1 December 2026 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” John 1:5
The fast begins with the prologue of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The child we await at Yaldo is not merely a good man born long ago; he is the eternal Word through whom all things were made, the life that is the light of all people. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Our fasting is a way of opening the windows to that light.
Paul gives the programme for these twenty-five days. Owe no one anything except love, for love is the fulfilling of the law. “The night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” No reveling and drunkenness, no quarrelling and jealousy; instead, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” A fast without love is only a diet; a fast with love prepares a home for Christ.
Theme: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The first day of the Christmas fast.
“you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:18
“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:10
Apply: Join your fast to one act of love each day.
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.” Isaiah 60:1
“the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;” Romans 13:12
Apply: Give up one habit of the night during the fast.
“Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” Genesis 1:3
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
Apply: Read John 1:1–18 slowly each Sunday of the fast.
The fast prepares a home for the Word.
Let love be its heart.
Take-home resolution: Keep the fast with prayer, fasting and alms every day.
Dear brothers and sisters, today the faithful of our Church begin the Twenty-Five Days' Fast before Yaldo, the Nativity of our Lord. It is a time of prayer, abstinence and charity, so that our hearts may be a worthy place for the Lord who comes.
St Paul gives us the law of this fast: owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:8, 10). A fast without love is only a diet.
Paul continues: you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. The night is far gone, the day is near. Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:11–14).
The Gospel opens with the great hymn of St John: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it (John 1:1–5).
The One we await at Yaldo is not only a child. He is the eternal Word, through whom all things were made. He comes as light into our darkness. Our fast is a way of making room for that light: less food, less noise, less sin, more prayer, more love.
Let us begin this fast with three resolutions: a fast from one food or comfort, a fast from one sin, and one act of love each day. And let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ, like a new garment, as we walk towards Yaldo. Amen.
Children, the fast before Yaldo is a time to get ready for Jesus. Give up something small and do something kind every day!
Eternal Word, light that the darkness cannot overcome, as we begin this fast, help us lay aside the works of darkness, put on the armour of light, and clothe ourselves with you. Amen.
The fast before Yaldo opens with two readings about light. Paul tells the Romans that the night is nearly over, so it is time to wake and dress for the day. John goes back before creation itself, to the Word who was with God and whose life is the light of all people. The child awaited at Yaldo is that Word, and love of neighbour is the clothing proper to his day.
Setting.
Chapters 12–15 of Romans draw out how those saved by grace should live. Just before this passage Paul has told the Roman Christians to pay taxes and every other debt (13:7). He now turns the word “debt” around: one debt can never be paid off, the debt of love. He then adds a reason for urgency: the time is short.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” (13:8)
Paul lists the commandments about the neighbour in v. 9 and gathers them into Leviticus 19:18. Love does not cancel the commandments; it is what they were asking for all along.
“the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;” (13:12)
The Christian lives at the hour before dawn. It is still dark, but the darkness is no longer the truth about the world. “Armor” is a military word: this waking up involves a struggle.
“Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (13:14)
Christ himself is the garment. “The flesh” in Paul is not the body as such, but human life turned in on itself.
How the Church reads it.
These two verses (13:13–14) are the ones St Augustine read in the garden at Milan when he heard a child's voice saying “take up and read”; he tells the story in his Confessions (Book 8), and it brought his long resistance to an end. The Catechism quotes Romans 13:8–10 on love as the fulfilment of the Law (CCC 2196), and explains the white garment of Baptism as the sign that the baptized person has “put on Christ” (CCC 1243).
Setting.
These are the opening lines of the Prologue (1:1–18), the solemn poem that begins John's Gospel. Matthew and Luke begin with the birth of Jesus; John begins earlier, and his first words deliberately repeat the first words of the Bible: “In the beginning” (Genesis 1:1). A new creation is being announced, and the Creator's own Word is its source.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (1:1)
In three short steps: the Word existed, he is distinct from God the Father (“with God”), and he is himself God. The Council of Nicaea (325) defended exactly this against Arius, who taught that the Son was a creature.
“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” (1:3)
A note on the text. The oldest manuscripts have no punctuation, and the end of v. 3 can be read two ways. The NRSV joins “What has come into being” to v. 4, as many early Christian writers did; the POC ends the sentence at v. 3, as others did. The faith is the same in both.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (1:5)
“Shines” is in the present tense, “did not overcome” in the past. The struggle has been decided, and the light goes on shining.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism takes this passage as the New Testament's revelation that God created everything by the eternal Word (CCC 291), and says that the Apostles confessed Jesus to be the Word who was with God and is God (CCC 241). The Creed the Church prays at every Holy Qurbono echoes v. 3: “through him all things were made”.
If the Word “was God”, are there two Gods?
No. John says both that the Word was “with God” and that he “was God”. The Church expresses this by confessing one God in three persons: the Son is truly God and truly distinct from the Father (CCC 253–254).
For the Malankara faithful the Twenty-Five Days' Fast before Yaldo begins today, with prayer, fasting and almsgiving (1–24 December). Today's readings give it a clear aim. To fast is to take off the works of darkness, and to give alms is to pay something on the debt of love, so that the Word who shines in the darkness may find a home.