25 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” John 13:1
Pesaha is the Aramaic and Syriac form of the Hebrew Pesach, the Passover. For the St Thomas Christians the word names this whole holy Thursday: the night the Lord ate the Passover with his disciples, gave us the Holy Qurbana and the priesthood, and washed their feet. Tonight every parish gathers around one altar, and every home around one table. The first reading takes us back to the night in Egypt. “This month shall mark for you the beginning of months”: the Passover begins a new year and a new life. Each household is to take “a lamb for each family”, and if a household is too small, “it shall join its closest neighbor”. The lamb must be “without blemish, a year-old male”. At twilight it is slaughtered, and its blood is put “on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.” They eat it “roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs”, dressed for a journey: “your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the LORD.” God promises, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”, and he commands, “This day shall be a day of remembrance for you.” For seven days no leaven may be found in their houses. Every detail points to tonight. Jesus is the Lamb without blemish, whom John the Baptist had called “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and Paul writes, “For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The unleavened bread of Israel's haste becomes the unleavened appam of our Pesaha table, and the memorial of the Exodus becomes the memorial of a greater exodus: from sin and death to the Father.
The second reading, from the last of the prophets, is a sharp rebuke. The priests of Malachi's time offered God what they would not have dared to offer a governor, bringing as their offering “what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick”, and they treated the Lord's table with contempt. God cries out: “Oh, that someone among you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain!” Then comes a promise that looks far beyond Jerusalem: “For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering”. From the first century the Church heard in these words a prophecy of the Holy Qurbana. The Didache, one of the oldest Christian writings, recalls Malachi when it tells believers to confess their sins and be reconciled before they break bread on the Lord's Day, so that their sacrifice may be pure; St Justin and St Irenaeus taught that the pure offering made in every place is the Eucharist of the Church among the nations. When the Pesaha Qurbana is celebrated tonight in Kerala, in the Gulf, in Europe, in America and in Australia, from the rising of the sun to its setting, Malachi's word is fulfilled. His warning also stands: the Lord deserves our best and not what is left over, and we come to his altar tonight with hearts made clean.
Paul gives us the oldest written account of the Supper, set down about twenty-five years after that night: “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” Matthew, read together with John tonight, gives the words of the covenant: “Take, eat; this is my body.” “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus does not say: this is a sign of my body. He says: this is my body. The Church has always believed that by the word of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit the bread and wine become truly, really and substantially his Body and Blood (Catechism 1374–1376), and that the Qurbana is the memorial of his sacrifice, in which the one sacrifice of the Cross is made present (Catechism 1362–1367). That is why Paul is so serious: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” And: “Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.” Tonight we also thank God for the priesthood. When Jesus said, Do this in remembrance of me, he made his apostles priests of the new covenant (Catechism 611, 1337). Then, Matthew tells us, “When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” The Supper leads straight to Gethsemane and the Cross.
John, who does not tell of the bread and the cup, tells instead what Jesus did at the same table. “Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Knowing “that the Father had given all things into his hands”, the Lord of all “got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet”. In that world it was the work of a slave. Peter protests: “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answers: “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Peter, all or nothing as always, cries: “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus washes even the feet of Judas, knowing who was to betray him. Then he sits down again and explains: “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” By reading John and Matthew together tonight, the Syro-Malabar Church teaches us that the altar and the basin belong together. The One who gives us his Body and Blood is the One who kneels at our feet. A Qurbana that does not lead us to serve has not yet reached our hands and feet.
How the parish keeps Pesaha, step by step (customs vary; follow your own parish). First, one Qurbana: in each church only one Holy Qurbana is celebrated today, usually in the afternoon or evening, so that the whole parish gathers around one altar as the apostles gathered around one table. The calendar directs the Order of the third Qudasha, used only on a few great days of the year. Outside this Qurbana, Holy Communion is taken today only to the sick. Second, the Word: the four readings are proclaimed, the Passover lamb, Malachi's pure offering, Paul's account of the Supper, and the Gospel of the washing of the feet and the institution. Third, the washing of the feet: usually after the Gospel and the homily, the celebrant lays aside his outer vestment, ties a towel around himself and kneels before twelve persons chosen from the parish, who represent the apostles. He pours water over the feet of each, dries them and kisses them, while the choir sings the hymns of the Lord's humility. Watch the priest kneel, and remember who knelt first. Fourth, the Qurbana continues: the gifts are brought to the altar, the anaphora is prayed, and the Lord's own words over the bread and the cup are spoken on the very night on which he first spoke them. Fifth, Communion: prepare with a good confession, and receive with reverence, discerning the body. Sixth, the watch: in many parishes the Blessed Sacrament is honoured with adoration far into the night, in answer to the Lord's question in Gethsemane: “So, could you not stay awake with me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40). Come for at least one hour.
