9 February 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11
Abram has believed, but he still asks: “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” God does not scold him. He asks for a sacrifice: a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon. Abram cuts the animals in two and waits, and “when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.” Then darkness falls, and God speaks of the long road ahead: his descendants will be strangers and slaves for four hundred years, and then come out free. Faith is not the end of questions; it is staying beside the sacrifice and driving away whatever would snatch it. In the Fast our prayer, fasting and almsgiving are such an offering, and the birds of prey are many: distraction, discouragement, the voice that says it is useless.
Paul tells us why we can keep watch without fear: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” The Fast is not an attempt to earn God's love by our own strength; it is letting the Spirit who dwells in us set our minds “on the things of the Spirit”, which are “life and peace.” And in the Gospel Jesus shows whose sacrifice saves us: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Unlike the hired hand, he does not run when the wolf comes. He knows his own, and he will bring the other sheep too, “so there will be one flock, one shepherd.” St Gregory the Great says that the Good Shepherd first did what he taught: he laid down his life (in substance).
Theme: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Abram keeps watch over the sacrifice; Christ lays down his life for us.
“And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.” Genesis 15:11
“And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise.” Hebrews 6:15
Apply: Name and drive away the distraction that most steals your prayer.
“I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.” Ezekiel 36:27
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
Apply: Make a good confession during this first part of the Fast.
“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God.” Ezekiel 34:15
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,” John 10:14
Apply: Pray daily in the Fast for one person who has left the flock.
Our Fast is an offering we guard with patient watching.
The Good Shepherd has already laid down his life for us.
Take-home resolution: Spend ten quiet minutes each day of the Fast with the day's Gospel.
Dear friends, Abram believed God and yet asked: how am I to know? God answered with a covenant. Abram prepared the sacrifice, and when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away (Genesis 15:8, 11).
Our Fast is an offering, and birds of prey come to snatch it: distraction, discouragement, the voice that says it is useless. Like Abram, we must keep watch.
But we do not keep watch in fear. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). The Spirit of life dwells in us.
And Jesus says: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11). His sacrifice saves us; ours is only to stay close to him and listen to his voice. Amen.
Children, Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He knows your name, he takes care of you, and he even gave his life for you. In the Fast, let us listen to his voice by reading the Bible.
Lord Jesus, Good Shepherd, you laid down your life for us and took away our condemnation. Pour your Spirit into our hearts, so that we may keep watch over the offering of this Fast and drive away all that would steal it. Gather all your sheep into one flock, and keep us close to your voice. Amen.
Abram has believed; now he asks how he can know. God answers with a rite and with a hard word: his descendants will suffer before they are delivered. The epistle (Romans 8:1–11) speaks to people who still struggle in the flesh: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1). In the Gospel the God who made promises to Abram comes in person as the shepherd who lays down his life. Faith does not remove the dark. It knows who is with us in it.
Setting.
The scene continues the same chapter. Abram has believed the promise of a son (15:6), and God now turns to the promise of land. The animals he is told to bring belong to a covenant rite. In the ancient Near East those making a solemn pact could cut animals in two and pass between the parts; Jeremiah 34:18 is the clearest witness in the Bible. The passing itself comes in vv. 17–21. Here the pieces are laid out and Abram waits.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” (15:8)
This comes just after “he believed”. Faith is not silence. A believer may ask God how, and God does not rebuke Abram; he answers.
“And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.” (15:11)
A small, plain act. All Abram can do is keep watch over what he has laid before God until God acts. It is a good picture of the patient side of a fast.
“your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years” (15:13)
God does not hide the long dark from Abram. The number is a round one: Exodus 12:40 gives 430 years. Verse 16 adds that the land is given in God's own time and with his justice: “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete”.
How the Church reads it.
St Stephen recalls this promise in his speech (Acts 7:6–7), and the Letter to the Hebrews sees Abraham as a pilgrim who “set out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). The Catechism teaches that God in his providence can draw good even from the consequences of evil, though we often see it only with time (CCC 312). The Church reads this passage as a school of hope: God's promise stands even when the road to it passes through suffering.
Setting.
John 10 follows the healing of the man born blind (John 9), and it is addressed to those who should have cared for him. The picture has deep roots. In Ezekiel 34 God speaks against shepherds who feed themselves and then says, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep” (34:15). When Jesus says “I am the good shepherd”, he stands where Psalm 23 and Ezekiel place God himself.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (10:11)
In ordinary life a shepherd risks himself but hopes to live, since a dead shepherd leaves the flock unprotected. Here the shepherd's death is the life of the sheep.
“I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” (10:14–15)
To know here means a bond of love, not information. The disciple is drawn into the very relationship of the Son and the Father.
“So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (10:16)
The “other sheep” are commonly understood as the Gentiles who would come to believe (compare John 11:52). The unity comes from the one voice they hear.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism, following Vatican II, calls the Church a flock of which God foretold that he would be the shepherd (CCC 754; Lumen Gentium 6). It also says that Christ always gives his Church the gift of unity, and that she must always pray and work to preserve and perfect it (CCC 820). St Gregory the Great, preaching on this Gospel, asks his people whether they know the shepherd not only by faith but by love and by what they do (in substance, Homilies on the Gospels 14).