4 March 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
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“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Matthew 5:44
Today's first reading is painful. At the feast for Isaac, Sarah sees Ishmael, Hagar's son, playing with her son and demands: “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” Scripture is honest: “The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.” Ishmael was his child too. God tells Abraham that the line of promise will run through Isaac, but he does not forget the other boy: “As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” Abraham rises early, puts bread and a skin of water on Hagar's shoulder, and sends her into the wilderness of Beer-sheba. This is a family torn apart by jealousy and fear of losing an inheritance, the kind of quarrel that still divides homes over land and property. Yet God's care reaches beyond the walls of Abraham's tent. The boy who is sent away is not sent away from God.
Paul gives the Corinthians a principle that would have helped Abraham's household: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” The Christians of Corinth knew that idols are nothing and that “there is no God but one,” and some were using that knowledge to look down on weaker believers. Paul corrects them: “anyone who loves God is known by him.” What matters is not how much I know but whether I build others up. St Augustine summed up the whole Christian life in a short line: love, and do what you will; for if the root within is love, nothing but good can grow from it (in substance). Jesus takes love to its furthest point: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good.” The Father does not ration his sunshine according to merit. In this Great Fast we are asked to imitate that generosity: to pray for those who wrong us, and to greet those whom we would rather avoid. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Theme: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
A family torn by jealousy, the knowledge that puffs up and the love that builds up, and the Father's generous sun.
“As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” Genesis 21:13
“So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.” Matthew 18:14
Apply: Reach out this week to one relative from whom your family has been divided.
“Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” Proverbs 10:12
“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant” 1 Corinthians 13:4
Apply: Each day this week say one sincere word of encouragement to someone who is struggling.
“If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat; and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink;” Proverbs 25:21
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21
Apply: Do one concrete act of kindness this week for someone who has wronged you.
God's care reaches beyond our family quarrels to the one who is sent away.
The love that prays for enemies makes us children of the Father.
Take-home resolution: Pray daily for one enemy until Easter, and let love, not knowledge, rule your words.
Dear friends, in the first reading a family is torn apart. Sarah says: cast out this slave woman with her son. The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son (Genesis 21:10–11). Jealousy and fear of losing an inheritance still divide many families.
But God does not forget Ishmael: as for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring (Genesis 21:13). God's care reaches the one who is sent away.
Paul tells us: knowledge puffs up, but love builds up; anyone who loves God is known by him (1 Corinthians 8:1, 3). Knowing many things is not enough; we must build others up.
And Jesus says: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good (Matthew 5:44–45). In this Fast, let us pray for one person we find hard to love. Amen.
Children, Jesus asks us to do something very brave: to love even people who are not nice to us, and to pray for them. God makes the sun shine on everyone, good and bad. Tonight, can you pray for someone who was unkind to you? That makes you look like God's own child.
Heavenly Father, you make your sun rise on the evil and on the good and send rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. You did not forget the boy who was sent into the wilderness. Heal the jealousy and quarrels that divide our families. Keep us from the knowledge that puffs up, and fill us with the love that builds up. Give us grace in this Great Fast to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, so that we may be your children and grow perfect as you are perfect. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Genesis story left off on Tuesday at Isaac's weaning feast, and today the feast turns to grief. A mother's fear for her son drives another mother and son out of the household, and God does not forget the ones sent away. The Epistle (1 Corinthians 8:1–6) reminds a divided community that “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” And in the Gospel Jesus asks for the hardest love of all, love for the enemy, because this is how the Father is.
Setting.
Hagar is Sarah's Egyptian slave. In chapter 16, Sarah gave her to Abraham so that a child might be born, and then treated her harshly; Hagar ran away, and God met her in the wilderness and sent her back. Her son is now a young boy. Today's reading follows straight on from the feast for Isaac (21:8).
The story does not hide the pain of it. In the law and custom of the time, an heir's standing could be at issue, and that is what Sarah fears. Throughout chapter 21 the narrator never uses the name Ishmael, only “the son of Hagar”, “the boy” and “the child”.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.” (21:11)
The narrator calls him “his son”, not “her son”. Scripture records this love, and does not treat the boy as of no account.
“As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” (21:13)
The choosing of Isaac does not mean that God has rejected Ishmael. To be outside the line of the promise is not to be outside God's care.
“So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away.” (21:14)
“Rose early in the morning” will come again in the next chapter when Abraham takes Isaac to Moriah (22:3). In both cases Abraham obeys at a great cost, and God watches over the child.
How the Church reads it.
St Paul uses the two mothers as an allegory of two covenants in Galatians 4:21–31, and quotes Sarah's words there. This is a reading about slavery and sonship in Christ. It says nothing against any people, and it does not cancel the plain story, where God cares for Hagar and her son. The Second Vatican Council speaks with esteem of Muslims, who link their faith to Abraham (Nostra Aetate 3; see CCC 841). A Christian hears today's reading with the respect the Council asks for, and with compassion for those who, like Hagar, are put out of a household.
Setting.
This is the last of six sayings in the Sermon on the Mount that follow the pattern “You have heard … but I say to you” (5:21–48). Jesus has just said that he came not to abolish the Law but to fulfil it (5:17). These sayings go to the root of the commandments and ask more, not less.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’” (5:43)
“Love your neighbor” is Leviticus 19:18, but “hate your enemy” is not a command of the Law. The Law also tells people to help an enemy's animal (Exodus 23:4–5) and to feed a hungry enemy (Proverbs 25:21). The Community Rule from Qumran, the writing of one group of that time, speaks of hating the sons of darkness, and some scholars see attitudes of that kind behind this saying. Jesus speaks against a way of limiting the commandment, not against the Law of Israel.
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (5:44)
He says “enemies”, in the plural, and they are real ones. Prayer is the first step because it can be done even before the feeling changes.
“for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” (5:45)
The reason given is not that enemies deserve it, or that love will win them over. It is what the Father does every morning.
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (5:48)
This is not a counsel for a few. The Catechism quotes it in teaching that all Christians are called to holiness (CCC 2013).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies (CCC 1825), and that Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies, which transfigures the disciple by configuring him to his Master (CCC 2844). Among the earliest Christian writings, the Didache says: pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you (1.3, in substance). That old saying joins today's Gospel to the Great Fast. We pray also for all who suffer for their faith or their people in many lands, and for those who have wronged them.
Does God approve of what Sarah did?
God tells Abraham to do as Sarah says, because Isaac is the child of the promise (21:12). This does not make her demand good in itself, and the Bible does not call it so. Scripture often shows God bringing his purpose through the mixed motives of human beings, while keeping faith with those who are hurt by them. God's word about Hagar's son is a promise, and in the next reading the angel of God calls to her in the wilderness.