16 March 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
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“To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27
Abraham's servant sets out with ten camels and choice gifts and travels to Aram-naharaim, to the city of Nahor. “He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water; it was toward evening, the time when women go out to draw water.” There, before doing anything else, he prays. It is the first prayer for guidance recorded in the Bible: “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham.” Then he asks for a sign, and the sign he asks for is wise. He does not ask for the most beautiful girl or the richest family. He asks for a heart: the girl who, when a tired stranger asks for a drink, will say, “Drink, and I will water your camels.” Ten thirsty camels after a desert journey would need a great deal of water drawn by hand. Only a generous, hard-working and kind young woman would offer that. The servant knows that what makes a good wife and mother in Israel is not wealth but a heart like God's own, quick to serve. Before a great decision he kneels his camels, stands by the spring and prays.
Paul shows a different kind of service, the service of suffering: “I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” This does not mean that the Cross of Christ was insufficient; his one sacrifice redeemed the whole world. It means that Christ, the Head, wills to share his saving work with his Body. St Augustine taught that the whole Christ is Head and members, and that what Christ suffered in his own flesh is filled up in the sufferings of his members until the end of time (in substance). That is why the Lord said to Saul, “why do you persecute me?” And the heart of it all is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” In the Gospel Jesus tells his disciples a second time: “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” Mark adds, sadly: “they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.” Holy Week is near. Let us not be afraid to ask him what his Cross means for our lives.
Theme: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
The prayer at the well, the sufferings that build up the Body, and the question the disciples were afraid to ask.
“Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.” Psalm 25:4
“If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.” James 1:5
Apply: Pray one sentence before every important choice this week.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
“He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”” Acts 9:4
Apply: Offer one daily pain this week for a named person in the Church.
“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jeremiah 33:3
“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” Matthew 7:7
Apply: Bring Jesus one honest question about suffering or the Cross in prayer before Hosanna Sunday.
The servant prayed before he chose; Paul rejoiced to suffer for the Body.
Jesus foretold his death and rising; he waits for us to ask.
Take-home resolution: Pray before every choice, offer every pain, and ask the Lord the meaning of his Cross.
Dear friends, Abraham's servant comes to a well after a long journey. Before he does anything else, he makes his camels kneel and he prays: O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today (Genesis 24:12).
He asks God for a sign: a girl who will say, Drink, and I will water your camels (Genesis 24:14). He is not looking for beauty or wealth. He is looking for a generous heart. That is the kind of heart God looks for in us too.
Paul says something surprising: I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake (Colossians 1:24). Christ's Cross saved the world, but he lets us share in it. When we offer our pain with love, it becomes a gift for the whole Church. And the secret is this: Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
Jesus tells his disciples again that he will be killed and will rise. But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him (Mark 9:32). Holy Week is coming. Let us not be afraid to ask Jesus what his Cross means for us. He will answer those who ask. Amen.
Children, the servant made his camels kneel down and then he prayed. Before a test, before a game, before you say sorry to someone, you can stop and pray: Jesus, help me today. And try to be like the girl at the well: do a little more than you are asked.
Lord God of Abraham, your servant prayed at the well and you heard him before he had finished speaking. Teach us to pray before we choose, and give us generous hearts that serve beyond what is asked. Unite our sufferings with the afflictions of your Son for the sake of his Body, the Church. Let Christ dwell in us, our hope of glory, and do not let us be afraid to ask him the meaning of his Cross. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
In Genesis the servant reaches the end of his long road and begins with a prayer at a well. In Colossians 1:24–29 the apostle rejoices in his sufferings for the Body of Christ, and names the secret he preaches: “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. In Mark, Jesus tells his disciples for the second time that he will be handed over, killed and raised, and they are afraid to ask what he means. All three readings speak of a purpose larger than the person who serves it, and of how little that person may see at the start.
Setting.
The servant travels north with ten camels and gifts to Aram-naharaim, “Aram of the two rivers”, in the north of Mesopotamia. The city of Nahor is the place where Abraham's brother and his family have settled (22:20–23). The journey itself is told in a single verse, because what matters is not the road but what happens at its end.
Wells were a meeting place in the ancient world, and the Bible tells several important meetings at them: Jacob and Rachel (Genesis 29), Moses and the daughters of Reuel (Exodus 2), Jesus and the woman of Samaria (John 4).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels” (24:10)
Ten camels are real wealth, and they will soon become a real test. A thirsty camel drinks a great deal.
“O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today” (24:12)
This is one of the first prayers for guidance in the Bible. The servant does not yet call the Lord “my God”. He comes under the faith of the one who sent him, and that is enough for his prayer to be heard.
“Let the girl to whom I shall say, ‘Please offer your jar that I may drink,’” (24:14)
The sign he asks for is not a wonder in the sky. It tests character: a woman who gives water to a stranger and offers, unasked, to do the heavy work of watering his camels. He is looking for the mark of Abraham's own house, the hospitality of Genesis 18.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well, where Christ comes to meet every human being (CCC 2560). This servant's prayer is short, concrete and made at work. It shows that one may ask God for help with an ordinary task on an ordinary evening. The Church does not teach us from this to test God with signs of our own devising (compare Deuteronomy 6:16). The servant's request rises out of an obedient errand, and it looks for a virtue, not for a spectacle.
Setting.
Mark records three foretellings of the Passion on the road to Jerusalem (8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34). After each one the disciples misunderstand, and Jesus teaches them about service. This one comes after the Transfiguration and the healing of the boy at the foot of the mountain. They now pass through Galilee quietly, because Jesus is giving his time to teaching the disciples.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He did not want anyone to know it;” (9:30)
There are no crowds on this stretch of the road. In the Great Fast too, the Lord takes his disciples aside to teach them what they could not take in among the crowds.
“The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him,” (9:31)
“Son of Man” and “human hands” make a sharp contrast in Greek, where the same word for human stands in both. The one who is truly human falls into the hands of others who share his humanity.
“But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.” (9:32)
They may be afraid of the answer. In the very next verses they are arguing over which of them is the greatest (9:33–34). It is easy to find a safe subject when the Lord has just spoken of the Cross.
How the Church reads it.
The Church teaches that Jesus' death was not the result of chance, but belongs to the mystery of God's plan, as Peter says at Pentecost (CCC 599; Acts 2:23). The Catechism also says that from Peter's confession onward the Master began to show his disciples what he must suffer (CCC 554). Mark's disciples are a comfort to anyone who has not understood the Cross at the first hearing. They were slow, and they were afraid, and yet the Lord kept teaching them.
In today's epistle Colossians says, “I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”. Is something lacking in the Cross?
Nothing is lacking in the redemption Christ won. The Cross is complete. The verse speaks of Christ's body, the Church, whose suffering goes on until the end, and the apostle shares in it by serving her. The Catechism applies this verse to all who suffer in union with Christ (CCC 1508), and St John Paul II develops it in Salvifici Doloris 24. Many scholars think a disciple wrote Colossians in Paul's name, while others hold that Paul wrote it. The Church receives it as inspired Scripture in either case.