29 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” John 14:19
The first week after Easter was, in the ancient Church, the week of the newly baptised. Those who had come up from the font on the night of the Resurrection, dressed in white, came to the church every day to hear what had happened to them. The readings of this week still speak to them, and to every baptised Christian who wants to understand Easter from the inside. Isaiah speaks to a city that had been hated and abandoned: “Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age.” Then comes a promise that no city of stone could ever fulfil: “The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, or your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.” The days of mourning ended on Easter morning. The Book of Revelation sees the same city at the end of time, needing no sun or moon, “for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23). The neophytes carried lit candles from the font; every Christian carries that light into an ordinary Monday.
On the day of Pentecost Peter stands up in Jerusalem and preaches the first Christian sermon. He reasons from the Psalms: David said that God would not abandon his Holy One to Hades or let him see corruption. But David died; “his tomb is with us to this day.” So David was speaking as a prophet, of the Messiah. “This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear.” The empty tomb of Jesus stands beside the full tomb of David: the difference between them is the whole Gospel. Peter speaks to his own people, the house of Israel, with the love of a brother, calling them to recognise their Messiah; the Church reads his words as a call to every one of us. Paul then shows how this new life is received: not by our works but by faith. “For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’” And he quotes David's joy: “Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.” The newly baptised had just experienced exactly this: every sin washed away, not because they had earned it, but because they believed and were baptised into the Risen Christ. Faith is not opposed to good works; it is the root from which they grow. But the root comes first, and it is a gift.
In the Gospel Jesus speaks at the Last Supper, but every word looks towards Easter. “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” The Resurrection is not only a fact about Jesus; it is the source of our life: because he lives, we live. He promises that the Father and he will come and make their home in whoever loves him and keeps his word: “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” He promises the Advocate: “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” And he leaves his own gift: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” This is the first word the Risen Lord will say when he comes through the locked doors on Easter evening: Peace be with you. The peace of Easter is not the absence of trouble but the presence of the Risen One. In the Syro-Malabar Qurbana, the priest gives the peace to the people before the anaphora, and the people pass it to one another: the peace of the Risen Lord, carried from the altar into our homes. In this first week of Easter, a family can make a simple practice of it: each evening, before sleep, say to one another, ‘The peace of the Lord be with you’.
Theme: “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”
The light that never sets, the witness of the empty tomb, faith reckoned as righteousness, and the peace of the Risen Lord.
“Your sun shall no more go down, or your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.” Isaiah 60:20
“And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” Revelation 21:23
Apply: Name one sorrow and bring it to the Risen Lord in prayer today.
“For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit.” Psalm 16:10
“This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.” Acts 2:32
Apply: Tell one person this week what the Resurrection means to you.
“And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:6
“Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;” Romans 4:7
Apply: Make an Easter confession this week and thank God for his mercy.
“Father of orphans and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.” Psalm 68:5
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” John 14:27
Apply: Pass the peace of the Lord at home every evening this week.
The Risen Christ is our everlasting light, our righteousness and our peace.
Because he lives, we live: let us live like it this week.
Take-home resolution: This week, make an Easter confession, pray to the Holy Spirit before reading Scripture, and say ‘The peace of the Lord be with you’ at home each evening.
Dear friends, in the early Church this week belonged to the newly baptised. They came to church every day in their white garments to understand the new life they had received. Today the readings speak to them, and to all of us who were baptised.
Isaiah promised a city that had been abandoned: “The LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.” On Easter morning the days of mourning ended. Christ is our light that never sets.
Peter preached: David died and his tomb is still with us; but “this Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.” The empty tomb beside the full tomb: that is the whole difference. Jesus is alive, and he has poured out the Holy Spirit.
Paul tells us how we receive this life: by faith, like Abraham, who “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” And he sings with David: “Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven.” Our sins were washed away in Baptism, not because we earned it, but as a gift.
Jesus promised: “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you… because I live, you also will live.” He promised that the Father and he would make their home in us, and that the Holy Spirit would teach us. And he gave us his peace, not as the world gives.
This week, let us carry his peace home. Each evening, say to one another: The peace of the Lord be with you. Because he lives, we live. Alleluia! Amen.
Children, Jesus promised his friends: ‘I will not leave you alone.’ And he kept his promise: he rose from the dead, and he is always with us!
Jesus gives us his peace, a quiet, happy feeling inside. Tonight, say to your family: ‘The peace of Jesus be with you!’
Lord Jesus Christ, risen and living, you promised not to leave us orphans, and you have come to us. Because you live, we live. Make your home in us with the Father, send us the Advocate to teach us and remind us of your words, and give us your peace, which the world cannot give. Keep the newly baptised in the light of their Baptism, and let us all walk as children of the light. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen. Alleluia!
This first week of the Resurrection was traditionally the week of the newly baptized, who came to hear what had happened to them. Isaiah promises a forsaken city a light that will never set. Peter, in Acts, reasons from David's tomb to the risen Messiah, and Paul in Romans shows that Abraham was reckoned righteous as a gift, through faith, by God's grace. In John, on the night before he died, Jesus promises his friends that they will not be left as orphans. The key words are light, home and peace.
Setting.
The chapter that began with “Arise, shine” now reaches its end. Zion had been “forsaken and hated”. God replaces each mark of her ruin with a gift. These are promises to the Jerusalem of the prophet's own people, and Revelation takes up the same language for the city at the end of time.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.” (60:18)
A city's walls and gates are its defence. Here defence is God's saving act, and the way in is praise.
“The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.” (60:19)
“Your sun shall no more go down, or your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.” (60:20)
The newly baptized carried lit candles from the font. This verse tells them what those candles mean, and it says to all who grieve that mourning has an end.
How the Church reads it.
Revelation sees the new Jerusalem: “the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23). The Catechism describes this hope of the new heaven and the new earth (CCC 1042–1045). Israel keeps her place in this promise (CCC 839–840), and the Church waits for its fulfilment with her.
Setting.
These words were spoken at the Last Supper, on the night before the Passion, and the Church reads them after Easter because only now can they be understood. Jesus is preparing the disciples for a new way of being with him. Their question, the same as ours, is how he can be present when they no longer see him.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” (14:19)
The whole of Easter is in the last clause. Our life rests on his, and we live because he lives now.
“Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (14:23)
The Catechism quotes this verse when it says that the goal of all God's work is our entry into the life of the Trinity (CCC 260). Heaven is promised for later, and God's home in the believer is promised for now.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” (14:27)
The world's peace often means that the trouble has gone away. His peace comes with wounded hands (20:19–20), and it can hold firm in the middle of trouble.
How the Church reads it.
The Church has always read v. 26 as the promise that the Spirit keeps the words of Jesus alive in her; he is “the Spirit of truth” who leads the disciples into all the truth (CCC 729). The Holy Qurbana lives by this: at the epiclesis the Church calls on the Spirit whom the Father sends in the Son's name, and in every Qurbana we are given the peace he left us.
Jesus says, “the Father is greater than I” (14:28). Does this make the Son less than God?
No. The Church confesses that the Son is one in being with the Father (CCC 242, 253). St Augustine reads the verse of the Son in the form of a servant, in the humanity he took for us (in substance). Other Fathers add that the Son eternally receives everything from the Father, who is the source; this is an order of origin, not a lesser Godhead.