Jesus will not forget.
Old Joshua tells Israel: be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God (Joshua 23:11). Tomorrow Jesus will give his farewell at the supper table, and his commandment too will be love.
Hebrews says that Christ has appeared once for all to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 9:26). The Holy Qurbana does not repeat that sacrifice; it makes the one sacrifice of the Cross present for us. Let us come to it tomorrow with clean hearts.
In the Gospel Jesus says: now my soul is troubled. But he does not run from the hour: Father, glorify your name. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself (John 12:32). Tonight, as we prepare the Pesaha appam, let us look at the Cross and let him draw us. Amen.
Children, Joseph asked a man in prison: please remember me! But the man forgot. Jesus never forgets us! Tonight, can you help prepare the Pesaha appam, and say thank you to someone you forgot to thank?
Lord Jesus Christ, innocent one in chains, you did not forget the thief who begged to be remembered. Forgive us when we forget you and those who did us good. Mediator of the new covenant, you offered yourself once for all; make us worthy to stand at your altar tomorrow, where your one sacrifice is made present. Lifted up on the Cross, draw us and all people to yourself, and keep us faithful in love as Joshua taught his people. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.
Joseph is in prison, forgotten by the man he helped. Jesus says that his soul is troubled, and does not turn back from the hour. Both readings stand at the low point just before God acts. In the second reading (Joshua 23:1–11) the aged Joshua asks Israel to hold fast to the Lord, and in the epistle (Hebrews 9:15–28) Christ enters heaven by his own blood, once for all. The words to watch are remember and lifted up.
Setting.
Between yesterday’s story and today’s lie chapters 38 and 39. Joseph has served Potiphar faithfully, been falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, and been put in the royal prison, where “the Lord was with Joseph” (39:21). Now two high officials of Pharaoh are placed in his care. The chief cupbearer and the chief baker held positions of trust at court, since they handled what the king ate and drank.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.” (40:8)
In a prison, in a foreign land, with no one to help him, Joseph still speaks of God first. He also notices the sadness in others’ faces (v. 7), though his own situation is worse than theirs.
“But remember me when it is well with you;” (40:14)
Here Joseph asks for help for himself, and he tells the truth about his case: he was stolen, and he has done nothing wrong (v. 15). The words will sound again from a cross: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).
“Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.” (40:23)
The chapter ends here. Two full years will pass (41:1). God’s silence, in Hasha week, is not God’s absence.
How the Church reads it.
Christian preachers since early times have compared Joseph, placed between two prisoners of whom one is raised up and one is put to death, with the Lord crucified between two criminals. The cup and the bread in the hands of these two servants may also turn our minds toward Pesaha; this is a devout association, and the author of Genesis need not have intended it. The Catechism holds up Joseph’s story as a lesson in how God’s providence works through what seems lost (CCC 312).
Setting.
This follows directly on the grain of wheat. John does not narrate the agony in the garden as the other Gospels do; this passage carries much of its weight. “Now my soul is troubled” corresponds to “I am deeply grieved” in Mark 14:34, and Hebrews 5:7 speaks of “loud cries and tears”.
The voice from heaven answers a prayer that has just been made, and the crowd can hear only noise.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Now my soul is troubled. … No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.” (12:27)
Jesus names his dread, and then weighs a prayer for rescue, and sets it aside. Courage here is not an absence of fear.
“Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”” (12:28)
God’s name has been glorified in the signs; it will be glorified again in the Cross and Resurrection.
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (12:32)
A note on the text: Greek manuscripts differ here. Some read pantas, “all people”, and others read panta, “all things”; the Latin Vulgate has “all things”. The NRSV and the POC both have “all people”. The two readings do not contradict each other, and both are true to the faith. John adds in v. 33 that “lifted up” means the kind of death he would die.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes vv. 27 and 32 in two important places: the Son’s embrace of the Father’s plan in his own human heart (CCC 607), and the lifting up on the Cross that points to his Ascension (CCC 662). St Leo the Great, preaching on the Passion, marvels at this verse: from the Cross, the Lord drew all things to himself (in substance).
If Jesus is God, how could he be afraid?
Jesus is true God and true man, and he has a true human soul and a true human will. His dread at death is real, and it is part of how fully he shares our life. His human will is at one with the Father’s (CCC 612), and this is what makes his “No” to rescue an act of love.