How the family keeps Pesaha at home, step by step. The Syro-Malabar home has its own Pesaha, cherished for generations, which many see as a living echo of Israel's Passover meal. First, the appam: during the day the mother of the family, often with the children, prepares the Pesaha appam, an unleavened bread of rice flour (in many places with roasted urad dal and grated coconut), steamed and never leavened, because the Lord ate the Passover with unleavened bread. The little cross made from Hosanna Sunday's palm is pressed on top. In many places it is called the INRI appam, from the letters placed above the Cross. Second, the paal: Pesaha paal is coconut milk boiled with jaggery and a little cardamom or dry ginger, sweet and dark, to be eaten with the appam. Third, the gathering: in the evening, after the parish Qurbana, the whole family gathers around the table or on a mat, with a lamp lit. Fourth, prayer and the Word: the head of the family leads the prayers, the account of the Supper or of the washing of the feet is read (John 13 or 1 Corinthians 11), and the family sings a hymn and prays a psalm. Fifth, the breaking: the father, or the eldest member, breaks the appam, dips each piece in the paal and gives it to each member of the household in order of age. Sixth, the meaning: this is not a Qurbana and not a second Eucharist, but a family memorial and a holy custom, which gathers the house around the Lord's Supper that the parish has just celebrated. In many places a house in mourning does not make its own appam that year, and neighbours or relatives share theirs with it. In the Gulf and in distant lands, families who cannot find all the old ingredients keep the custom anyway, and children who have never seen Kerala learn this night by heart.
Theme: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
The Passover lamb, Malachi's pure offering, the Body and Blood of the Lord given on the night he was betrayed, and the Lord who kneels to wash our feet.
“The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” Exodus 12:13
“Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.” 1 Corinthians 5:7
Apply: Keep the home Pesaha tonight, and pray that the blood of the Lamb may protect your family.
“For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.” Malachi 1:11
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:26
Apply: Give the Lord your best tonight: come early, prepared and reconciled.
“The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” Jeremiah 31:31
“for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:28
Apply: Receive Communion tonight with a clean heart, and pray for the priests who make the Lord present for you.
“Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.” Genesis 18:4
“So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.” John 13:14
Apply: Do one humble service at home tonight, and watch one hour with the Lord.
The Lamb of God gives us his Body and Blood, and the Lord of all kneels at our feet: the altar and the basin belong together.
Having loved his own, he loved them to the end; let us receive him worthily, serve one another, and watch with him tonight.
Take-home resolution: Come to the one Qurbana, keep the home Pesaha, do one humble service, and watch one hour.
Dear brothers and sisters, tonight is Pesaha. In Egypt, on the night of the Passover, each family took a lamb without blemish, put its blood on the doorposts, and ate it with unleavened bread, ready for the journey. God said: when I see the blood, I will pass over you (Exodus 12:13). That night became a day of remembrance for ever.
Tonight the true Lamb sits at table with his friends. Our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7). His blood is not painted on our doors; he gives it to us to drink. And Malachi's promise is fulfilled: from the rising of the sun to its setting a pure offering is made to God's name, at every altar where the Qurbana is celebrated.
On the night he was betrayed, the Lord took bread, gave thanks, broke it and said: this is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. He took the cup and said: this is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. He did not say this is a sign. He said this is my body. That is the faith of the Church: Christ is truly present, and his one sacrifice is made present on our altar.
Tonight we thank God for our priests. When the Lord said, Do this in remembrance of me, he made his apostles priests of the new covenant. Pray for the priest who will stand at our altar tonight, and for the priests who baptized you and absolved you.
Then the Lord did something no master ever did. He got up from the table, tied a towel around himself, and washed his disciples' feet, even the feet of Judas. Peter said: you will never wash my feet. Jesus said: unless I wash you, you have no share with me (John 13:8). We too must let him wash us, in confession and in his mercy.
And he said: if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet (John 13:14). The altar and the basin belong together. Tonight, when the priest kneels before twelve of our people, remember who knelt first; and tomorrow, in your home and your work, kneel in the same way.
Tonight we will break the Pesaha appam in our homes, dip it in the paal and share it from the eldest to the youngest. It is not a second Qurbana, but it keeps our homes united around the Lord's Supper. Then let us not sleep too soon. The Lord asks: could you not stay awake with me one hour? Let us watch with him. Having loved his own, he loved them to the end. Amen.
Children, at the Last Supper Jesus gave us himself in the Holy Qurbana. He said: this is my body. That is why we are so quiet and careful when we receive him!
Then Jesus washed his friends' feet, like a servant. Tonight, can you help at home without being asked, to show Jesus' love?
