1 January 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” Luke 2:21
On the eighth day after his birth the Child was circumcised according to the Law and given his name: Jesus, “the name given by the angel before he was conceived”. The Son of God enters fully into the covenant of his people and receives a name that is a mission: Yeshua, “the Lord saves”. As the angel told Joseph: “you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
At the start of a new year the Church gives us not a resolution but a Name. St Peter would later proclaim: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Every year, every plan, every fear can be placed under this Name.
St Paul's reading tells us how to begin anew: “put away your former way of life, your old self… and clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22–24). A new calendar does not make a new person; Christ does. The New Year is a chance to put on Christ again.
Luke also says that Mary and Joseph brought the Child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, offering the sacrifice of the poor, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons”. The Holy Family begins every new stage by offering it to God. So may we offer this year to him.
Theme: “Begin the year in the name of Jesus.”
On the eighth day the Child received the name the angel had given: Jesus, “God saves”. We begin the new year not with luck or fear but with a name: the name above every name.
“This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.” Exodus 3:15
“After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” Luke 2:21
Apply: Say the name of Jesus with reverence; never use it carelessly.
“Then everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” Joel 2:32
“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
Apply: Make the short prayer “Jesus, I trust in you” your companion this year.
“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” Numbers 6:24–26
“Clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:24
Apply: Write one resolution for the year that will make you more like Christ, and offer it at the altar today.
Whatever this year brings, it is placed under the name of Jesus.
Let us begin it blessed, cleansed and renewed, calling on the name that saves.
Take-home resolution: Bless your family with the words of Numbers 6:24–26 at the start of each month this year.
Dear brothers and sisters, a blessed New Year to all of you! On this first day of the year, the Church celebrates the Naming of our Lord. Eight days after his birth, the Child was circumcised and given the name the angel had announced: Jesus.
In Hebrew, Jesus means “the Lord saves”. The angel told Joseph: “you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” So on New Year's Day the Church does not give us a list of resolutions; she gives us a Name. St Peter says: “There is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”
St Paul tells us what a real new beginning looks like: put away the old self, and clothe yourselves with the new self, created in the likeness of God. A new calendar does not make a new person. Only Christ makes us new. Let each of us name one old habit to put off, and one virtue to put on, this year.
And like Mary and Joseph, who brought the Child to offer him to the Lord, let us offer this whole year to God: our families, our work, our health, our plans. Today is also the World Day of Peace. May the Prince of Peace give peace to our homes and to our world. Jesus, we begin this year in your Name. Amen.
On the eighth day the Child received the name Jesus, which means “the Lord saves”. We begin the year by calling on that name.
📖 Isaiah 43:1
📖 Luke 2:21
Apply: Learn the meaning of your own baptismal name.
📖 Isaiah 45:22–23
📖 Philippians 2:9–11
Apply: Bow your head whenever the name of Jesus is spoken at the Holy Qurbono.
📖 Joel 2:32
📖 Acts 4:12
Apply: Begin each day this year with the name of Jesus.
The name of Jesus is our programme for the new year: God saves.
Whatever this year holds, we face it in his name.
Take-home resolution: This year I will begin and end each day by calling on the name of Jesus.
Dear brothers and sisters, a blessed new year to all of you. On the eighth day after his birth the Child was circumcised and was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived (Luke 2:21). The name means the Lord saves. God chose it himself.
In the Bible a name is a mission. The angel told Joseph: you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Every time we say the name of Jesus, we confess what he came to do.
Paul tells us that because Jesus humbled himself to the cross, God gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend (Philippians 2:9–10). That is why we bow our heads at his name.
Peter, standing before the council, said: there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). We do not know what this year will bring. But we know the name in which we will face it.
So let us begin the year as the Church begins it: in the name of Jesus. Let it be the first word on our lips in the morning and the last at night. And may the Lord bless us and keep us in his name throughout this year. Amen.
In 431 the Council of Ephesus proclaimed Mary Theotokos, Mother of God. The first day of the year belongs to her and to her Son.
