17 January 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” John 1:51
Philip finds Nathanael and tells him: “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael is sceptical: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip does not argue. He says: “Come and see.” That is still the best way to bring someone to Christ: not debate, but an invitation to meet him.
Jesus knows Nathanael before they meet: “I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael's doubt turns into faith: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” And Jesus promises more: “You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” Jacob dreamed of a ladder between heaven and earth (Genesis 28:12); Jesus says he himself is that ladder, the meeting place of God and humanity.
Proverbs presents Wisdom, present with God “at the beginning of his work”, delighting in creation; “whoever finds me finds life”. The Fathers saw here the eternal Son, the Wisdom of God. Micah promises the ruler from Bethlehem who “shall feed his flock in the strength of the LORD”. Peter draws the consequence: “as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct.”
Tomorrow the Nineveh fast begins. Jonah preached in Nineveh and the whole city repented in sackcloth and ashes. The three days of fasting prepare us for the Great Fast. Like Nathanael, we are invited to come and see; like the Ninevites, to turn back to God with our whole heart.
Theme: “Come and see.”
Philip finds Nathanael and tells him about Jesus. Nathanael doubts: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip does not argue; he invites: “Come and see.” Faith grows through encounter.
“I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.” Proverbs 8:17
“Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”” John 1:46
Apply: Invite one person who has drifted away to come with you to Sunday Qurbono.
“You shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel: I am the LORD; I sanctify you.” Leviticus 22:32
“When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”” John 1:47
Apply: Remove one falsehood from your life this week: a lie, a pretence, a double life.
“And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” Genesis 28:12
“Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” John 1:51
Apply: At the Sanctus, remember that you are singing with the angels.
Nathanael moved from doubt to confession: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!”
Let us come and see, let our hearts be without deceit, and find in Christ the open heaven.
Take-home resolution: Read John 1:35–51 slowly once this week and ask: where is Jesus inviting me to “come and see”?
Dear brothers and sisters, today's Gospel tells how one friend brought another to Jesus. Philip found Nathanael and said: “We have found the one Moses and the prophets wrote about: Jesus of Nazareth.” Nathanael laughed: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip did not argue. He simply said: “Come and see.” That is still the best way to bring people to Christ. Not long debates, not pressure, but an invitation: come and see. Come to Qurbono with me. Come to the prayer meeting. Meet him yourself.
When Nathanael came, Jesus said: “I saw you under the fig tree.” Jesus knew him already. Nathanael's doubt melted: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!” And Jesus promised: “You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” He is Jacob's ladder; in him heaven and earth meet. At this altar, today, heaven opens.
Tomorrow the Nineveh fast begins. When Jonah preached, the whole city turned back to God. Let us keep these three days well: fasting, the special prayers, a good Confession. And this week, let each of us say to one person: “Come and see.” Amen.
Children, Philip met Jesus and was so happy! He ran to his friend Nathanael and said: “Come and see Jesus!”
Nathanael came, and Jesus said: “I saw you under the fig tree.” Jesus knew him already! Nathanael believed.
Jesus knows you too, and loves you. Who can you invite to come and meet Jesus? Let's say: “Come and see!”
Lord Jesus, you saw Nathanael under the fig tree and opened heaven before him. Help us to say “Come and see” to those who do not know you, and in these days of the Nineveh fast turn our hearts back to you, that we may be holy as you are holy. Amen.
On this Second Sunday after Denho the Gospel gives us one sentence that explains all the other readings. Philip says, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote”. The lessons today are chosen from those very books. Leviticus (22:26–33) gives the law's word, “I am the Lord; I sanctify you”, and the First Letter of Peter (1:13–25) draws the conclusion: “You shall be holy, for I am holy”. Proverbs (8:22–36) shows Wisdom at God's side at the beginning, which the Fathers read of the eternal Son. Isaiah (51:1–8) tells a tired people, “Look to the rock from which you were hewn”. Micah (5:1–8) points to a small town and a coming shepherd. In the Evening Gospel (Luke 4:14–15) Jesus returns to Galilee “filled with the power of the Spirit”.
We study three readings closely: Micah 5:1–8, the Old Testament lesson closest to the Gospel, since it asks what good can come from a small place; Romans 3:1–8, on God's faithfulness to the people to whom he entrusted these Scriptures; and John 1:43–51, where one man's doubt meets an invitation. The key words are little, faithfulness and come and see.
Setting.
Micah came from Moresheth, a village of Judah (1:1), and he preached in the eighth century BC, in the same years as Isaiah. It was the age of the Assyrian empire. Its armies destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and later overran the towns of Judah, Micah's own countryside among them.
A note on numbers. In the Hebrew Bible, verse 1 of this chapter is the last verse of chapter 4, and the Bethlehem verse is 5:1. The NRSV and the POC number it 5:2, and we follow them here. Verse 1 is hard to translate, but its sense is plain: the city is under siege and its ruler has been humiliated.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.” (5:2)
Jerusalem is besieged and its king humiliated, and the prophet looks away from the capital to the village where David was born. God starts again from the small place. Matthew has the chief priests and scribes quote this verse to Herod (Matthew 2:5–6).
“until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth;” (5:3)
A mother stands unnamed at the centre of the promise, as in Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah was Micah's contemporary. The Second Vatican Council reads both prophecies of Mary (Lumen Gentium 55).
“And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.” (5:4)
He rules by God's strength, not his own. That is the opposite of the Assyrian kings, who boasted of their power.
“and he shall be the one of peace.” (5:5)
Hebrew: zeh šālôm, “this one shall be peace”. Compare Ephesians 2:14: “he is our peace”. The next lines still speak of war and of a lion among sheep (v. 8), the language of a people under attack. Christians read them in the light of the shepherd who laid down his life.
