22 December 2026 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” John 1:9
The prologue introduces a man: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light.” John was not the light; he pointed to it. Every Christian has the same vocation: not to be the light but to bear witness to it, so that others may believe. “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” No one is excluded from its rays.
Paul is distressed that the Galatians, after coming to know God, “or rather to be known by God”, want to go back to the old elemental spirits and anxious observances of days and seasons. Faith is not first our knowing God but God knowing us, loving us before we loved him. Christmas is the feast of being known: God knows our name and comes to find us.
Theme: “The true light was coming into the world.”
Witnesses to the light, known by God.
“See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me,” Malachi 3:1
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.” John 1:6–7
Apply: Put a light in your window as a sign of Christ.
“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” Psalm 27:1
“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” John 1:9
Apply: Bring one fear into the light of Christ.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” Jeremiah 1:5
“Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits?” Galatians 4:9
Apply: Pray Psalm 139 tonight.
We are known by God before we know him.
Let us point others to the light.
Take-home resolution: Light a candle at family prayer each night until Yaldo.
Dear friends, St Paul is troubled about the Galatians: formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? (Galatians 4:8–9).
Notice how Paul corrects himself: you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God. Faith begins not with our knowing God but with God knowing us. He knew us before we knew him.
Paul is worried because the Galatians were going back to old religious observances as a way of earning salvation: you are observing special days, and months, and seasons, and years (Galatians 4:10). Our fasts and feasts are good, but they do not save us. Only Christ saves.
In the Gospel John introduces John the Baptist: there was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light (John 1:6–8). The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world (John 1:9).
John the Baptist knew he was not the light. Our fast, our customs, our Church buildings and even our preachers are not the light. They point to Christ, the true light. We must not stop at the signpost.
As the fast comes to an end, let us ask: has my fast been a way of earning God's favour, or of opening my heart to his grace? Let us thank God that he knows us, and let us turn our eyes from the signposts to the light. Amen.
Children, John the Baptist pointed to Jesus. You can point to Jesus by being kind, so that others see His love in you!
True Light that enlightens everyone, you know us by name. Make us witnesses like John, pointing others to you, and keep us from returning to the darkness from which you called us. Amen.
Three days before Yaldo, both readings ask who has found whom. Paul reminds the Galatians that their faith began when they were known by God, and he cannot understand why they would go back to slavery. John's prologue shows a man sent from God, a witness who is not the light himself, pointing to the true light that is already on its way into the world. God takes the first step in both readings: he knows us before we know him, and he sends before anyone asks.
Setting.
Paul founded the churches of Galatia, in the centre of Asia Minor, among Gentiles. After he left, other teachers urged these believers to be circumcised and to keep the Law of Moses as the way to belong fully to God's people. Paul has just told them that they are children and heirs through Christ (4:4–7). Now he turns from teaching to pleading. For him, going back under the Law as if Christ were not enough would be like returning to the slavery they knew before they believed.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits?” (4:9)
Paul's bold move is to put two things side by side: the pagan past of the Galatians and the Law-keeping they are now being offered. He is not calling the Law of Moses pagan (see Romans 7:12). He means that anything held on to as a rival to Christ leaves a person enslaved.
“You are observing special days, and months, and seasons, and years.” (4:10)
Most likely the sabbaths, new moons, festivals and sabbatical years of the Jewish calendar, urged on these Gentiles as necessary for salvation. Compare Colossians 2:16–17.
“I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted.” (4:11)
This is the voice of a pastor rather than a judge. A few verses later he calls them “my little children” and speaks of being in the pain of childbirth for them (4:19).
How the Church reads it.
The Church hears in this passage the priority of grace. The Catechism teaches that the preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace (CCC 2001), and St John says the same in other words: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us” (1 John 4:10). Paul's warning is not against the Church's feasts but against any religion that tries to earn what God has already given in his Son.
Setting.
The prologue of John (1:1–18) has the lofty rhythm of a hymn, and into it the evangelist twice brings a plain historical figure: John (vv. 6–8 and v. 15). The Fourth Gospel never calls him “the Baptist”; he is simply John, and his whole task is to testify. After the eternal Word of vv. 1–5 comes a man with a name, sent at a moment in history. The Malankara faithful kept his birth earlier in Suboro; today he stands at the door of the feast.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.” (1:7)
“All”: from the first page the Gospel has the whole world in view. John's work is finished when people believe, and they believe in Christ, not in John (see 3:30).
“He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.” (1:8)
Every preacher, catechist and parent should know this verse. Those who bring others to Christ are not the light, and they do not need to be.
“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” (1:9)
A note on the text. The Greek can be read in two ways: the light was “coming into the world” (the NRSV, the POC), or the light enlightens “everyone coming into the world” (the Latin Vulgate). Either way the light is meant for every human being.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism calls John the Lord's immediate forerunner, sent to prepare his way (CCC 523). St Augustine contrasts John, the voice, with Christ, the Word: the voice sounds and passes, and the Word remains (in substance, Sermon 293). The Church also takes up v. 9 when she speaks of Baptism as enlightenment, in which the believer receives the Word, “the true light”, and becomes a child of light (CCC 1216). The Second Vatican Council sees whatever is good and true among those who do not yet know the Gospel as given by him who enlightens all people (Lumen Gentium 16).
If Paul scolds people for keeping days and seasons, why do we keep Yaldo?
Paul is speaking against the idea that keeping a calendar makes us right with God, and against imposing that on Gentile believers as necessary for salvation. The Church's year does something different. It does not earn anything from God. It unfolds the mystery of Christ through the year, so that we can enter into what he has already done for us (Sacrosanctum Concilium 102; CCC 1163). We keep Yaldo because God has known us first, and we rejoice in that.