19 February 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” Genesis 18:14
The guests at Mamre ask a strange question: “Where is your wife Sarah?” She is “in the tent,” listening behind the entrance, and when she hears that she will have a son, she laughs to herself: “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” It is the laugh of a woman who has waited too long and stopped hoping. The Lord hears the laugh that no one saw, and asks: “Why did Sarah laugh?… Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” Then a small, almost humorous exchange: “But Sarah denied, saying, ‘I did not laugh’; for she was afraid. He said, ‘Oh yes, you did laugh.’” God does not punish her for it. He simply keeps his word. Many of us carry a hidden laugh like Sarah's, a quiet disbelief that God can still do anything new in our lives. The Fast is a time to let him name it, and to hear again: nothing is too wonderful for the Lord.
On this Friday Paul shows where real hope is found: “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” He wants to know “the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death.” St Ignatius of Antioch, on his way to martyrdom, wrote that it was better for him to die for Christ than to reign over the ends of the earth (in substance). This is not a love of loss for its own sake; it is the discovery that Christ is worth more than everything. And Christ holds those who belong to him: “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” Today we also remember Mar Ishaq, and we pray for Joseph Mar Thomas on the anniversary of his episcopal ordination.
Theme: “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”
Sarah's hidden laugh, Paul's great exchange, and the hand that holds us fast.
“Ah Lord God! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.” Jeremiah 32:17
“For nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37
Apply: Bring your most hopeless situation before God every day of this week.
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.” Psalm 73:25
“More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Philippians 3:8
Apply: Give up one comfort each Friday of the Fast and spend that time before the crucifix.
“See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.” Isaiah 49:16
“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:28
Apply: When fear comes this week, pray: Lord, I am in your hand.
God keeps his word even when we laugh in disbelief.
Those who count all as loss for Christ are held in a hand no one can open.
Take-home resolution: Each Friday of the Fast, spend time before the crucifix and renew your hope in God.
Dear friends, Sarah heard behind the tent that she would have a son, and she laughed to herself. The Lord asked: why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? (Genesis 18:13–14).
She denied it, for she was afraid. He said: oh yes, you did laugh (Genesis 18:15). God does not condemn her; he simply keeps his word. Many of us carry such a hidden laugh, a quiet doubt that God can still do something new.
Paul shows where hope is found: I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Philippians 3:8). He wanted to share Christ's sufferings so as to know the power of his resurrection.
And Jesus promises: I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand (John 10:28). On this Friday, let us place our doubts and losses into that hand. Amen.
Children, Sarah laughed when God said she would have a baby, because she was very old. But God asked: is anything too wonderful for me? And baby Isaac was born! Jesus holds you in his hand, and nobody can take you away from him.
Lord God, nothing is too wonderful for you. You heard Sarah's hidden laugh and still kept your promise. Heal our quiet disbelief. Give us the heart of Paul, who counted everything as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ. Keep us in the hand of your Son, from which no one can snatch us. Bless Joseph Mar Thomas and all our bishops. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Behind the tent flap Sarah laughs at a promise that has come too late, and the Lord asks, “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” Paul has staked everything on the same power, wanting to know Christ “and the power of his resurrection”. Jesus gives the promise its firmest form: “No one will snatch them out of my hand.” The same God who opened a closed womb holds his sheep, and his word does not fail.
Setting.
The meal at Mamre (18:1–8) now reaches its purpose. The guests have eaten, and they ask for Sarah by name, although nobody has told them it. The promise that God gave Abraham in 17:15–21 is now spoken where Sarah can hear it. She is listening at the entrance of the tent, and she is old: Genesis says plainly that the time for bearing children has passed for her (18:11).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?”” (18:12)
It is an inward laugh with a long disappointment behind it. Her words have no hatred of God in them, only the tiredness of someone who has stopped hoping. The POC takes “pleasure” as the joy of having children.
“The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’” (18:13)
Compare her actual words. She also said “my husband is old”, and the Lord leaves this out. Jewish teachers noticed this long ago and saw God's care for peace between husband and wife.
“Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” (18:14)
This is the centre of the reading, and it is a question that each reader has to answer. The Lord gives no explanation of how it will happen. He only repeats the promise.
“But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”” (18:15)
God does not punish her and does not let the lie stand either. It is a very gentle correction. He keeps his promise to someone who has just laughed at it and denied doing so.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism numbers Sarah among the holy women who prepared the way for Mary: in spite of her old age she bears a son (CCC 489). It also teaches that only faith can embrace the mysterious ways of God's almighty power, and that Mary is the supreme model of that faith, because she believed that “nothing will be impossible with God” (CCC 273). The two scenes belong together. Sarah asks how, and laughs. Mary asks how, and says yes. Hebrews 11:11 praises the faith that received this child, and it can be read in two ways: the NRSV makes Abraham the subject, while the POC, like other versions, reads it of Sarah herself, who considered him faithful “who had promised”.
Setting.
The scene is set in Jerusalem at the festival of the Dedication, in winter (10:22), in the Temple, in the portico of Solomon (10:23). In John, “the Jews” often means the religious authorities who oppose Jesus, not the Jewish people as a whole; Jesus and his disciples are themselves Jews. They ask him to say plainly whether he is the Messiah (10:24). He answers with the image he has already used of himself, the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep (10:11).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” (10:27)
There are three short verbs. In the Bible “know” means a relationship, not information. The sheep do not first understand everything. They recognise a voice and they go after it.
“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.” (10:28)
In John, eternal life begins now, in knowing the Father and the Son (17:3). The gift is put in the present tense.
“What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.” (10:29)
A note on the text. The ancient manuscripts differ here. Some read as the NRSV does, “what my Father has given me is greater”. Many others read “my Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all”, and the Malayalam POC follows these (എല്ലാവരെയുംകാൾ വലിയവനാണ്). Both end at the same place: the sheep are safe in the Father's hand.
“The Father and I are one.”” (10:30)
The opponents understand it as a claim to be God, and they take up stones (10:31–33). St Augustine notes that the word “one” answers Arius, and that the plural “are” answers Sabellius: one God, and yet not one person (in substance).
How the Church reads it.
The Second Vatican Council, in words quoted by the Catechism, calls the Church a sheepfold whose one and necessary door is Christ, and a flock whose sheep, though governed by human shepherds, are unfailingly nourished and led by Christ himself, the Good Shepherd (Lumen Gentium 6; CCC 754). The Fathers, above all during the Arian controversy, read v. 30 as a witness to the unity of the Father and the Son, which the Council of Nicaea confessed: “one in being with the Father”.
If no one can snatch the sheep, can a Christian ever be lost?
Christ's hand is sure, and no outside power is stronger than he is. But the promise is made to those who hear and follow. The Church teaches that a person can still turn away by serious sin (CCC 1861), and she teaches us to hope and pray for the grace of final perseverance (CCC 2016). We trust the shepherd, and we keep following.
The Malankara calendar today remembers Mar Ishaq. It is also the anniversary of the episcopal ordination of Joseph Mar Thomas (2005). A Gospel of the shepherd suits such a day: we pray for those who shepherd us, that they may stay close to the voice of the one Shepherd.