📖 Isaiah 7:14
📖 Galatians 4:4–5
Apply: Pray the Hail Mary slowly today, weighing the words “Mother of God”.
📖 Psalm 77:11–12
📖 Luke 2:19
Apply: Each night this year, recall one thing God did that day.
📖 Numbers 6:24–26
📖 Galatians 4:6–7
Apply: Put your family under Mary's protection for the year.
Mary, Mother of God, is also our mother.
With her we begin the year pondering God's works in our hearts.
Take-home resolution: I will entrust this year to Mary, Mother of God, and keep a habit of thanksgiving each night.
Dear friends, today the Church greets Mary with her greatest title: Mother of God. In the year 431 the bishops gathered at Ephesus defended this title, because the Child she bore is not a man who later became God, but the eternal Son of God made man. Honouring Mary protects the truth about Jesus.
Paul says: when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman (Galatians 4:4). God did not come among us from nowhere. He came through a mother, through a family, through a people.
When the shepherds told what they had seen, Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2:19). She did not understand everything, but she kept it and turned it over in prayer. That is a good way to live a year.
Paul adds: because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father (Galatians 4:6). Through Mary's Son we become children of God.
So let us begin the year with her. Let us ask Mary, Mother of God, to keep our families, and let us learn from her to ponder each day what God has done. And may the Lord bless us and keep us, and give us peace. Amen.
Children, happy New Year! Today we remember the day baby Jesus got his name. Do you know what “Jesus” means? “God saves!”
Mary and Joseph gave him that name because an angel told them to. Jesus came to save us and help us be good.
This year, let's start every day by saying: “Jesus, I love you!” Let's say it together now: “Jesus, I love you!”
Lord Jesus, at your Naming you received the Name that saves. We begin this year in your Name: forgive our past, clothe us with the new self, bless our families and our work, and give peace to our world. Amen.
Eight days after Yaldo the Church keeps the Naming of our Lord, and the civil year begins under that Name. The two readings look at it from two sides. Luke shows the Child entering the covenant of his people: circumcised on the eighth day, called Jesus, carried up to Jerusalem, and presented to the Lord with the offering of those who could not afford a lamb. Paul writes to people who already bear that Name, and tells them what it asks: “That is not the way you learned Christ!” They are to put off an old self and clothe themselves with a new one.
So the line runs from the body of a Child marked by the covenant to the life of a Christian marked by Baptism. The key words are name, law and clothing. He takes on our condition, keeping every detail of the Law, so that we may take on his.
Setting.
The letter carries Paul's name and speaks from prison (3:1; 4:1). The Church has always received it among his letters; many modern scholars think it may come from a close disciple writing in his name, while others defend his authorship. Its authority as Scripture does not depend on the answer.
The first three chapters speak of what God has done in Christ; from 4:1 the letter turns to how Christians should live. The readers were Gentiles by birth (2:11), so when Paul says “as the Gentiles live” he means the way of life they themselves came out of. He is describing life without knowledge of God, as they knew it from inside, and not the worth of any people.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“That is not the way you learned Christ!” (4:20)
An unusual phrase. One learns a language or a trade; here Paul says one learns a Person. Christian teaching is finally an introduction to someone.
“as truth is in Jesus.” (4:21)
Everywhere else in this letter the name comes with a title: Christ Jesus, the Lord Jesus. Only here does Jesus stand by itself. On the feast of the Naming it is good to notice this: truth has a human name and a human history.
“You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts,” (4:22)
“Deluded”: sin promises and does not deliver. The old self is not only wicked; it has been lied to.
“and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,” (4:23)
Between taking off and putting on stands this verb, and it is passive: to be renewed. The change is God's work in us, and in the Greek it is a continuing one. Baptism happens once; this goes on daily.
“and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (4:24)
The Greek says simply “according to God”; the NRSV rightly brings out the echo of Genesis 1:26–27. The new self is “created”. It is a new creation, and not an improved version of the old one.
