10 January 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Matthew 4:19
After his Baptism Jesus begins his public ministry in Galilee. Matthew sees Isaiah fulfilled: “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” Jesus' first preaching is short: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” His first action is to call people: by the Sea of Galilee he sees Simon and Andrew, James and John at work, and says, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”
The Old Testament readings show God calling people in the middle of ordinary work. Moses was keeping his father-in-law's sheep when he saw the bush that burned and was not consumed, and heard: “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” God reveals his name, “I AM WHO I AM”, and sends Moses to free his people. Jacob too was a shepherd, and God blessed the work of his hands.
St Paul says that this call did not begin by the lake. God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4). And Acts shows what the call produces: a community that “devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).
Denho is the season of the manifestation of Christ. He is manifested not only at the Jordan, but every time someone leaves their nets and follows him. Each of us is called: to holiness, to a vocation, to bring others to Christ.
Theme: “Follow me.”
After his Baptism Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee. Light dawns on a land in darkness, and ordinary fishermen hear a call that changes their lives. The same call reaches us.
“I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6
“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” Matthew 4:16
Apply: Pray for one person you know who is in darkness: illness, addiction, despair.
“God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”” Exodus 3:4
“And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” Matthew 4:19–20
Apply: Ask: what “net” holds me back from following Jesus more closely? Leave it this week.
“He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3
“They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Acts 2:42
Apply: Join one parish activity (prayer group, catechism, charity) this month. Pray for vocations.
The Light has come, the call has been given, and the community is gathered.
Let us answer like Moses, “Here I am”, and like the apostles, leave our nets to follow him.
Take-home resolution: Pray daily this week for priestly and religious vocations from your parish.
Dear brothers and sisters, last Wednesday we celebrated Denho, the Baptism of the Lord. Now Jesus begins his work. He goes to Galilee, a region of ordinary working people, and begins to preach: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” And the first thing he does is call people.
He walks by the lake and sees fishermen at work: Simon and Andrew casting their nets, James and John mending theirs. He says: “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. No delay, no long negotiation.
God always calls people at work. Moses was looking after sheep when he saw the burning bush and heard: “Remove your sandals, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” The ordinary place of his work became holy because God was there. Your kitchen, your office, your field can become holy ground too.
What are your nets? Your phone, your worries, your ambitions, your comforts? Jesus does not always ask us to leave our jobs, but he always asks us to put him first. And some of our young people he calls to leave everything for the priesthood or religious life. Let us pray for them, and let us answer him: “Lord, I will follow you.” Amen.
Children, Jesus walked by a big lake and saw fishermen catching fish. He said: “Come, follow me! I will make you fishers of people!”
The fishermen left their nets straight away and went with Jesus. They became his friends, the apostles.
Jesus calls you too: to be his friend and bring others to him. Let's say: “Jesus, I will follow you!”
Lord Jesus, light of Galilee, you called fishermen to follow you and made them fishers of people. Call us again today: give us courage to leave our nets, reverence before your holiness, and joy in your Church. Raise up many vocations from our families. Amen.
On this first Sunday after Denho, the light that shone at the Jordan begins to move among people, and it calls them by name. God calls in the middle of ordinary work. Moses is keeping his father-in-law's sheep when the bush burns. Simon and Andrew are casting a net and James and John are mending theirs when Jesus walks by. The Evening Gospel (Mark 1:14–20) has already told that same call the night before. Jacob the shepherd (Genesis 30:25–43) shows God blessing the work of a man's hands, Psalm 147:1–11 praises the Lord who heals the brokenhearted, and Isaiah 49:7–13 tells of a God who comforts his people.
The readings treated below are the three that carry the day. In Exodus, God calls Moses and reveals his name. In Ephesians, Paul looks behind every call, to the choice God made “before the foundation of the world”. In Matthew, Jesus calls the first disciples, and Acts 2:37–47 shows where that call leads: to a community gathered for teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer. The key words are call, name and follow.
Setting.
Moses, raised in Pharaoh's house, has fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian (Exodus 2:11–15). He has settled in Midian, married and become a shepherd. “After a long time” the king of Egypt dies, the Israelites cry out, and God hears them and remembers his covenant (2:23–25). The reader knows that God is about to act; Moses, out with the flock, does not.
Horeb is another name for the mountain elsewhere called Sinai. The place where God calls Moses is the place to which he will one day bring the whole people (v. 12).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.” (3:2)
Fire in the Bible often marks God's presence (Exodus 19:18). God's fire does not destroy what it fills. The text says “the angel of the Lord” appeared, and then that “the Lord” and “God” spoke: the angel is God's own presence made visible.
“Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”” (3:5)
God comes near, and yet he says, “Come no closer”. Holiness is the distance within the nearness. Moses's working day, on a desert hill, has become sacred ground.
““I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings,” (3:7)
The verbs pile up: observed, heard, know, and next, “I have come down” (v. 8). This God is not far above human pain. Note “my people”, said while they are still slaves.
“But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh,” (3:11)
Moses's question about himself gets an answer about God.
“He said, “I will be with you;” (3:12)
In Hebrew “I will be” is ’ehyeh, the same word as in v. 14. So the name God gives in v. 14 is first of all a promise of company. Matthew's Gospel will end on the same note: “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).
