4 February 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16
Paul writes to a Church he has never visited, and he tells them why he longs to come: “I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.” The gospel is not his property but a debt he owes to everyone. And then the great sentence: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith.” In the Gospel Jesus is frank about the cost: “the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” The narrow gate is not a door for a chosen few; it is the shape of Christ himself, through whom everyone may enter, but only by leaving behind what does not fit.
Our Church today remembers a man who lived both readings in South India. John de Britto was born in Lisbon in 1647 to a noble family and entered the Society of Jesus. He asked to be sent to the Madurai mission, and from the 1670s he lived among the Tamil people as a pandaram, a poor ascetic teacher, walking barefoot, eating simple food and speaking Tamil. The people called him Arul Anandar. He was arrested and beaten more than once, and was finally beheaded at Oriyur in the Marava country on 4 February 1693, after the conversion of a local chief, Thadiya Thevar, had stirred deep opposition. Pius XII canonized him in 1947. He was a debtor to the poor and to the learned of our land, and he was not ashamed of the gospel.
Theme: “I am not ashamed of the gospel.”
Paul's debt to all, the narrow gate, and a martyr of our own land.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”” Isaiah 52:7
“I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish” Romans 1:14
Apply: Pray for one person who does not yet know Christ, and look for a chance to speak.
“I will also speak of your decrees before kings, and shall not be put to shame;” Psalm 119:46
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16
Apply: Make the sign of the cross openly before meals this week.
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,” Deuteronomy 30:19
“For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:14
Apply: Choose one costly right thing today instead of the easy wrong one.
The gospel is a debt we owe to everyone.
The martyrs show that the narrow gate opens on life.
Take-home resolution: Pray this week for the Church in Tamil Nadu and for missionaries in India.
Dear friends, Paul writes: I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish (Romans 1:14). The gospel he received is a debt he owes to everyone he meets.
Then he says: I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith (Romans 1:16). Our faith is not a private hobby; it is God's own power.
Jesus does not hide the cost: the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life (Matthew 7:14). We pass through it only by leaving behind what does not fit.
St John de Britto left a noble life in Lisbon, lived as a poor teacher among the Tamil people, and was beheaded at Oriyur in 1693. Let us ask him for courage to pay our debt of the gospel, without shame, wherever we are. Amen.
Children, St John de Britto came from far away Portugal to tell the people of Tamil Nadu about Jesus. He was never ashamed of Jesus. Can you make the sign of the cross before your meal today, even at school?
Lord Jesus, you are the narrow gate that leads to life. Through the prayers of St John de Britto, who gave his life for you among the Tamil people, make us unashamed of your gospel, generous to all, and faithful on the hard road that leads to you. Bless the Churches of Tamil Nadu and all who proclaim you in India. Amen.
Paul tells the Christians of Rome that the gospel is both a debt he owes and a power he is not ashamed of. Jesus tells his hearers that the road to life is narrow. Our Church reads these on the memorial of St John de Britto, who owed the gospel to the people of the Tamil country and paid with his life.
Setting.
Paul writes to a Church he has not founded or yet seen, probably from Corinth in the later 50s. He hopes to visit on his way to Spain (15:24, 28). These verses end his introduction and state the theme of the whole letter (vv. 16–17). Everything up to chapter 11 unfolds them.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish” (1:14)
“Barbarians” meant those who did not speak Greek, with no thought of savagery. Paul's list is not a list of those who deserve the gospel. It is simply everybody.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (1:16)
The saying echoes Jesus' warning about those who are ashamed of him (Mark 8:38). In the Rome of that day a crucified Lord was an embarrassment. “To the Jew first”: Paul never lets go of Israel's place, and God's call to her is not withdrawn (Romans 11:29; CCC 839).
““The one who is righteous will live by faith.”” (1:17)
Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4, where the prophet speaks of the faithfulness of the just in hard times. Faith here is both trust in God and steady fidelity to him.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that the disciple must not only keep the faith but profess it and bear witness to it with confidence (CCC 1816). It also treats justification as the first work of God's grace, given through faith in Christ (CCC 1987–1992). In 1999 the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation signed a Joint Declaration on this doctrine, in which they state a shared understanding of it: by grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work.
Setting.
The Sermon on the Mount ends with choices: two gates, two kinds of fruit, two houses (7:13–27). The teaching has been given. Now the hearer must decide. The picture of two ways is old in Israel: “Choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19). The Didache, an early Church manual, opens with it: there are two ways, one of life and one of death (Didache 1).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.” (7:13)
Jesus does not describe a hard God. He describes an honest road. Nobody drifts through the narrow gate by accident; it has to be chosen.
“For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (7:14)
The goal is life, and this is the word to hold on to. In John, Jesus says, “I am the gate” (John 10:9). The narrow gate has a human face.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism cites this saying when it speaks of the urgent call to conversion (CCC 1036), and it sets the two ways before the reader at the start of its moral teaching: the way of Christ leads to life, and a contrary way leads to destruction (CCC 1696). It is a warning, not a head count.
Does “few” mean that most people will not be saved?
Jesus does not answer that question, and when he is asked directly he turns it back into a call: “Strive to enter” (Luke 13:23–24). The Church does not say how many are saved. She prays “that no one should be lost” (CCC 1058), and she teaches that God's grace can reach those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the gospel (Lumen Gentium 16). The saying is meant for me: am I on the road?
St John de Britto was born in Lisbon in 1647 and became a Jesuit. He asked to go to the Madurai mission, and from the 1670s he lived among the Tamil people as a pandaram, a poor ascetic teacher, walking barefoot and eating simply. The people called him Arul Anandar. He was arrested and tortured more than once, and he was sent back to Portugal, but he returned. He was beheaded at Oriyur on 4 February 1693, and Pius XII canonized him in 1947. To this saint of our own land, a stranger who made himself a debtor, we entrust all who suffer for the name of Christ in many lands, and we pray for them and for those who have wronged them.