21 December 2026 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” John 1:3–4
Paul begins his letter to the Romans with thanksgiving: “your faith is proclaimed throughout the world.” He longs to visit them, not only to give but to receive: “so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.” He feels himself a debtor to everyone, Greeks and barbarians, wise and foolish. Faith is never private property; it is a gift we owe to others.
In these last days before Yaldo the Church reads the prologue of John slowly, a few verses each day. Today: “All things came into being through him… What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” The child of Bethlehem is the one through whom the stars and the shepherds and the ox and the ass were made. The Creator enters his own creation as a creature.
Theme: “The life was the light of all people.”
Shared faith and the Creator made child.
“yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” Psalm 19:4
“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world.” Romans 1:8
Apply: Send a Christmas message that speaks of Jesus.
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other;” Ecclesiastes 4:9–10
“or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.” Romans 1:12
Apply: Visit or call someone whose faith is weak.
“By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.” Psalm 33:6
“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” John 1:3–4
Apply: Thank God for creation under tonight's sky.
The Creator comes as a child.
Let us share the light of faith.
Take-home resolution: Read John 1:1–18 every day until Yaldo.
Dear friends, St Paul begins his letter to the Romans with thanksgiving: I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world (Romans 1:8). He longs to see them, so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith (Romans 1:12).
Faith is not a private possession; it grows through sharing. When we pray together, visit each other and speak about God, we encourage one another. Paul, the great apostle, also needed the encouragement of ordinary believers.
Paul says: I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish (Romans 1:14). He felt he owed the Gospel to everyone. We too are debtors: we received the faith freely, and we owe it to others.
The Gospel today is the prologue of 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 (John 1:1–4). Four days before Yaldo, the Church lifts our eyes from the manger to eternity.
The Child we will adore is the eternal Word. Through him all things were made, including you and me. When we hold the image of the Child in our homes, we are looking at the Creator who became a creature out of love.
In these last days, let us encourage someone in their faith: a phone call, a visit, a word of hope. And let us repay our debt by sharing the light we have received. Amen.
Children, Jesus made everything: the sun, the stars and you! Say thank you to Jesus for everything He made.
Eternal Word, through whom all things were made, you come to us as light and life. Let our faith encourage others, and let us welcome you with wonder at your coming. Amen.
Four days before Yaldo, at the time of the longest nights in the northern half of the world, the Church reads the opening of John: “The light shines in the darkness.” With it comes Paul's greeting to the Christians of Rome, full of thanks and longing. The Word who was with God from the beginning is the same One whose good news drives Paul across the world, a debt he says he owes to every people.
Setting.
Paul wrote Romans from Corinth, probably around AD 57 (see 16:1, 23). He had neither founded nor yet visited this Church. He was planning to go on to Spain and to visit Rome on the way (15:23–24). The opening of the letter is therefore a careful, courteous introduction, by an apostle to a community that does not know him personally.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world.” (1:8)
“Through Jesus Christ”: even thanks goes through the Mediator. The faith of an ordinary community in the capital was news in the whole Christian world.
“or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” (1:12)
A lovely correction. The great apostle begins to say that he will strengthen them, and then adds that he too needs them. Every real pastoral visit runs in both directions.
“I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish” (1:14)
“Barbarians” is the Greeks' word for those who did not speak Greek. Paul crosses the great divides of his culture: language, and education. The Gospel is not for the refined alone.
How the Church reads it.
St Ignatius of Antioch, on his way to martyrdom in the early second century, wrote to the same Church of Rome, praising it as presiding in love, words the Catechism recalls when it speaks of Rome and the communion of the Churches (CCC 834). So the see of Antioch, our own West Syriac heritage, speaks to Rome of faith and love. On intercession among Christians as a mark of the first communities, see CCC 2636.
Setting.
Matthew opens with a genealogy and Luke with a census. John begins before there was any census, before time. His first words are the first words of the Greek Bible: “In the beginning” (Genesis 1:1). Then comes the surprise. Genesis goes on, “God created”; John goes on, “was the Word”. This Prologue (1:1–18) is the great hymn of the Incarnation, and it reaches its summit at 1:14.
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)
Three short statements. The Word existed before all creation; the Word is distinct from the Father; the Word is truly God. In the last phrase the Greek has no article before “God” (theos ēn ho logos). This does not mean “a god”. Placed first for emphasis, the word says what the Word is, without making him identical with the Person of the Father.
“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” (1:3)
John's verbs are careful. The Word “was”; things “came into being”. All that begins, begins through him. So he himself does not belong among the created things, as Arius would later claim.
“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” (1:3–4)
A note on the text. The oldest Greek manuscripts have little or no punctuation, and the words “What has come into being” can be joined either to v. 4, as the NRSV does with many early Fathers, or to v. 3, as many later Fathers do and as the Malayalam POC does (“… അവനിൽ ജീവനുണ്ടായിരുന്നു”). The faith is the same in both: life is found in the Word.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (1:5)
“Shines” is present; “did not overcome” is past. The battle has an outcome already, and the light is still shining. This is the verse to carry through the longest nights.
How the Church reads it.
The Council of Nicaea (325) confessed against Arius that the Son is “consubstantial” with the Father (CCC 242), and the Creed sings “Light from Light”. The Catechism quotes these verses on creation through the Word (CCC 291). St Augustine says in his Confessions (VII.9) that he found something of “In the beginning was the Word” among the philosophers, but not that “the Word became flesh” (in substance). In four days the Church will celebrate that very thing.