““I am who I am” … “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”” (3:14)
The Catechism says that this is a name both revealed and, in a way, refused: God tells who he is, and remains the hidden God (CCC 206).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism treats this passage at length: God calls Moses from the bush, reveals himself as the living God who is faithful to the fathers, and sends him (CCC 204–209). The event remains “one of the primordial images of prayer” for Jews and Christians alike (CCC 2575). Jesus himself reads the bush for the resurrection: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob “is God not of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32).
St Gregory of Nyssa, in his Life of Moses, sees in the bush burning without being consumed a figure of the Virgin who gave birth and was not harmed; and he reads the sandals as what is dead and earthly, which a person lays aside to stand in the light (in substance). The Malankara calendar remembers him tomorrow, 11 January.
Setting.
The letter opens with a hymn of blessing in the form familiar from Jewish prayer: “Blessed be God, who...”. In Greek, vv. 3–14 are one very long sentence that rolls forward like praise and does not stop to draw breath.
The letter bears Paul's name, and the Church has always received it as Scripture. Many scholars think a disciple wrote it in Paul's name after his death, while others hold that Paul is the author. The doubt does not touch its authority. Some of the oldest manuscripts lack the words “in Ephesus” in v. 1, and so many think the letter was meant to go round several Churches.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” (1:4)
God's choice is older than the world, and its purpose is holiness. Before we did anything, we were already loved. Matthew's fishermen did not know it, but their call on the shore began here.
“He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ,” (1:5)
“Destined” is a word of love, not of fate. In this passage it is always for something good, adoption and praise.
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,” (1:7)
Redemption is the word for buying back a slave or a captive. It recalls the Exodus, Israel brought out of slavery.
“as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (1:10)
Christ is the goal not only of the Church but of creation. Nothing good in heaven or on earth is left outside.
“were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;” (1:13)
A seal showed ownership and protected what it marked. The Catechism connects this word with Baptism and Chrismation (CCC 1295–1296).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism opens its treatment of the liturgy with these very verses (CCC 1077–1079): the liturgy is the Father's blessing received and returned. It also applies the passage to Mary, blessed “in Christ with every spiritual blessing” and chosen before the world began (CCC 492). St Irenaeus, in Against Heresies, makes the gathering up of all things in Christ a key to the whole of salvation (in substance).
Setting.
Jesus has been baptized (3:13–17) and tempted (4:1–11). John's arrest, told later in full (14:3–12), is the signal. Jesus leaves Nazareth and moves to Capernaum, a fishing town on the north-west shore of the lake.
Zebulun and Naphtali were the northern tribal lands that Assyria took in the eighth century before Christ (2 Kings 15:29). Galilee had a mixed population, and Isaiah called it “Galilee of the nations” (Isaiah 9:1). That is the very place where Isaiah promised light, and so that is where Matthew shows the light beginning.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” (4:16)
In the season of Denho this verse is at home, for the name of the season speaks of light rising. The first to see it are those farthest from the centre.
“From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”” (4:17)
The whole preaching of Jesus is here in seed. The order matters: the Kingdom comes near first, and repentance is the response.
“And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”” (4:19)
The call has a promise inside it: “I will make you”. Jesus uses their own trade to describe their new work. Jeremiah spoke of God sending “many fishermen” (Jeremiah 16:16); here the fishing is for rescue.
“Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” (4:20)
Nets were their living. Mark adds that the sons of Zebedee left their father “with the hired men” (Mark 1:20), so they were not destitute, and they had something to leave.
“Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.” (4:22)
This is the second and harder step: first the nets, now the family and the family business. Nothing here tells us to neglect our parents (compare 15:4–6); the call means that Jesus now comes first.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism sees this preaching as the coming of the Kingdom (CCC 541) and the call to conversion as the first work of grace (CCC 1427, 1989). St Gregory the Great asks what Peter and Andrew really left, having only a few nets, and answers that one leaves much who keeps nothing for himself (in substance). Every baptized person is called in this way, each in a different state of life, and not all are asked to leave home (CCC 1533, 2013).
What does God's name “I am who I am” mean?
It says that God is the One who truly is, the source of all being, and that he will be with his people. He does not give a label that people can use to control him. The Catechism says the name both reveals and keeps God's mystery (CCC 206, 213). Jesus' own “I am” sayings in John's Gospel (for example John 8:58) stand in this light.
Does “destined” in Ephesians mean that God decides beforehand who goes to heaven and who to hell?
No. God “predestines no one to go to hell” (CCC 1037). Ephesians speaks of being destined for adoption and holiness. In God's eternal plan, each person's response in freedom is included (CCC 600).
Did the fishermen really leave everything at once, without knowing Jesus?
Matthew tells the story in the shortest form, to show the power of Jesus' word. John's Gospel tells of an earlier meeting of Andrew and Peter with Jesus near the Jordan (John 1:35–42), and many commentators think the two accounts can stand together. Either way, the point stands: the disciple's life begins with Jesus' call.
In the Malankara tradition the liturgical day begins with the evening, so the first disciples were already heard from Mark on Saturday night before Matthew tells of them at the morning Qurbono. Denho means the rising or dawning of light, and it has its own Sundays: the light of the Jordan now comes to the shore of Galilee. In many of our churches, footwear is left at the door, and the words to Moses can be remembered there: “the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” At the Holy Qurbono the call is renewed. For an hour we leave our nets behind, and we come to the One who calls us by name, as the first community did in the breaking of bread (Acts 2:42).