How the Church reads it.
Micah 5:2 was among the first prophecies Christians quoted for the birth of Jesus; St Justin Martyr uses it in his Dialogue with Trypho (in substance). Lumen Gentium 55 places it with Isaiah 7:14 among the texts that gradually bring the Mother of the Redeemer into clearer light. The Catechism says the Lord's coming was prepared over long centuries (CCC 522). We read such texts with respect, knowing that Jewish readers hold them too and that their first meaning belonged to Micah's own day.
Setting.
Paul wrote to the Christians of Rome around AD 57, probably from Corinth, to a community he had not founded. In chapter 2 he has argued that Jews and Gentiles alike will answer to God, and that the outward sign means little without obedience of the heart. Any listener would object: then has God's choice of Israel meant nothing? Paul takes up the objection in the lively style of a teacher arguing with an imagined questioner. He gives a short answer here and the full one in chapters 9–11.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Much, in every way. For in the first place the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.” (3:2)
Paul will give the longer list at 9:4–5. Today's Old Testament lessons are themselves the proof of what he says here.
“What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?” (3:3)
Paul says “some”. He is not condemning a people. The point applies to the Church too: our failures do not cancel the promises of God.
“By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true,” (3:4)
The quotation that follows is from Psalm 51:4 in its Greek form, David's psalm of repentance. A sinner who confesses says that God is right.
“And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!” (3:8)
Paul's preaching on grace was being twisted into a licence to sin. He treats this as slander. This verse lies behind a basic rule of Christian morals.
How the Church reads it.
The Church hears this reading together with Romans 11:29, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable”, which Nostra Aetate 4 and the Catechism (CCC 839) take up in speaking of the Jewish people. From verse 8 the Catechism draws the moral rule: one may not do evil so that good may result from it (CCC 1756, 1789). No good end makes an evil act right. The same God who is faithful to Israel is faithful to us.
Setting.
John's opening chapter moves day by day. John the Baptist has pointed to Jesus and told of the Spirit coming down on him (1:29–34), the mystery of Denho. Two of his disciples have followed Jesus, heard “Come and see” (1:39), and Andrew has found his brother Simon (1:40–42). Today is “the next day”, and the chain goes on.
Philip's name is Greek, and his town Bethsaida lay at the north of the Lake of Galilee. Nathanael, whose name means “God has given”, was from Cana (21:2). He does not appear in the other Gospels under this name, and a long tradition identifies him with Bartholomew, whom the lists place beside Philip. This cannot be proved.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”” (1:45)
The first half of Philip's sentence is the high claim; the second half sounds ordinary. John's readers know that there is much more to say about the “son of Joseph” (1:1–18).
““Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”” (1:46)
Nazareth was a small village, and the Old Testament never names it. Micah said the same kind of thing of Bethlehem. Philip does not argue. He has no answer except an invitation, and it is enough.
““I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”” (1:48)
John does not tell us what happened under the tree, and guesses remain guesses. Micah's vision of peace has everyone sitting under their own fig trees (Micah 4:4), and some have heard an echo of it. What is clear is that Nathanael feels fully known, and that this opens him.
““Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”” (1:49)
The doubter makes the fullest confession of the chapter so far.
““Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”” (1:51)
The “you” here is plural in Greek: the promise is for all the disciples. Genesis 28:12 had the angels on a ladder at Bethel, the “gate of heaven”. Now Jesus himself is the meeting place of heaven and earth.
How the Church reads it.
St Augustine read the fig tree as the shade of sin under which Christ saw us before grace called us (Tractates on John 7, in substance). Pope Francis, in Evangelii Gaudium 127–129, describes this person-to-person sharing of the Gospel, which begins in a friendly conversation. Philip is the model: he tells what he has found and invites a friend to meet Jesus. At every Holy Qurbono the heavens are opened in this sense, for Christ is there as the meeting place of God and people.
Philip calls Jesus “son of Joseph from Nazareth”. Does this go against Bethlehem and the virgin birth?
No. Philip is saying what people knew. Joseph was the legal father of Jesus, and that is how Jesus belongs to David's house. John knows the Bethlehem question well: later the crowd objects that the Messiah should come from David's town (7:41–42), and John leaves the irony for his readers to enjoy. The Church confesses the virginal conception (CCC 496–497) along with the honoured place of St Joseph.
Proverbs 8:22 says the Lord “created” Wisdom. Is the Son a creature?
This was the verse Arius's followers used. St Athanasius answered them in his Discourses Against the Arians (Book II): the Son is the eternal Wisdom of the Father, and the word “created” is to be understood of the Son's becoming man for us (in substance). The Nicene Creed confesses him “begotten, not made”. Proverbs itself is poetry about God's Wisdom, and the Fathers saw it reach its fullness in Christ.
Does Romans 3 mean that God has finished with the Jewish people?
It says the reverse. “Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means!” Paul's argument ends in chapter 11 with the promise that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. The Church today speaks with respect of the people to whom God first spoke (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 839).
In our West Syriac tradition, Denho (the “rising” or “dawning”) celebrates the Lord's baptism and his showing to the world. The Sundays after Denho follow that light as it reaches one person after another; today it reaches Philip and Nathanael. Today's date also recalls Mar Antonios of Egypt. St Athanasius tells in his Life of Antony that the young man heard the Gospel in church and took it as spoken to himself. Tomorrow the fast of the Ninevites begins, and Micah gives a small preparation: the land of Assyria and “the land of Nimrod” (5:6) were the great enemy, and Genesis 10:11 says Nineveh was built from that land. In the Book of Jonah God sends his prophet to that very city.