15 December 2026 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2
Paul came to Corinth, a city proud of rhetoric and philosophy, “in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” He did not try to impress them: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” His preaching was not plausible words of wisdom but “a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” The crib and the cross are both foolishness to the world and power to those who believe.
Jesus warns his disciples of what lies ahead: they will be put out of the synagogues; some will even think that killing them is an offering to God. “I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling.” Forewarned is forearmed. Christmas is not a sentimental holiday; the child of Bethlehem will be rejected, and those who follow him will share his rejection, and his victory.
Theme: “Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
The power of God in weakness.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2
Apply: Pray five minutes before a crucifix today.
“Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me,” Jeremiah 9:23–24
“My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:4–5
Apply: Ask the Holy Spirit before speaking about faith.
“Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.” Psalm 119:165
“I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling.” John 16:1
Apply: Pray for persecuted Christians.
The crib and the cross are God's power.
Let our faith rest there.
Take-home resolution: Pray before a crucifix each day until Yaldo.
Dear friends, St Paul tells the Corinthians how he first came to them: I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling (1 Corinthians 2:1–3).
Paul was a brilliant scholar, but he did not rely on cleverness. He preached Christ crucified with the power of the Spirit, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:5).
In the Gospel Jesus warns his disciples: they will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them (John 16:2–4).
Religious violence is not new. Jesus foresaw that some would persecute in God's name. Even today, Christians suffer in some places from people who believe they are serving God.
How should we respond? Not with clever arguments or with hatred, but like Paul: with Christ crucified, with humility, with the power of the Spirit. The Child of Yaldo will grow up to be crucified; his weakness is our strength.
During this fast, let us pray for those who persecute Christians and for those who suffer. And let us rely less on our own cleverness and more on the power of God. Amen.
Children, Jesus on the cross shows us the greatest love. Look at a crucifix today and say: thank you, Jesus!
Lord Jesus, crucified and risen, be the centre of our faith. Free us from relying on human cleverness, let our faith rest on the power of God, and keep us from stumbling when trials come. Amen.
The Twenty-Five Days' Fast before Yaldo continues, and both readings look straight at what the world would call failure. Paul arrives in Corinth trembling, with nothing to offer but a crucified Lord. Jesus tells his friends that they will be put out and even killed. Together they teach that God's work does not rest on eloquence or success, a good lesson for those preparing to welcome a child born far from any palace.
Setting.
Corinth was a busy Roman colony and port city on the isthmus of Greece, refounded by Julius Caesar in 44 BC. Paul preached there for a year and a half around AD 50–52 (Acts 18:1–11) and wrote this letter a few years later from Ephesus (16:8). The community had split into parties around favourite teachers (1:10–12), and many admired fine speech, as Greek city culture did. Paul had just said that “we proclaim Christ crucified” (1:23). Now he reminds them how he first came to them.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom.” (2:1)
A note on the text. The Greek manuscripts differ here: some read “mystery”, which the NRSV follows, and others read “testimony”, which the Malayalam POC follows. Both are ancient, and the sense is close: Paul came to pass on what God has done, not to display himself.
“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (2:2)
This was a decision, not a lack of ability. Crucifixion was the most shameful death the Roman world knew, and Paul chooses it as his whole subject.
“And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” (2:3)
The great apostle was afraid. Acts tells that the Lord had to encourage him in a night vision at Corinth: “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent” (Acts 18:9).
“so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” (2:5)
A faith that rests on a clever preacher will fall with him. A faith that rests on God can survive any preacher.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that God's power is shown in the weakness of the Cross, “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (CCC 272, quoting 1 Corinthians 1:24–25). St John Chrysostom, preaching on this letter, keeps returning to one argument: unlearned men won the world, so the victory belongs to God (in substance). St John Paul II reads these chapters in Fides et Ratio 23: the word of the Cross does not abolish reason, but no human wisdom could have reached it by itself.
Setting.
Jesus is speaking at the Last Supper (John 13–17). He has just warned that the world will hate his disciples as it hated him: “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you” (15:20). The Fourth Gospel took its final form late in the first century, and many scholars think that some of its readers were Christians of Jewish birth who had painfully lost their place in the synagogue, the community of their childhood.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling.” (16:1)
Jesus does not promise an easy road. He gives something better: the truth in advance.
“an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God.” (16:2)
Paul knew this from the inside: “I was violently persecuting the church of God” (Galatians 1:13). Religious zeal without knowledge of the Father can do terrible things. This warning has been true of Christians too, and every believer must take it to heart.
“But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them.” (16:4)
Remembering is the disciple's defence. The suffering that Jesus foretold cannot prove that he has lost control.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism calls martyrdom “the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith” (CCC 2473). Tertullian told the Roman authorities that the blood of Christians is seed (Apology 50, in substance). The Church has seen this word come true in every age. In our own time, in many lands and in India too, some have suffered for their faith; we pray for them and, as the Lord taught, for those who wronged them.
Does this passage blame the Jewish people?
No. Jesus and his first disciples were themselves Jews, and “they” here means those who would expel and persecute in that setting, not a whole people. The Church teaches that the Jews are not to be presented as rejected or accursed (Nostra Aetate 4; see CCC 597–598).