11 March 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“I am a stranger and an alien residing among you; give me property among you for a burying place, so that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” Genesis 23:4
“Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years… And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.” The man who did not weep on Mount Moriah weeps now beside his wife. Scripture does not hide his tears; faith does not forbid grief, it gives grief a direction. Then Abraham “rose up from beside his dead” and spoke to the Hittites: “I am a stranger and an alien residing among you; give me property among you for a burying place.” After more than sixty years in the land God had promised him, Abraham does not own a single field. The promise is real, but it is still ahead. The Hittites answer him with honour, “you are a mighty prince among us,” and Abraham bows before “the people of the land.” The father of believers deals courteously and justly with people of another nation and another faith, a lesson our multi-religious land knows well. The Letter to the Hebrews explains his patience: the patriarchs “died in faith without having received the promises… They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth.” An early Christian writer, the author of the Letter to Diognetus, said the same of Christians: they live in their own countries, but as sojourners; every foreign land is a homeland to them, and every homeland a foreign land (in substance).
St Paul tells the Colossians where the Christian homeland is: “we always thank God… for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” Faith, love and hope: hope is the treasure stored up ahead, and it gives strength to faith and love today. That is why we can grieve without despair, as Paul says elsewhere, “so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” Our Church prays for the departed at every Holy Qurbono, and in the Great Fast we remember them with special love. In the Gospel the Pharisees and Sadducees ask Jesus for “a sign from heaven.” He answers that they can read the sky, red at evening, red in the morning, “but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” And he gives them only one sign: “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Jonah came out of the sea monster after three days; Jesus will come out of the tomb on the third day. The Resurrection is the sign that answers Abraham's grave, Sarah's death and every Christian funeral. In three weeks we will sing it at Easter.
Theme: “I am a stranger and an alien residing among you.”
Abraham's tears for Sarah, his life as a pilgrim in the land of promise, and the sign of Jonah that answers every grave.
“a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” Ecclesiastes 3:4
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13
Apply: Pray this week by name for your departed relatives and friends.
“Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; do not hold your peace at my tears. For I am your passing guest, an alien, like all my forebears.” Psalm 39:12
“All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth,” Hebrews 11:13
Apply: Let go of one thing this week that ties your heart too tightly to this world.
“After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” Hosea 6:2
“For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 12:40
Apply: Prepare one concrete way to celebrate the Resurrection with your family at Easter.
Abraham owned nothing in the land but a grave, yet he died rich in hope.
The risen Christ is the sign that answers every death and every tear.
Take-home resolution: Live the rest of the Fast as a pilgrim, praying daily for the departed.
Dear friends, today Sarah dies, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her (Genesis 23:2). The great man of faith is not ashamed to weep. Faith does not take away our tears; it gives them hope.
Abraham says to the Hittites: I am a stranger and an alien residing among you; give me property among you for a burying place (Genesis 23:4). He has lived for decades in the promised land, and he does not own even a grave. The patriarchs confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth (Hebrews 11:13).
Paul thanks God for the Colossians' faith and love because of the hope laid up for you in heaven (Colossians 1:5). Hope is the treasure ahead that strengthens us today.
When the Pharisees and Sadducees ask for a sign, Jesus says: no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah (Matthew 16:4). Jonah came out after three days; Christ rose on the third day. Let us pray today for our departed and walk toward Easter as pilgrims full of hope. Amen.
Children, when Sarah died, Abraham cried, because he loved her. It is all right to be sad when someone we love dies. But Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, so we have hope that we will see our loved ones again with God. Tonight, pray for someone in your family who has gone to God.
Lord God, Abraham wept for Sarah and lived as a stranger in the land you promised him, trusting in a better country. Comfort all who mourn, give eternal rest to our departed, and keep our eyes on the hope laid up for us in heaven. Give us the one sign that is enough, the sign of Jonah, your Son risen from the tomb. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Sarah dies, and Abraham, the man of the promise, must ask strangers for a place to bury her. He owns nothing in the land that God promised him. The epistle (Colossians 1:3–6) gives thanks for “the hope laid up for you in heaven”, which is the hope Abraham was living on. In the Gospel Jesus is asked for a sign from heaven and gives only the sign of Jonah. Faith is asked to walk on what God has said, with death still in view.
Setting.
A whole chapter of Genesis is given to one burial. Sarah is the only woman in Genesis whose age at death is told. She dies at Hebron, in Canaan, and Abraham, who has been living at Beer-sheba (22:19), “went in” to mourn. Then he has to do business. The “Hittites” here are the bənê ḥēt, the children of Heth (10:15). Whether they have any link with the great Hittite kingdom of Anatolia is uncertain, and many scholars take them as a local people of Canaan.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.” (23:2)
The man who did not hold back his son on Moriah now weeps for his wife. Faith does not forbid tears. At the tomb of Lazarus, “Jesus began to weep” (John 11:35).
“I am a stranger and an alien residing among you” (23:4)
This is the voice of the one to whom God said, “To your offspring I will give this land” (12:7). Decades after that promise, he has to ask for a grave.
“For the full price let him give it to me in your presence” (23:9)
He asks openly, and he offers to pay. The burial of the dead is worth doing properly, and the promise deserves a public first step.
How the Church reads it.
Hebrews makes this the model of pilgrim faith: “All of these died in faith without having received the promises… They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth” (11:13). St Peter calls Christians “aliens and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11). The Catechism says that Abraham lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the promised land by faith (CCC 145), and that the burial of the dead, with respect and in the hope of the resurrection, is a corporal work of mercy (CCC 2300).
Setting.
Pharisees and Sadducees were usually on opposite sides, on the resurrection for one thing (Acts 23:6–8). Here some of them come together to test Jesus. He has just fed the four thousand and healed many, and they ask for a sign from heaven. The word “test” is the verb used of the devil in the desert (4:1). A similar demand came earlier (12:38–40). The warning is for every generation that wants God on its own terms, ours included, and it is no judgment on a people.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” (16:3)
A note on the text. The words from “When it is evening” to the end of v. 3 are lacking in some important ancient manuscripts, as the NRSV's footnote says, and many scholars think they were added early. The Church reads them as part of the Gospel. The point is plain: people clever about the weather can be dull about God.
“no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” (16:4)
Matthew has already explained this: “just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth” (12:40). In Luke, Jonah is a sign to the people of Nineveh (11:30), who repented at his preaching.
“Then he left them and went away.” (16:4)
This small sentence is one of the saddest in the passage. He does not force himself on anyone.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Jesus spoke of his Resurrection itself as the “sign of Jonah” (CCC 994). The Second Vatican Council took up the phrase of v. 3 and taught that the Church has the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and interpreting them in the light of the Gospel (Gaudium et Spes 4). The Syriac Churches keep the three-day Fast of Nineveh before the Great Fast, so this sign is close to our prayer.