Lord Jesus Christ, Lamb of God without blemish, on the night you were betrayed you took bread and the cup and gave us your Body and Blood, and you knelt to wash the feet of your disciples. Having loved your own, you loved them to the end. Make us worthy to receive you tonight with clean hearts, discerning your Body. Bless the priests you have chosen to do this in your memory. Teach us to wash one another's feet, to watch with you in Gethsemane, and to follow you through the Cross to the joy of your Resurrection. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.
On this night the Church reads four passages about one table. In Exodus a household eats the lamb, ready to leave, with blood on the door. In Malachi God rejects careless offerings at his altar and speaks of a pure offering among the nations. Paul hands on the words of the Lord over the bread and the cup, the oldest written account we have. In John and Matthew the Lord kneels with a towel and then gives his body and blood.
Pesaha is the Syriac and Aramaic form of the Hebrew pesaḥ, Passover. The key words of the night are remembrance, offering and to the end.
Setting.
Nine plagues have not moved Pharaoh. Before the last, God gives Israel instructions for a meal. The story of liberation stops, in the middle, to teach a liturgy: before Israel leaves Egypt, it is told how it will remember leaving. Chapter 12 looks at that first night and at every later year together.
Many scholars think that two older spring customs lie behind this chapter, a shepherds’ offering of a lamb and a farmers’ feast of new unleavened bread, and that Israel’s faith gathered them into the memory of the Exodus. The Jewish people still keep this night at the Seder, and the Church honours it as the root of her own Pesaha.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.” (12:5)
The Hebrew word covers a young sheep or goat. The best of the flock is given, and it is not to be a castoff. Today’s second reading will return to this point.
“They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.” (12:7)
Those eating are the same people who are protected by the blood. In the Bible blood means life given (Leviticus 17:11). Salvation comes to the household through a death.
“your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord.” (12:11)
It is a meal for people on the road. The Christian table is the same: food for those who have not arrived.
“when I see the blood, I will pass over you,” (12:13)
The blood is a sign “for you”, says the verse, though God is the one who sees it. It teaches trust: Israel stays behind a marked door and does not fight.
“This day shall be a day of remembrance for you.” (12:14)
Not a date in a history book, but a day that comes round again in every generation.
How the Church reads it.
“For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). John the Baptist points to “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29), and John’s Passion notes that none of his bones was broken (John 19:36; Exodus 12:46). St Melito of Sardis, in his On Pascha, reads the whole Egyptian night as a figure of Christ (in substance), and St Justin Martyr points out that the lamb was roasted on a form like a cross (Dialogue with Trypho 40, in substance). The Catechism says that by celebrating the Last Supper during the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning (CCC 1340). Israel’s memorial is not cancelled by this; God’s gifts and call are irrevocable (Romans 11:29; CCC 839).
Setting.
Malachi is the last book in the order of the prophets. The name means “my messenger”, and we know nothing else of him. The book is usually dated in the fifth century BC, after the return from exile and the rebuilding of the Temple. The first excitement had passed, the priests had grown bored, and they offered God what they would never have offered a governor (1:8).
This is a rebuke from inside Israel, by a prophet who loves the Temple, and he wants worship to be honest, not abolished. The Bible’s harshest words about careless worship are always a warning to the people of God in every age, the Church included.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Oh, that someone among you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain!” (1:10)
God would prefer no worship to false worship. A hard word for anyone who comes to the altar with no heart in it.
“For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering;” (1:11)
The Hebrew has no verb tense here, so it is debated whether the prophet means something happening in his own day (perhaps among Jews scattered abroad, or among those who honoured the one God) or something still to come. The NRSV and POC read it as present. The Fathers read it as a promise.
“You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick,” (1:13)
The best lamb of Exodus has become the worst animal in the flock. What do I bring to God: the first of my time and strength, or what is left?
How the Church reads it.
The Didache, one of the oldest Christian writings, quotes this passage when it teaches about the Sunday Eucharist (Didache 14). St Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 41) and St Irenaeus (Against Heresies IV, 17) apply it to the Eucharist too. The Council of Trent sees in the Eucharistic sacrifice the pure offering foretold by Malachi (Session 22, chapter 1), and the Catechism calls the Eucharist “the pure offering” of the whole Body of Christ (CCC 2643). So on Pesaha night this reading is more than a rebuke. It promises that the sun will never set on this offering.
Setting.
Paul writes from Ephesus (16:8) in the mid-50s. This is earlier than any of the written Gospels, so these verses are our oldest written account of the Lord’s Supper. Paul says he has already taught it to them, which takes the tradition further back still, to the first years of the Church.
He mentions it because of a scandal. In Corinth the Lord’s Supper was joined to a shared meal, and the wealthy ate and drank well while the poor, who many scholars think came late from work, went hungry: “one goes hungry and another becomes drunk” (11:21). Paul’s answer is to remind them what the supper is.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread,” (11:23)
Paul fixes it in time. In the darkest hour, when one of his own was handing him over, the Lord gave himself.
