15 March 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.” Ephesians 6:18
This week the readings from Genesis follow one long and lovely story: how Abraham's servant went to find a bride for Isaac. It begins today with an old man settling his affairs. “Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.” He calls the oldest servant of his house and makes him swear that he will not take a wife for Isaac from the Canaanites around them, but will go back to Abraham's own kindred. The servant raises an honest difficulty: what if the woman will not come? Abraham's answer is the answer of a man who has walked with God for a lifetime: “The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you.” Abraham cannot see how it will work out; he only knows who has been faithful to him. The promise of descendants as many as the stars depends on this one marriage, and Abraham entrusts it to God. Isaac must not go back: the family of promise looks forward, not backward.
Paul, writing from prison, asks the Ephesians for the same trust expressed as prayer: “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.” He calls himself “an ambassador in chains,” and asks them to pray that he may speak the mystery of the gospel boldly. In the Gospel Jesus stands in the Temple in the last days before his Passion, and the authorities demand: “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?” Jesus answers with a question about John the Baptist, and they will not answer, not because they do not know, but because they fear the crowd. St John Chrysostom remarked that the Lord does not hide the truth from those who seek it, but he does not cast it before those who ask only to trap him (in substance). As the Forty Days draw to a close, the Church asks us whether we come to Jesus to argue or to obey. His authority is the authority of the Son, and in a few days it will be shown most clearly on the Cross.
Theme: “Pray in the Spirit at all times.”
As the Forty Days draw to a close: the God who goes before us, the prayer that never stops, and the authority of the Son.
“I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.” Exodus 23:20
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.” Hebrews 11:8
Apply: Give one decision about the future to God each morning this week.
“Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.” Psalm 141:2
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18
Apply: Pray daily this week for one priest or missionary by name.
“For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Matthew 28:18
Apply: Bring one teaching of Jesus you find hard to him this week, not to argue but to obey.
Abraham trusted the God he could not see; Paul prayed in chains.
The Son whose authority was questioned will show it on the Cross.
Take-home resolution: Pray at all times in these last days of the Fast, and obey the Lord who goes before us.
Dear friends, this week we follow a beautiful story in Genesis. Abraham is old, and he sends his trusted servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. The servant is worried: what if the woman will not come? Abraham says: The Lord, the God of heaven, he will send his angel before you (Genesis 24:7).
Abraham does not know how it will work out. He only knows that God has been faithful to him all his life. That is the faith we need too. We do not see the future, but we know the God who holds it.
Paul, writing from prison, asks: Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication (Ephesians 6:18). He calls himself an ambassador in chains. Prayer is how we keep trusting when the way is hard.
In the Gospel the leaders ask Jesus: By what authority are you doing these things? (Mark 11:28). They are not seeking the truth; they fear the crowd. In these last days of the Fast, let us come to Jesus not to argue but to obey, for his authority is the love that will lead him to the Cross. Amen.
Children, Abraham sent his servant on a long journey, and he told him: God will send his angel before you. When you go somewhere new, to a new class or a new place, remember: God goes ahead of you. You can say: Jesus, go before me today.
Lord God of heaven and earth, you led Abraham from his father's house and sent your angel before his servant. Go before us in the choices we must make, and teach us to trust you where we cannot see. Keep us alert and persevering in prayer for all your saints, and give courage to all who proclaim your gospel, especially those in chains. Let us come to your Son not to argue but to obey, as we follow him to Jerusalem. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The sixth week of the Great Fast opens with three scenes about being sent. In Genesis the aged Abraham binds his servant by an oath and sends him on a long journey, trusting that God's angel will go ahead. In Ephesians 6:18–20 the writer asks for prayer as “an ambassador in chains”. In Mark the leaders in the Temple ask Jesus who gave him his authority, and he answers with a question about John the Baptist. The key words are oath, sent and authority.
Setting.
Genesis 24 is the longest chapter of the book, and this week's Old Testament readings walk through it in portions. Sarah has died, and Abraham has bought a burial field at Machpelah, the only piece of the promised land he owns (Genesis 23). The promise of descendants now rests on Isaac, who has no wife.
Abraham's concern has two sides. Isaac must not marry among the Canaanites, and he must not go back to the old country. So someone else has to make the journey that Abraham himself once made in the opposite direction.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Put your hand under my thigh” (24:2)
An ancient gesture of oath, found again in Genesis 47:29. Many scholars think “thigh” is a reverent way of speaking of the organs of generation, so that the oath touches life and descendants, the very subject of this chapter. The exact sense of the custom is not certain.
“See to it that you do not take my son back there.” (24:6)
Abraham says this twice (24:6, 8). To return would be to undo the call of Genesis 12:1, “Go from your country”. A blessing received must not be traded for what seems safer.
“he will send his angel before you” (24:7)
These verses are the last words of Abraham that Genesis records. They are words of trust: the God who called him will finish what he began, even after Abraham can no longer see it.
“So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter.” (24:9)
The servant is never named in this chapter. Tradition has often thought of the Eliezer of Genesis 15:2, but the text leaves him without a name. All the attention goes to the one who sent him.
How the Church reads it.
The Letter to the Hebrews praises Abraham, who “set out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8), and the Catechism gathers up his faith at CCC 145–146. Here that faith has grown old and is still looking ahead. Origen, in his homilies on Genesis, reads the search for a bride as a spiritual picture (in substance), and many Fathers saw in the servant those whom God sends to gather a people for Christ. The Church keeps the plain story too: an old man's trust, and a faithful servant's obedience.
Setting.
Jesus has entered Jerusalem and has driven the traders out of the Temple (11:15–19). In Mark's order, “these things” most naturally point to that action. The chief priests, the scribes and the elders are the groups Jesus named when he foretold his Passion (8:31). They have the care of the Temple, so their question is not strange in itself. Someone has acted there without any commission from them.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?” (11:28)
There are two questions: what kind of authority, and from whom? Each reader of Mark already knows the answer from the voice at the Jordan (1:11).
“Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” (11:30)
Asking a question in reply was a normal way of arguing among teachers of the time. It is also the true answer. John pointed to Jesus, and Jesus was baptised by him. Whoever accepts John has the answer to his own question.
“they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet.” (11:32)
The men are not weighing what is true, only what each answer will cost. The sentence breaks off in the Greek as if their thoughts were overheard.
“We do not know.” (11:33)
Jesus does not force the matter. A person who will not answer honestly about John is not ready to hear about the Son. He will speak again, in a parable, in the verses that follow (12:1–12).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the people and their leaders viewed Jesus as a rabbi, yet he “taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (CCC 581). This scene is about particular leaders at a particular moment, and it does not describe a people (CCC 597). In the Great Fast it is a question for each of us: when the truth would cost something, do we too say “we do not know”?
Did Jesus avoid the question?
No. His question contains the answer. John's baptism came from God, John bore witness to Jesus, and at that baptism the Father spoke of his Son. Jesus refuses only to hand a truth to people who have just said they will not judge honestly about the truth they already have.