29 April 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.” John 5:24
The Letter to the Hebrews takes up a psalm that the Church still prays at the opening of her daily prayer, Psalm 95, and hears in it the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking now: “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness.’” The generation that came out of Egypt had seen the sea divided, eaten manna and drunk from the rock, and still their hearts grew hard. Seeing great works of God does not by itself make a heart soft. The writer then speaks to his own community with deep concern: “Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Two things stand out. First, the word ‘today’. God never speaks to us about tomorrow; his invitation is always for this day. Second, we are responsible for one another. A hard heart rarely forms in a moment; it hardens slowly, by small refusals, and the remedy is daily encouragement within the Christian family. A word from a friend, a parent or a priest at the right time can keep a heart from setting like cement.
In the Gospel Jesus speaks with the authority of the Son to whom the Father has given life: “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.” The tense matters: has eternal life, has passed. Eternal life begins now, in the one who believes. Then Jesus speaks of two moments. The first is already here: “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Those who are dead in sin hear his voice and rise by faith. The second is still to come: “for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out”, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. The Church professes this in every Creed: the resurrection of the body. In our parishes, families go to the cemetery after the Holy Qurbana on many feasts and anniversaries, light candles and pray at the graves of their dead. In the season of the Resurrection those graves look different. They are not the end of a story but a waiting room. The One who called Lazarus out of the tomb will one day speak to every grave, and the bodies laid there in faith will hear his voice.
Today the Church remembers St Catherine of Siena, and the readings given for her fit the whole day. Born in Siena in 1347, one of the youngest of the many children of a wool dyer, she gave herself to Christ as a girl and joined the Dominican laywomen known as the Mantellate. She had little schooling and learned to read late, yet she became one of the great teachers of the Church: her book of the Dialogue and nearly four hundred letters were dictated to her companions. Her first reading proclaims that “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all”, and that “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Catherine knew her own sinfulness and spent herself bringing others to confession and reconciliation. Her Gospel is Jesus' prayer: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” This unlettered young woman wrote with burning frankness to princes, cardinals and the Pope himself. She urged Pope Gregory XI to return from Avignon to Rome, and he did so in 1377; she worked for peace between warring cities and for the unity of the Church when the great schism began. Worn out, she died in Rome on 29 April 1380, aged thirty-three. St Paul VI declared her a doctor of the Church in 1970, and St John Paul II named her a patron of Europe in 1999. Catherine lived the ‘today’ of Hebrews: she never put off what love asked of her. Her life tells every Christian, especially women and lay people, that holiness and the word of truth are not reserved for the learned.
Theme: “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
The ‘today’ of God's voice, the life that begins now and the voice that will open every grave, and St Catherine of Siena, to whom the Father revealed his secrets.
“For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!” Psalm 95:7
“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 3:13
Apply: Do today the good thing you have been putting off, and encourage one person in faith.
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 12:2
“Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” John 5:25
Apply: Pray this week for your dead by name, professing faith in the resurrection of the body.
“Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Isaiah 1:18
“If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
Apply: Make a good confession before Pentecost, and pray for the Pope and the unity of the Church.
God speaks today, gives eternal life now, and will raise the dead at the last day.
St Catherine shows that whoever listens like a child can set the world on fire.
Take-home resolution: This week, act on God's word without delay, pray for your dead, and make a good confession through the prayers of St Catherine.
Dear friends, the Letter to the Hebrews repeats a word from the Psalm: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts (Hebrews 3:7–8). God does not speak to us about tomorrow. He speaks today.
The people in the wilderness saw great miracles and still hardened their hearts. So the writer says: exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:13). We are responsible for one another's faith.
Jesus says: anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and has passed from death to life (John 5:24). And he promises that the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out (John 5:28–29). When we pray at the graves of our dead, we pray in this hope.
Today we remember St Catherine of Siena. She had little schooling, yet God made her a teacher of the Church. She wrote to the Pope and begged him to return to Rome, and worked for peace and unity. She died at thirty-three, on this day in 1380. She shows us what Jesus said: the Father reveals his secrets to the little ones (Matthew 11:25).
Let us not wait for tomorrow. Today, let us hear his voice, encourage one another, and live as people who have already passed from death to life. Alleluia! Amen.
Children, St Catherine of Siena could not read when she was small, but she loved Jesus with all her heart. Later she wrote letters to the Pope! Jesus says that God shows his secrets to little children. You can know Jesus and love him too, even now!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, you have life in yourself and you give it to all who hear your word. Today, as we hear your voice, do not let our hearts be hardened. Raise us now from the death of sin, and on the last day call us out of our graves to the resurrection of life. Through the prayers of St Catherine of Siena, give us her light, her humility to confess our sins, her courage to speak the truth in love, and her fire for the unity of your Church. Amen. Alleluia!