2 March 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” Genesis 21:6
After twenty-five years of waiting, the promise is kept. “The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him.” Notice how often the reading repeats it: as he had said, as he had promised, as God had spoken. Abraham names the boy Isaac, which means “he laughs.” Years before, Sarah had laughed in disbelief behind the tent door; now she laughs for joy: “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” The same woman, the same laughter, but turned inside out by the faithfulness of God. Early Fathers such as St Ambrose saw in Isaac, the son of promise born when nature had given up hope, a figure of Christ, the true joy of the world (in substance). The Great Fast is not a season of gloom; it prepares us for the laughter of Easter, when God keeps his greatest promise.
Paul tells us whose children we are: “for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” In our baptism we were clothed in a white garment; in Christ there is “no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” The laughter of Sarah has become the inheritance of every baptized person. But an inheritance can be neglected. In the Gospel Jesus reproaches the towns around the lake, Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, which had seen most of his miracles and still did not change: “if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” We who have received the sacraments, the Word and the Holy Qurbono every week have seen more than Tyre and Sidon ever saw. The Fast asks whether all that grace has changed us.
Theme: “God has brought laughter for me.”
The birth of Isaac, the children of God clothed with Christ, and the warning to the towns that saw much and did not change.
“God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind. Has he promised, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” Numbers 23:19
“For nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37
Apply: Write down one promise of God from Scripture and pray it every day this week.
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,” Isaiah 61:10
“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” 1 John 3:1
Apply: Renew your baptismal promises quietly before the Holy Qurbono this Sunday.
“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.” Jonah 3:10
“From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.” Luke 12:48
Apply: Prepare this week for a good confession, naming the graces you have wasted.
God keeps his promises and turns our sorrow into laughter.
Those clothed with Christ are called to let his grace change them.
Take-home resolution: Live the rest of the Fast as a child of God who does not waste grace.
Dear friends, the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age (Genesis 21:1–2). After long years of waiting, God kept his word.
Sarah once laughed in disbelief; now she says: God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me (Genesis 21:6). The Fast prepares us for the laughter of Easter.
Paul says we are all children of God through faith: as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ; you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:26–29).
But Jesus warns the towns that saw his miracles and did not repent: woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! (Matthew 11:21). We have received so much grace. In this Fast, let it change us. Amen.
Children, Abraham and Sarah waited a very long time for a baby, and God gave them Isaac. His name means “he laughs,” because they were so happy! When you were baptized, God made you his child too. That is a reason to be happy every day.
Faithful God, you did for Sarah as you had promised, and you turned her laughter of doubt into laughter of joy. You have clothed us with Christ in baptism and made us heirs of your promise. Do not let the many graces we receive pass over us without fruit. Give us repentant hearts in this Great Fast, and bring us at last to the joy of the Resurrection. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
God keeps his word in today's first reading, and an old woman laughs for joy. The Epistle (Galatians 3:26–29) tells the baptized that they too belong to this family: “if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” The Gospel then asks the hard question. What happens when a town sees God's mighty works close up and carries on as before? God's gift is sure; our answer to it is the part still open.
Setting.
The promise of a son has run through Abraham's story since chapter 12. Three chapters earlier the Lord said at Mamre, “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” (18:14), and Sarah laughed behind the tent door (18:12). After many years of waiting, and after Abraham's failure at Gerar, the child comes. The text tells the fulfilment plainly and quietly: no angel appears and no vision is seen.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised.” (21:1)
The sentence says the same thing twice, and verse 2 says it a third time. The writer wants one fact to stand out: God did what he said.
“And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.” (21:4)
Abraham obeys the covenant command of 17:12. The gift is received within the covenant, and the child belongs from the first to the God who gave him.
“Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”” (21:6)
The Hebrew may also be taken as “laugh at me”, and some translations, among them the Malayalam POC, lean in that direction. Either way, Sarah is amazed at what has happened to her, and she is at ease with being amazed.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that against all human hope God promised descendants to Abraham, as the fruit of faith and of the power of the Holy Spirit, and that this progeny is Christ himself (CCC 706). It lists Sarah, who conceives in spite of her great age, among the holy women who prepared for Mary (CCC 489). St Paul calls Christians “children of the promise, like Isaac” (Galatians 4:28), since, like Isaac, they are born of God's gift and not of human strength.
Setting.
The chapter has been about how people respond to Jesus. John the Baptist has sent his question from prison (11:2–6), and “this generation” has found fault with both John and Jesus (11:16–19). Now Jesus names three towns on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, close to one another and close to his work. Capernaum is the town where he made his home (4:13). Immediately after this he will thank the Father for revealing these things to infants (11:25).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done” (11:20)
The Gospels record no miracle at Chorazin. So this verse is a reminder that they tell only part of what he did.
“they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” (11:21)
Tyre and Sidon were old Gentile trading cities, the targets of prophetic oracles (Isaiah 23). Jesus surprises his hearers by saying that they would have responded better.
“And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades.” (11:23)
The words echo the taunt against the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14:13–15. The town that had most reason for pride is warned in the words once used for a boastful empire.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that, following in the steps of the prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgment of the Last Day in his preaching (CCC 678). The Church reads these woes as a warning spoken in love, and not as a statement about these towns' people as such; Jesus' own first followers came from this same lakeside. The saying applies to everyone who has received much (Luke 12:48), above all to those of us who hear the Gospel and receive the Holy Qurbono week after week.
Is it fair to compare a town with Sodom?
Jesus' point is that judgment takes account of what each has been given. Sodom never had what Capernaum had. Saying “more tolerable” implies degrees, and it does not say what becomes of any single person; that belongs to God, who wants all to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). The Church teaches that God predestines no one to go to hell (CCC 1037). The saying is meant to wake us up and not to help us count who is lost.