26 February 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” Romans 2:4
Today's first reading is one of the saddest pages in Genesis, and Scripture tells it without decoration. Lot, rescued from Sodom, is afraid to stay even in Zoar and goes to live in a cave in the hills with his two daughters. Cut off from everyone, convinced that “there is not a man on earth to come in to us,” the daughters make their father drunk and conceive by him. The sons born are Moab and Ben-ammi, ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites. The Bible does not praise any of this. It shows what happens when fear, isolation and despair take the place of trust in God: a family saved from fire falls into darkness in a cave. Sodom was left behind, but some of Sodom had come along. Yet God's story does not end in the cave. From Moab, many generations later, came Ruth, who said to Naomi, “your people shall be my people, and your God my God,” and who became the great-grandmother of David and an ancestor of Jesus. God can write straight even on the most crooked lines of human history.
Paul warns us not to read such stories with a judging heart: “Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself.” The real question is how I respond to God's patience with me: “Do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” On this Friday Jesus teaches the posture of a repentant heart: not prayer to be seen, but prayer in secret: “go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” Nor “empty phrases,” for “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” St Cyprian wrote that God hears not the voice but the heart, and that the humble prayer of the heart reaches him without words (in substance). Where despair drove Lot's family into a cave, prayer in the secret room opens the soul to the Father who sees.
Theme: “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.”
The cave of fear, the patience of God, and the secret room of prayer.
“But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16
“and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,” Matthew 1:5
Apply: Reach out this week to someone who is isolated or afraid.
“for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.” Matthew 7:1
Apply: For one week, replace every judgment of another with a prayer for them.
“Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.” Psalm 139:4
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” Romans 8:26
Apply: Pray ten minutes alone, with the door shut, every day for the rest of the Fast.
Fear and isolation lead into the cave; God's kindness leads out.
The Father who sees in secret meets us in the hidden room of prayer.
Take-home resolution: Pray each day of the Fast in secret, and judge no one.
Dear friends, today's reading tells a sad story. Lot, saved from Sodom, went to live in a cave with his daughters, afraid and alone (Genesis 19:30). Fear and isolation led to grave sin. Scripture does not praise it; it warns us.
Yet God's plan did not end in the cave. From Moab came Ruth, who said: your people shall be my people, and your God my God (Ruth 1:16). She became an ancestor of David and of Jesus. God can bring good even from the darkest places.
Paul warns us not to judge: in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself. Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:1, 4).
And Jesus teaches us to pray in secret: go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; your Father knows what you need before you ask him (Matthew 6:6, 8). On this Friday, let us bring our hidden darkness to the Father who sees in secret. Amen.
Children, Jesus says you do not need to use big words when you pray. You can go to a quiet place and talk to God like a friend. God already knows what you need, and he loves to listen to you. Try it tonight before you sleep.
Merciful Father, you see the darkness into which fear and loneliness can lead us, and you do not abandon us there. Save us from despair, and keep us from judging others when we ourselves need your mercy. Let your kindness lead us to repentance. Teach us to pray to you in secret, with few words and an honest heart, for you know what we need before we ask. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Genesis closes Lot's story in a cave, with a family cut off from everyone by fear. In Matthew, Jesus speaks of a different kind of closed room: the place where we pray to the Father in secret. The Epistle (Romans 2:1–11) warns against judging others and reminds us that “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance”. What fear makes of us, and what the Father's nearness makes of us, are set side by side.
Setting.
This is the last we hear of Lot, the man who once chose the richest land (13:10–11). Now he has left Zoar out of fear and lives in a cave with what remains of his family. His daughters believe that “there is not a man on earth” left for them (19:31). They may think that the destruction has been total.
The story also explains the origin of two neighbouring peoples, Moab and Ammon, east of the Jordan. Many scholars think that it may have been told in Israel partly as an unflattering account of those neighbours. Yet Scripture also shows God caring for them. He gives them their lands, because they are the descendants of Lot (Deuteronomy 2:9, 19).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“for he was afraid to stay in Zoar;” (19:30)
Lot begged for Zoar and now flees from it. A man who has been rescued by mercy still lives as if everything depended on himself.
“there is not a man on earth to come in to us” (19:31)
Their sin grows out of despair and isolation. The story describes it, and it does not praise it.
“he did not know when she lay down or when she rose.” (19:33)
The man who sat in the gate and made judgements now knows nothing at all. Drink has taken the rest from him. The writer's repetition (19:35) is a quiet condemnation.
“he is the ancestor of the Ammonites to this day.” (19:38)
The story ends without any word from God, one of the bleakest silences in Genesis. But God's story with these peoples is not finished.
How the Church reads it.
The Second Vatican Council says that the Old Testament books contain some things that are incomplete and temporary (Dei Verbum 15; CCC 122). A reader must not take every act told in Scripture as an example. The Church teaches clearly that incest is a grave offence (CCC 2388), and a story like this is never a reason to excuse any abuse in a family. Some Fathers, such as Origen, noted that the daughters believed no other people were left on earth (in substance), which explains their act without making it good.
Then God's mercy goes beyond the story. Ruth the Moabite becomes an ancestor of David and of Jesus (Matthew 1:5), and Naamah the Ammonite is the mother of Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:21), who is also in Matthew's list (1:7). Nothing in human history is too broken for God to bring into his plan.
Setting.
The Sermon on the Mount takes the three works of Jewish piety in turn: almsgiving, prayer and fasting (6:1–18). All three are good and are assumed: “whenever you pray”. Jesus' question is who they are done for. The Great Fast takes up the same three works.
Standing to pray was normal among Jews, and the synagogue was a place of prayer. Jesus is not criticising them. The fault he names is the desire “to be seen by others”, and it is a fault found among religious people of every kind, not of one people.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.” (6:5)
The Greek verb is one used for a receipt: paid in full. They wanted to be seen, and they were.
“But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret;” (6:6)
The “you” becomes singular here. Each one must meet God alone, and the one met is a Father.
“for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (6:8)
Then why ask? Prayer does not inform God. It places us before him as children, and it changes the one who asks.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that from the Sermon on the Mount onwards Jesus insists on conversion of heart, and it names among his teachings “prayer to the Father in secret”, not heaping up empty phrases (CCC 2608). St Cyprian, writing on the Lord's Prayer, recalls Hannah, who prayed without raising her voice, as a model: God hears the heart (in substance).
Does this forbid public prayer, or long prayers like our Hours and liturgy?
No. Jesus himself prayed with his people, went to the synagogue and the Temple, and taught his disciples to say “Our Father”, in the plural. The warning is about motive, and about trusting in words as a technique. St Augustine, writing to Proba, distinguishes much speaking from much praying: long prayer of the heart is good, and many words without it are not (Letter 130, in substance).