How the Church reads it.
The Church hears these verses as a description of Baptism. The Catechism teaches that Baptism makes the one baptised a new creature and an adopted child of God (CCC 1265), and that the white garment shows the person has put on Christ (CCC 1243). The baptismal instructions of Jerusalem linked with St Cyril explain the removal of the garment before the font as putting off the old self (in substance). St Leo the Great, in a Christmas sermon that the Catechism quotes, draws the moral: Christian, recognise your dignity, and do not go back to your former state (Sermon 21; CCC 1691).
Setting.
Luke has just told of the birth and the shepherds. Now, in four verses, he mentions the Law of Moses or “the law of the Lord” three times. His point is simple: the Son of God was brought up by parents who did what the Law asked, as devout Jewish families did.
Three separate customs lie behind the passage. A boy was circumcised on the eighth day (Genesis 17:12; Leviticus 12:3), and in Luke's story the naming goes with it (1:59). A mother was ritually unclean for forty days after the birth of a son and then brought an offering: a lamb and a bird, or two birds if she could not afford a lamb (Leviticus 12:2–8). And every firstborn son belonged to the Lord (Exodus 13:2), and was bought back with five shekels (Numbers 18:15–16).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” (2:21)
Luke points back to Gabriel's word to Mary (1:31). The Name was not chosen by the family: it was received from heaven, and the parents obey. Circumcision is also the first shedding of his blood, a detail the Church's preachers have long noticed.
“When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” (2:22)
A note on the text. Leviticus 12 speaks of the mother only, yet the Greek here says “their”. The Latin Vulgate has eius, which does not show the gender and was long taken as “her”. The POC does not say whose. Luke seems to see the family acting together.
“(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”),” (2:23)
Exodus 13:2. Luke says nothing about the five shekels. He leaves us with a Child who is simply given to the Lord, somewhat as Hannah brought Samuel (1 Samuel 1:24–28).
“and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”” (2:24)
Leviticus 12:8 allows this for one who “cannot afford a sheep”. In a single line Luke tells us about the family's means. The Son of God enters the Temple for the first time as a child of the poor.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism sees in the circumcision the sign of Jesus' incorporation into Abraham's descendants and his submission to the Law, and it adds that this sign prefigures Baptism (CCC 527). It sees in the presentation the firstborn who belongs to the Lord (CCC 529). On the Name it teaches that Jesus means “God saves” (CCC 430), that this is the one name which contains everything, and that it stands at the heart of Christian prayer (CCC 435, 2666). St Bernard of Clairvaux calls the Name honey in the mouth, music in the ear and a shout of joy in the heart (Sermons on the Song of Songs 15, in substance). Peter's confession gives the reason: “There is salvation in no one else” (Acts 4:12).
Why was the Son of God circumcised?
Because he truly became a son of Israel. Paul says he was “born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). He did not need the covenant sign in order to belong to God, but he took his place among his own people and kept their Law from within (CCC 527).
Did Mary need to be purified from sin?
No. The uncleanness of Leviticus 12 is ritual and concerns contact with blood and birth, the great mysteries of life. It says nothing about sin. Mary went to the Temple out of obedience, as every Jewish mother was expected to do.
Is Paul looking down on the Gentiles in Ephesians 4:17?
He is speaking to Gentile-born Christians about the life they left, and in chapter 2 he says that those who were far off have been brought near. It is not a judgment on other peoples or religions today. The Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in other religions, and she still proclaims Christ (Nostra Aetate 2).
In the Syriac of the West Syriac tradition the Name is pronounced Yeshu‘, very close to what Mary and Joseph would have said in Aramaic, and close also to our Malayalam യേശു. The Malankara reader who begins the year at the Holy Qurbono begins it where the Child began his: with a family going up to God's house, bringing what it has. Today's feast also suits the home: a family could begin the year by placing its plans, debts, fears and hopes under this Name, and by asking what old clothing needs to come off this year.