“This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (11:24)
“Do this” is a command to the apostles and through them to the Church. The Catechism says that here the Lord made his apostles priests of the New Covenant (CCC 611, 1337).
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” (11:25)
This recalls Jeremiah’s promise of a new covenant (31:31) and the blood of the covenant in Exodus 24:8.
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (11:26)
The Holy Qurbana looks both ways, to the Cross and to the Lord’s return. It is itself a proclamation, even before the homily.
“For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.” (11:29)
Paul’s warning would make no sense if the bread were only a symbol. The Catechism applies this passage to our preparation for Communion: anyone conscious of grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation first (CCC 1385).
How the Church reads it.
Paul’s account stands behind the Church’s faith that this is a true memorial and a true sacrifice: the Eucharist makes present the sacrifice of the Cross, and it is one single sacrifice (CCC 1366–1367). The Catechism quotes St John Chrysostom: it is not man who makes the gifts become the Body and Blood of Christ, but Christ himself; the priest pronounces the words, and the power and grace are God’s (CCC 1375; in substance). The Lord’s presence in the Eucharist is true, real and substantial (CCC 1374).
Setting.
The reading joins two moments of the same night. John, who tells of the washing of the feet at length, gives no account of the words over the bread and cup. He has given that teaching already in chapter 6. Matthew, like Mark and Luke, tells of the bread and cup and gives no account of the washing. Heard together, they interpret each other: the one who gives his body is the one who kneels.
Washing a guest’s feet was a task for a servant; a host would not do it (compare 1 Samuel 25:41). Guests reclined at a low table on couches, feet stretched behind them.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (John 13:1)
The whole Passion is summed up here. The Catechism opens its teaching on the institution of the Eucharist with these words (CCC 1337).
“got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.” (John 13:4)
He knows that all things are in his hands (v. 3), and what those hands now hold is a towel. Knowing who he is sets him at the feet of others.
“Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” (John 13:8)
Peter would rather serve than be served. The first step in discipleship is to let the Lord do this.
“One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean.” (John 13:10)
A note on the text: Some ancient witnesses, among them Codex Sinaiticus, lack “except for the feet”. Both forms are old. St Augustine takes the bath as Baptism and the washing of feet as the daily forgiveness of those already baptized (in substance).
“So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:14)
He gives a command at the table, as he does with “Do this”. The Holy Qurbana and service belong together.
“Take, eat; this is my body.” (Matthew 26:26)
Spoken by one who is about to die. The Church has taken the words as they stand (CCC 1374–1376).
“for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28)
Only Matthew adds “for the forgiveness of sins”. The words recall the Servant of Isaiah, who “bore the sin of many” (Isaiah 53:12), a chapter the Church reads tomorrow.
“When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” (Matthew 26:30)
At Passover the psalms of the Hallel (Psalms 113–118) were sung. Knowing where he was going, he sang.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that on this night the Lord, in loving his own to the end, instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and Resurrection and commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his return (CCC 1337). He included them in his own offering and made them priests of the New Covenant (CCC 611). The washing of feet shows what kind of priesthood this is. St Augustine urges Christians to wash one another’s feet both in action and in the heart, by forgiving one another (in substance).
Was the Last Supper a Passover meal?
Matthew, Mark and Luke present it as one. John says the meal was “before the festival” and that Jesus was condemned on the day of Preparation, as the Passover lambs were being made ready (13:1; 18:28; 19:14). Scholars have proposed several ways of relating the two. The Catechism speaks of the Last Supper “in the course of the Passover meal” (CCC 1340). Pope Benedict XVI, in his book Jesus of Nazareth, inclined to John’s dating and held that the supper was Jesus’ own new Passover. On any view, its meaning is Passover: Jesus is the Lamb.
Does “for many” mean that Jesus did not die for all?
No. The Catechism says that this term “is not restrictive”, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the one person of the Redeemer who hands himself over to save us (CCC 605). Jesus died for every human being without exception.
Why does John not tell the institution of the Eucharist?
We do not know for certain. John has given the teaching on the bread of life in chapter 6, and he may be assuming that his readers already know and celebrate the Supper. In its place he gives a sign that shows what it means to receive it.
For the St Thomas Christians this is the night of two tables. In the parish, the Pesaha Holy Qurbana with the washing of feet; at home, the Pesaha appam, marked with a cross from the kuruthola kept from Hosanna Sunday, and the paal, shared by the head of the family after prayer and the reading of Scripture. Exodus 12:3 asks for “a lamb for each family”, and our home Pesaha hears something of that. It is a domestic echo and does not take the place of the Holy Qurbana, which is the one sacrifice of the Lord. Keep the home table as a school for the altar: this is how a Kerala child first learns what the Pesaha is.