16 February 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” Ephesians 2:8
God now turns to Sarai: “you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her.” And the father of believers falls on his face and laughs: “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” Then he makes a quieter, more human prayer: “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!” He already has a son; perhaps he would settle for that. God's answer is both firm and tender: “No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac.” Isaac means “he laughs”: God will turn Abraham's doubtful laugh into the laughter of joy. And Ishmael is not forgotten: “As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him.” God's plan is larger than our hopes, and kinder than our fears.
Paul tells the Ephesians that every Christian life begins the way Isaac's did: with something impossible that only God can do. “You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived… But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” Our fasting does not buy this life: “by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Yet grace is not idle: “we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” That is why Jesus gives a simple test: “You will know them by their fruits… every good tree bears good fruit.” St Augustine says that when God crowns our merits he is crowning his own gifts (in substance). In the Fast we do not try to grow fruit by our own strength; we stay grafted to the One who makes the tree good.
Theme: “By grace you have been saved through faith.”
God's impossible gift to Abraham, God's impossible gift to us, and the fruit that grace bears.
“The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.” Isaiah 62:2
“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
Apply: Bring to God the promise you find hardest to believe, and pray over it each day this week.
“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26
“For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Ephesians 2:10
Apply: Make a good confession this week, receiving mercy as pure gift.
“They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.” Psalm 1:3
“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22–23
Apply: Choose one fruit of the Spirit to practise deliberately for the rest of the Fast.
What is impossible for us is the beginning of God's work.
Grace received in faith becomes fruit in good works.
Take-home resolution: Thank God each night of the Fast for one gift you did not earn.
Dear friends, God promised Abraham a son by Sarah, and Abraham fell on his face and laughed: can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? (Genesis 17:17). God did not take back the promise. He named the child Isaac, he laughs.
Abraham also prayed: O that Ishmael might live in your sight! And God answered: as for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him (Genesis 17:18, 20). God's plan is larger than our hopes and kinder than our fears.
Paul says that we too were given life when it was impossible: you were dead through the trespasses and sins... but God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:1, 4–5, 8).
Grace bears fruit. Jesus says: you will know them by their fruits; every good tree bears good fruit (Matthew 7:16–17). Our fasting does not earn God's love; it opens us to receive it, so that we may bear the fruit he has prepared. Amen.
Children, Abraham was a hundred years old and Sarah was ninety when God promised them a baby. Abraham laughed! But God kept his promise, and baby Isaac was born. Nothing is impossible for God. God's love is a gift; we cannot buy it, only say thank you.
God rich in mercy, you gave Abraham a son when it was impossible and turned his laughter of doubt into the laughter of joy. You made us alive with Christ when we were dead in our sins. Let us never forget that all is your gift. Make us good trees, rooted in your grace, bearing the fruit of good works which you prepared for us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
God gives Sarah a new name and promises her a son, and Abraham falls on his face and laughs. Ephesians says what lies behind every such promise: “by grace you have been saved through faith”, and at once adds that we were “created in Christ Jesus for good works”. Jesus then gives the test: “You will know them by their fruits.” What God gives comes first, and in time it shows on the tree.
Setting.
This is the last part of God's speech in chapter 17. Abram has just become Abraham (17:5) and has received the command of circumcision (17:9–14). Now the promise falls on Sarai, whose barrenness has been known since 11:30. Abraham already has a son, Ishmael, by Hagar, now thirteen years old (16:15–16; 17:25). It seems to him that God's promise has already been met in the only way still possible.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her.” (17:16)
God says “I will bless her” twice in this one verse. The promise is not given to Abraham alone. Sarah is herself chosen, and nobody can take her place.
“Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself,” (17:17)
His body bows in worship while his mind does the arithmetic: a hundred years and ninety years. The Bible does not hide this.
“And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!”” (17:18)
A father's prayer for the son he already loves. It is not rejected. God simply has something greater in mind than Abraham dares to ask.
“As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous;” (17:20)
The covenant line will pass through Isaac (v. 21), but God's care does not stop at its edge. The child of the slave woman is heard and blessed too.
How the Church reads it.
Paul sees here the model of faith: Abraham “did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body” (Romans 4:19). The Catechism teaches that against all human hope God promises descendants to Abraham, as the fruit of faith and of the power of the Holy Spirit (CCC 706). It also numbers Sarah among those holy women who prepared the way for Mary: in spite of her old age she bears a son (CCC 489). St Augustine, in The City of God, understood Abraham's laugh as the joy of one exulting and not the scorn of one who doubts (in substance).
Setting.
The Sermon on the Mount is coming to its end. After the two ways (7:13–14), Jesus warns against false teachers, and then speaks of those who say “Lord, Lord” without doing the Father's will (7:21–23) and of the two houses (7:24–27). Every part of this ending asks the same thing: not what you say, but what you do. Matthew's community also knew Christian prophets, and needed to tell the true from the false.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (7:15)
The outer look cannot be trusted. A false teacher will not look like a wolf. He will speak the language of the flock.
“You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?” (7:16)
Jesus gives ordinary country sense. Any farmer knows that the tree decides the fruit. The test takes time, because fruit does not come in a day.
“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (7:19)
This is exactly the word of John the Baptist (3:10). It is a serious warning, addressed first to the hearer's own life. The verse does not give us permission to do the cutting ourselves.
How the Church reads it.
The Didache, one of the oldest Christian writings outside the New Testament, applies this same test: the false prophet and the true are to be known by their ways of living (Didache 11, in substance). The Catechism uses v. 20 for a further point: we cannot be certain of our own state by our feelings or our works, yet reflection on God's blessings in our life and in the lives of the saints offers a guarantee that grace is at work, and it cites “you will know them by their fruits” (CCC 2005).