30 January 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure.” Matthew 12:35
Paul asks the Corinthians, who were busy testing him, to turn the test around: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” And he states a principle for every Christian: “we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.” Saturday, before the Lord's Day, is a good time for an examination of conscience.
In the Gospel Jesus says: “the tree is known by its fruit.” What we say reveals what we are: “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” And he warns: “on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter.” Today the Syriac tradition remembers Mar Jacob Aphrahat, the Persian Sage of the fourth century, the earliest Syriac Father whose writings survive. In his Demonstrations he spoke of faith as a house built on the rock of Christ, and taught that the heart is the true temple where Christ dwells. We remember too Sts Hyacintha and Martina. Let us examine our hearts, so that our words may come from a good treasure.
Theme: “The good person brings good things out of a good treasure.”
Self-examination, the tree and its fruit, and the heart as Christ's temple.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23–24
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test!” 2 Corinthians 13:5
Apply: Make an examination of conscience tonight.
“Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7–8
““Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.” Matthew 12:33
Apply: Root your day in ten minutes of prayer.
“Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.” Psalm 141:3
“I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”” Matthew 12:36–37
Apply: Avoid one hurtful word today.
Our words reveal our hearts.
Let Christ dwell in the temple of the heart, as Aphrahat taught.
Take-home resolution: Make a good confession before next Sunday.
Dear friends, Paul says: examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? (2 Corinthians 13:5). On the eve of the Lord's Day, it is good to look into our hearts.
Jesus says: the tree is known by its fruit. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure (Matthew 12:33, 35). Our words reveal our hearts.
He warns that we will give an account for every careless word (Matthew 12:36). Words can heal or wound.
Today we remember Mar Jacob Aphrahat, the Persian Sage, who taught that the heart is the temple where Christ dwells. Let us examine our hearts tonight, and fill them with good treasure. Amen.
Children, a good tree gives good fruit, and a good heart gives kind words! Let us say only kind words today.
Lord Jesus, you dwell in our hearts. Search us and know us; make the tree good so that its fruit may be good. Through the prayers of Mar Jacob Aphrahat and Sts Hyacintha and Martina, fill our hearts with good treasure and our mouths with words of truth and kindness. Amen.
On this Saturday before the Lord's Day, both readings ask for a look within. Paul turns the Corinthians' testing of him back on themselves: examine yourselves. Jesus says that a tree is known by its fruit and that the mouth speaks from what fills the heart. Mar Aphrahat, the Persian Sage remembered today, taught that faith is a house that good works must build.
Setting.
Chapters 10–13 are the sharpest part of the letter. Rival teachers, whom Paul calls “super-apostles” (11:5; 12:11), had been questioning his authority, and some in Corinth wanted proof that Christ was speaking through him (13:3). Paul is about to come for a third visit (13:1). These verses come near the end of his defence, and he turns it into a pastoral appeal.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” (13:5)
The examination is not a search only for what is wrong. Its first discovery is that Christ is present. Paul speaks in the same way of himself: “it is Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
“But we pray to God that you may not do anything wrong” (13:7)
Here is the heart of a pastor. He prays that they will do what is right even if it makes him look like a failure, for it is their good he wants, not his own reputation.
“For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.” (13:8)
Even when he is defending himself, Paul will not win by bending the truth. In a quarrel, this is the hardest rule to keep.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that the sacrament of Penance should be prepared for by an examination of conscience made in the light of the word of God (CCC 1454). St Paul uses the same word to the Corinthians about coming to the Eucharist: “Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:28; CCC 1385). A Saturday evening is a good hour for it, before the Holy Qurbono of the Lord's Day.
Setting.
Jesus has just healed a man who was blind and mute, and some Pharisees say that he drives out demons by the ruler of the demons (12:22–24). He answers them and warns about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (12:31–32). Today's words follow directly, so they first concern these particular opponents and what they said about the work of the Spirit. The Pharisees were not all of one mind, and many scholars think that Matthew's sharp tone also reflects the disputes of his own day. The teaching itself is for every disciple.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“for the tree is known by its fruit.” (12:33)
Those who called his good work evil are told to look at the fruit: a man has been healed. The same test applies to us (7:16).
“You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (12:34)
John the Baptist used the same harsh words (3:7). They are a prophet's warning to those who should have known better, not a description of a people.
“I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter;” (12:36)
Words are not small things. James says the same at length (James 3:2–10).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the heart is the seat of moral personality, and that sin has its root there, as charity also does (CCC 2517, 1853). It warns against rash judgment, detraction and calumny as sins of the tongue against the truth and against a neighbour's good name (CCC 2477). Changing the words alone will not do. The Lord asks for a change in the tree.
Must I really answer for every careless word? Who could survive that?
Jesus is not trying to frighten people into silence. He is saying that words matter because they show the heart, and that God takes us seriously. The same Lord forgives those who come to him, and the sacrament of Penance is there for the sins of the tongue as for others. James says that all of us make many mistakes (3:2). The right answer to this saying is not fear but an examination of conscience, and a heart more often filled with good.
The Syriac tradition remembers today Mar Jacob Aphrahat, the Persian Sage, who lived in the Persian Empire in the fourth century and is the earliest Syriac Father whose writings have come down to us. His Demonstrations open with one on faith, which he compares to a house built on the rock who is Christ, and he says that the house must be raised with works such as pure fasting, pure prayer, love and almsgiving (in substance). The tree and its fruit is his teaching too.