14 December 2026 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27
Hebrews meditates on a mysterious figure: Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, who blessed Abraham and received a tenth of everything. His name means “king of righteousness” and Salem means “peace”. With no recorded father or mother, no beginning or end, “resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.” Genesis says he brought out bread and wine; the Fathers saw in him a sign of Christ, the eternal Priest who offers himself under bread and wine.
Jesus turns to the crowds following him and tells them the cost of discipleship: to put him before every family tie, even before one's own life; to carry the cross; to sit down and count the cost like a builder or a king going to war. “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” St John of the Cross lived this in the dark night of prison and wrote some of the most beautiful poetry of love for God. The way of the cross leads to the light of Christmas and of Easter.
Theme: “Carry the cross and follow me.”
The eternal Priest and the cost of discipleship.
“And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High.” Genesis 14:18
“Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.” Hebrews 7:3
Apply: Receive Holy Communion this week with special attention.
“What shall I return to the LORD for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD,” Psalm 116:12–13
“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27
Apply: Bear one difficulty today without complaining.
“By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established;” Proverbs 24:3
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?” Luke 14:28
Apply: Complete one resolution you made for this fast.
Christ the eternal Priest goes before us with his cross.
Let us follow to the end.
Take-home resolution: Make the Way of the Cross on Friday.
Dear friends, the Letter to the Hebrews speaks of Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, who met Abraham and blessed him, and to whom Abraham gave a tenth of everything (Hebrews 7:1–2). Melchizedek appears without genealogy, a mysterious figure resembling the Son of God, a priest for ever (Hebrews 7:3).
Melchizedek offered bread and wine (Genesis 14:18). The Church sees in him a figure of Christ, the eternal High Priest, who offers himself under the signs of bread and wine in the Holy Qurbono.
In the Gospel Jesus speaks hard words to the crowds who follow him: whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:26–27).
Hate here is a Semitic way of saying: love less than me. Jesus must come first. Then he gives two examples: a man building a tower first sits down to estimate the cost; a king going to war first considers whether he can win (Luke 14:28–32). Discipleship must be chosen with open eyes.
Today we also remember St John of the Cross, who counted the cost and gave everything for God, finding in the dark night the light of divine love.
During this fast, let us count the cost of following Jesus and choose him again. What do I put before him: family, money, comfort, reputation? Let us give him the first place, so that at Yaldo he may be born in a heart that belongs to him. Amen.
Children, Jesus carried His cross because He loves us. When something is hard, offer it to Jesus with love!
Lord Jesus, eternal Priest after the order of Melchizedek, give us courage to carry our cross and follow you, and through the prayers of St John of the Cross, lead us through every dark night into your light. Amen.
Today the Church remembers St John of the Cross, and the readings suit him. Hebrews lifts our eyes to Melchizedek, a priest without beginning or end, and through him to Christ. Luke brings us down to the road, where Jesus tells the crowd plainly what following him will cost. The eternal Priest is the one who walks to Jerusalem carrying the cross, and he invites us to carry ours.
Setting.
The preacher has been working toward this passage since 5:6, 10 and 6:20. How can Jesus be a priest, when he comes from the tribe of Judah and not of Levi (7:14)? The answer is in Psalm 110:4: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek”. To explain that verse he goes back to the only story about this man: Genesis 14:17–20. Melchizedek appears for a few verses, meets Abraham, blesses him, receives a tenth, and goes.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.” (7:3)
A priesthood that does not depend on descent, and that has no end: this is what Hebrews sees in Christ, who holds his priesthood permanently because he lives forever (7:24).
“It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior.” (7:7)
In the ancient world, the one who blessed stood higher than the one who received the blessing. Abraham, who carries all the promises, receives this stranger's blessing.
“In the one case, tithes are received by those who are mortal; in the other, by one of whom it is testified that he lives.” (7:8)
“He lives” is the key of the argument. For the reader of Hebrews, it is true fully only of the risen Christ.
How the Church reads it.
Hebrews does not mention the bread and wine of Genesis 14:18, but the Church has seen them too. St Cyprian saw in Melchizedek's offering a figure of the Lord's sacrifice (in substance, Letter 63). The Catechism sees Melchizedek as a prefiguration of the priesthood of Christ, the unique “high priest after the order of Melchizedek” (CCC 1544), and sees the bread and wine he brought as a prefiguration of the Church's own offering (CCC 1333).
Setting.
Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem (9:51). Large crowds are walking with him, and he has just told the parable of the great dinner, where the house is filled with the poor and the lame (14:15–24). The invitation is open to everyone. Now he turns around and tells them what the invitation means.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (14:27)
Luke's readers knew what it looked like when a condemned man carried a cross through the streets. The Greek speaks of “his own” cross: each disciple has one, and no one can choose another's.
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?” (14:28)
The surprise of the two parables is that Jesus does not ask for great enthusiasm. He asks for a clear head. He wants to have disciples who will finish.
“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” (14:33)
The form of this will differ from one vocation to another. The inner freedom it asks for applies to all. The Catechism uses this verse to teach poverty of heart for every believer (CCC 2544).
““Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?” (14:34)
According to a common explanation, Dead Sea salt was mixed with other minerals; when the true salt was washed out, a useless white residue remained. The Greek word for losing its taste also means to become foolish: a disciple who has lost his saltiness has lost his wisdom.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Jesus enjoins his disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone (CCC 2544), and that he calls them to take up their cross and follow him, because he wishes to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who are to benefit from it (CCC 618). The Church has never understood this as a contempt for family. The same Lord commands us to honour our parents (CCC 2214–2218). It means that family, like everything else, is loved rightly when Christ comes first (CCC 2232).
Does Jesus really want us to hate our parents?
No. “Hate” here is a Semitic way of saying “put second”, as Matthew 10:37 shows. Christ asks for the first place in our hearts, and he also commands love for parents and even for enemies. The saying is meant to shock us into seeing how serious the choice is.
St John of the Cross (1542–1591), a Spanish Carmelite priest and Doctor of the Church, worked with St Teresa of Avila for the reform of Carmel. His own brothers in the order imprisoned him at Toledo, and there, in a dark cell, he began the poetry of the Spiritual Canticle. His teaching on the “nothing” (nada) that leaves room for the “all” of God is a commentary on today's Gospel. He belongs to the Latin tradition, and Syriac monastic readers will recognise in him the same call to stripping and interior silence that their own Fathers taught.