2 January 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” John 3:5
Today the Church remembers Mar Baselios (St Basil the Great) and Mar Gregorios (St Gregory Nazianzen), friends and bishops of Cappadocia who defended faith in the Holy Trinity, and whose names are borne by our Catholicos and many of our bishops. It is the name day of Moran Mor Baselios Cardinal Cleemis Catholicos; we pray for him and for the Eparchy of Mavelikara, erected on this day in 2007.
In the Gospel Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. Jesus tells him: “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” A few days before Denho, the feast of Jesus' baptism, we are reminded of our own: a new birth from above. Jesus also says that the Son of Man must be lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Paul tells Timothy that the Lord's servant “must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient.” Basil and Gregory were exactly this: firm in the truth, gentle with people.
Theme: “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”
New birth from above, the lifted-up Son, and gentle shepherds.
“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26
“Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” John 3:5
Apply: Renew your baptismal promises before Denho.
“And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”” Numbers 21:8
“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” John 3:14
Apply: Spend a few minutes looking at the Cross in silence today.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Proverbs 15:1
“And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness.” 2 Timothy 2:24–25
Apply: Pray for our Catholicos and correct others gently.
Born of water and Spirit, we look to the Cross.
Like Basil and Gregory, let us be firm in faith and gentle in love.
Take-home resolution: Pray each day this week for our Catholicos and bishops.
Dear friends, today we honour Mar Baselios and Mar Gregorios, two great bishops of Cappadocia in the fourth century. They were close friends who defended faith in the Holy Trinity. Our Catholicos bears the name Baselios, and today is his name day. We pray for him and for the Eparchy of Mavelikara.
In the Gospel Nicodemus, a respected teacher, comes to Jesus by night. Jesus tells him: no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit (John 3:5). Nicodemus is puzzled. How can an old man be born again? Jesus speaks of a birth from above, a gift of God.
In a few days we celebrate Denho, the Baptism of the Lord. Jesus' baptism opens the way for ours. In Baptism we were born of water and Spirit and became children of God.
Jesus also says: just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up (John 3:14). The new life flows from the Cross.
Paul gives Timothy a portrait of a good shepherd: not quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness (2 Timothy 2:24–25). That was Basil and Gregory. May it be our Catholicos, our bishops, our priests, and every parent and teacher. Amen.
Children, Jesus said we must be born again from water and the Holy Spirit. That happened when you were baptised! Today let us pray for our Catholicos, Baselios Bava.
Lord Jesus, you call us to be born from above of water and the Spirit. Through the prayers of Mar Baselios and Mar Gregorios, keep our Catholicos and bishops faithful and gentle shepherds, and renew in us the grace of our Baptism. Amen.
The Church remembers two bishops and friends who defended faith in the Holy Trinity, Mar Baselios and Mar Gregorios, and the readings suit them well. The Epistle draws the portrait of a teacher who must hold the truth without quarrelling. In the Gospel a learned man comes by night and is told that learning is not enough: he must be born from above. Coming a few days before Denho, these words about water and Spirit also send us back to our own Baptism.
Setting.
2 Timothy is written as Paul's last letter, from chains (1:8; 2:9) and with death near (4:6). Many modern scholars think the Pastoral Letters come from a follower writing in Paul's name, while others hold, especially for this letter with its personal details, that Paul stands behind it. The Church receives it as inspired either way.
False teachers are troubling the community; Hymenaeus and Philetus say the resurrection has already taken place (2:17–18). Just before this reading Paul pictures a large house with vessels of gold and silver, wood and clay (2:20). How should the Lord's servant behave in such a dispute?
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient,” (2:24)
Teaching ability stands between two words about character. He must also be able to teach: kindness here does not mean silence about the truth.
“correcting opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth,” (2:25)
“Perhaps”: the teacher does not control the outcome. The opponents are people to be won and not enemies to be beaten.
“and that they may escape from the snare of the devil,” (2:26)
The real enemy is not the person across the table. The opponent is seen as someone caught in a trap, needing rescue.
How the Church reads it.
Mar Baselios and Mar Gregorios lived through bitter fighting over the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit in the fourth century. St Basil wrote On the Holy Spirit and also founded a great house of care for the poor and sick at Caesarea. St Gregory, in his funeral oration for Basil, recalls their student days at Athens, when they knew only two roads: to the church and to their teachers (Oration 43, in substance). At Constantinople in 381 Gregory gave up the see for the sake of peace. Both men show what this passage asks: firmness in truth without love of quarrel.
Setting.
Jesus is in Jerusalem at Passover, and many have believed because of his signs (2:23). Nicodemus is a Pharisee and “a leader of the Jews”, which in John here means a member of the ruling authorities (see 7:50). He is one person, honest and searching, and John does not make him a type of a whole people.
He comes “by night”. In John, night and light carry meaning (1:5; 13:30), yet this man will appear again: defending Jesus' right to a hearing (7:50–51), and bringing myrrh and aloes for his burial (19:39). His faith grows slowly.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” (3:3)
Jesus does not answer the compliment; he goes straight to what Nicodemus needs. “We know,” said the teacher. To see, says Jesus, one must first be born.
“Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” (3:5)
This is the verse the Church has always linked with Baptism. Water is the sign; the Spirit is the giver of the new life.
“The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” (3:8)
One cannot manage the Spirit. A person born of the Spirit becomes somewhat like the wind: moved from beyond himself.
“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” (3:14)
The conversation that began with birth ends at the Cross. The new birth has a price, and he pays it. The word “must” belongs to God's plan.
How the Church reads it.
St Justin Martyr, in the second century, already quotes these words when he explains Christian Baptism (First Apology 61). The Catechism uses John 3:5 to explain why Baptism is called the washing of regeneration, “the birth of water and the Spirit” (CCC 1215), and to teach its necessity for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed, while God is not bound by his sacraments (CCC 1257). Some Christians speak of being “born again” as a sudden moment of feeling; the Church respects every real conversion, and she teaches that this birth is first God's gift in water and Spirit, to be lived out daily.
Why does Jesus seem to mock Nicodemus in v. 10?
It is a challenge and not a sneer. The Prophets had spoken of a new heart and God's Spirit, with clean water (Ezekiel 36:25–27). A teacher of Israel could have recognised the language. Jesus goes on teaching him, and the man keeps coming back.
Mar Baselios and Mar Gregorios are dear to the Syriac Churches, and their names are carried by our Catholicos and many of our bishops. Today is the name day of Moran Mor Baselios Cardinal Cleemis Catholicos: pray for him, and for all who must teach and guard the faith with the patience of 2 Timothy.