12 February 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God;” Luke 12:8
Yesterday Hagar ran away into the wilderness. Today “the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness” and asks two questions that every soul in the Fast should hear: “Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She can answer only the first: “I am running away.” God sends her back, but not empty: he promises her a son and names him Ishmael, “for the Lord has given heed to your affliction.” And Hagar, the foreign slave whom no one else noticed, does what almost no one else in Scripture dares: she gives God a name of her own: “You are El-roi,” the God who sees. “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?” On a Friday of the Fast we remember that the God who sees is the God who looked down from the Cross on all the afflicted.
Paul says that God sees the heart of every human being, not only of those who have the written law: Gentiles “show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness,” on the day “when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.” The Fast is a time to let that light into our secret thoughts. In the Gospel Jesus asks for courage in the open: “everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God.” When we are brought before authorities, we need not worry: “the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.” The God who sees Hagar in the wilderness also stands beside those who confess him before the world.
Theme: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God.”
The God who sees Hagar, the law written on the heart, and courage to confess Christ.
“So she named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are El-roi”; for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”” Genesis 16:13
“But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:6
Apply: Spend ten minutes in hidden prayer each day of the Fast.
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jeremiah 31:33
“They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness;” Romans 2:15
Apply: Make a careful examination of conscience and go to confession.
“The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame;” Isaiah 50:7
“for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.” Luke 12:12
Apply: Speak of your faith openly in one conversation this week.
No one is invisible to the God who sees.
He who sees our hearts gives us courage to confess his Son.
Take-home resolution: Make a good confession before the middle of the Fast.
Dear friends, Hagar ran away into the wilderness. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring and asked: where have you come from and where are you going? (Genesis 16:8). In this first week of the Fast, God asks us the same.
God heard her affliction, and Hagar named him: You are El-roi, the God who sees (Genesis 16:11, 13). No one is invisible to God.
Paul says that God's law is written even on the hearts of those who have not heard it, and their conscience bears witness (Romans 2:15). In the Fast we let God's light into our secret thoughts.
And Jesus says: everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God (Luke 12:8). On this Friday, let us not hide our faith, and let us trust the Spirit to teach us what to say. Amen.
Children, Hagar was alone in the desert, but God found her! She called him “the God who sees me.” God sees you too, always, and he loves you.
Lord, you are the God who sees. You found Hagar by the spring in the wilderness and heard her affliction. See us in our wilderness, search our secret thoughts, and heal what you find there. Give us courage to acknowledge your Son before others, and teach us by your Holy Spirit what to say. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
A runaway slave woman in the desert gives God a name: the God who sees. Nobody in Abram's house saw her; God did. The epistle (Romans 2:12–16) widens the view: God sees also into the hearts of those who never received the Law, for “what the law requires is written on their hearts” (2:15). In the Gospel Jesus promises that he will acknowledge before the angels those who acknowledge him before others. To live this Fast is to live under the eyes of a God who sees and hears.
Setting.
Hagar has run from Sarai's harsh treatment (16:6) and is on the way to Shur, the road toward her own country, Egypt. She is pregnant, alone and without a protector. The first time the angel of the Lord appears in the Bible, he comes to her: not to a patriarch or a king, but to a foreign slave in the wilderness.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” (16:8)
He is the first to call her by name. God asks a question, as he asked Adam, not because he lacks knowledge but so that she can speak. Hagar has not spoken until now.
“Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael” (16:11)
This is the form of the great birth announcements of Scripture, later used in Isaiah 7:14 and for Mary in Luke 1:31. Such a word is given here to a slave. The hard command in v. 9 to go back stands beside it: the text does not defend slavery. It shows God caring for a woman inside a world that is unjust, and later he will care for her and her son in the wilderness again (21:17–19).
“So she named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are El-roi”” (16:13)
It is a remarkable thing: a foreign slave woman gives God a name of her own, and Scripture keeps it. As for the “wild ass of a man” in v. 12, the phrase is a picture of an untamed life in the open desert (see Job 39:5–8), not a judgment on any people. God promises to bless Ishmael (17:20).
How the Church reads it.
When God calls Moses he says, “I have observed the misery of my people” (Exodus 3:7), and in the Magnificat Mary sings that he “has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant” (Luke 1:48). The God of Hagar is the same God. The Catechism forbids every act that leads to the enslavement of human beings (CCC 2414), and it says that those oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church (CCC 2448). Hagar's name for God is a call to the Church to see those whom others do not see.
Setting.
Jesus is speaking to his disciples (12:1), and has just told them not to fear those who can kill the body (12:4). Luke writes knowing that the first Christians were questioned before synagogue courts and civil rulers alike; Acts shows both, and many of those first witnesses were themselves Jews. Jesus is preparing his disciples for courage. He is not accusing any people.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God” (12:8)
Two courtrooms stand side by side. A word said for Jesus in a small earthly place is answered in the highest.
“but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” (12:10)
Peter denied the Lord and was forgiven. So the saying must mean something other than a single fall.
“for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.” (12:12)
The Spirit who cannot be resisted without loss is the same Spirit who stands beside the frightened witness. Matthew has the same promise: “it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (10:20).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that all Christians are bound to witness to the faith in word and deed (CCC 2472), and that martyrdom is the supreme witness (CCC 2473). In many lands today Christians suffer for this confession. We pray for them and for those who have wronged them.
What is the sin against the Holy Spirit? Have I committed it?
The Catechism explains: “There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit” (CCC 1864). St John Paul II teaches the same (Dominum et Vivificantem 46). It is not a word spoken in anger or a terrible past sin. It is the refusal of forgiveness itself. A person who fears having done this, and wants God's mercy, plainly has not. Let such a person go to Confession in peace.