29 January 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24
Some Greeks come to Philip with a simple request: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Jesus answers by speaking of his death: “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” To see Jesus truly is to see the cross. And the disciple follows the same path: “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.” Paul applies this to daily life: “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God… Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”
Our Church today honours Mar Ignatius of Antioch, called Noorono, the fiery one, the third bishop of Antioch, after St Peter and Evodius. Condemned to the beasts in Rome around the year 107, he wrote seven letters on the journey, urging unity with the bishop and love of the Eucharist, and saying that he wished to be God's wheat, ground by the teeth of beasts, so as to become the pure bread of Christ. He lived the Gospel of the grain of wheat. We also pray for Joshua Mar Ignathios on his name day, and for all who serve the Body of Christ with their gifts, as Paul says: “we, who are many, are one body in Christ.”
Theme: “If it dies, it bears much fruit.”
The grain of wheat, the living sacrifice, and Mar Ignatius, God's wheat.
“The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Romans 12:1
Apply: Offer your day's work to God this morning.
“But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!”” Numbers 11:29
“so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” Romans 12:5
Apply: Use one of your gifts for the parish this week.
“May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.” Psalm 126:5–6
“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24
Apply: Let go of one selfish attachment.
To see Jesus is to see the grain that dies and bears fruit.
Like Mar Ignatius, let us become God's wheat.
Take-home resolution: Make one hidden sacrifice each day this week.
Dear friends, some Greeks say to Philip: sir, we wish to see Jesus (John 12:21). Jesus answers by speaking of his death: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24).
To see Jesus is to see the cross, and to follow him is to share it. Paul says: present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (Romans 12:1).
Today we honour Mar Ignatius Noorono, bishop of Antioch, who on the way to martyrdom in Rome wrote that he wished to be God's wheat, ground by the teeth of beasts, to become the pure bread of Christ.
We pray too for Joshua Mar Ignathios on his name day. Let us offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, and use our gifts as members of one body in Christ. Amen.
Children, a seed goes into the ground and grows into a big plant! Jesus gave his life for us, and we can give little gifts of love to him every day.
Lord Jesus, grain of wheat who fell into the earth and rose to bear much fruit, make us a living sacrifice. Through the prayers of Mar Ignatius Noorono, kindle in us his fiery love for you and for your Church; bless Joshua Mar Ignathios on his name day. Amen.
Today's readings speak of giving oneself away. Paul asks Christians to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice, and to use their different gifts as members of one body. In John, Jesus answers some visiting Greeks by speaking of a grain of wheat that must die to bear fruit. Mar Ignatius of Antioch, remembered today, took up that same picture of wheat on his way to martyrdom.
Setting.
Paul wrote to the Christians of Rome, probably from Corinth about AD 57, before a visit he hoped to make. For eleven chapters he has set out what God has done in Christ. Chapter 12 opens with “therefore”: now he says how to live in response. Everything Paul asks in these chapters rests on “the mercies of God” already shown.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” (12:1)
The animal on the altar died once. The Christian offering lives and goes on offering, in the body, in the ordinary work of each day.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds,” (12:2)
Two pressures are named: one from outside, which presses us into a mould, and one from within, as God renews how we think.
“so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” (12:5)
He does not only say that we belong to Christ. We belong to each other, so that another person's gift is mine, and my gift is his.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes Romans 12:1 when it says that the moral life is spiritual worship, and that Christian action finds its nourishment in the liturgy and the sacraments (CCC 2031). It quotes verses 6–8 when it speaks of the special graces given for the common good (CCC 2004). At the Holy Qurbono our lives are joined to Christ's offering (CCC 1368), and in that sense we carry our bodies to the altar and carry the altar home.
Setting.
This is the Passover of Jesus' death, just after his entry into Jerusalem. The Pharisees have said, “Look, the world has gone after him!” (12:19), and at once John shows us some of that world: Greeks who had come up to worship. They were probably Gentiles drawn to the God of Israel. They approach Philip, and Philip and Andrew both carry Greek names, which may be why they turn to them. John does not tell us whether the Greeks ever met Jesus; his answer goes beyond them.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” (12:21)
It is the desire of every age. Jesus answers by pointing to the Cross: this is where he will be seen.
“unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (12:24)
The picture answers the Greeks. Jesus alone in Jerusalem could reach only a few; after his death the fruit reaches every nation, as he says a little later: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (12:32).
“Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.” (12:26)
The same law holds for the disciple as for the Master. The promise at the end of the verse is that the Father himself will honour such a servant.
How the Church reads it.
Tertullian's saying that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians, quoted by the Catechism (CCC 852), is this verse lived in the Church's history. The Catechism calls martyrdom the supreme witness to the truth of the faith, and among its examples it quotes the words of Mar Ignatius, who said that it was better for him to die in Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth (CCC 2473–2474).
Does Jesus really want us to hate our own life?
“Hate” here is a Semitic way of speaking that means to put one thing clearly below another. Compare Luke 14:26 with Matthew 10:37, where the same teaching is given as loving “more than”. Jesus does not ask for contempt of the life God gave. He asks that it never be held on to at the price of following him.
Our Church remembers today Mar Ignatius, called Noorono, the fiery one, bishop of Antioch, the see of the Syriac tradition. Taken under guard to Rome in the reign of Trajan, he wrote letters to the Churches on the way. To the Romans he said that he was God's wheat, to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts so as to become pure bread of Christ (in substance; To the Romans 4). He called the Eucharist the medicine of immortality (To the Ephesians 20; CCC 1405). The Gospel of the grain and the Holy Qurbono meet in him. We also pray today for Joshua Mar Ignathios on his name day.