17 March 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1–2
God answers the servant's prayer at once: “Before he had finished speaking, there was Rebekah,” coming out with her water jar on her shoulder. He runs to her and asks for a little water. Watch how she answers: “Drink, my lord,” she says, and “quickly” lowers her jar; then, without being asked, “I will draw for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” She empties her jar into the trough and runs again to the well, again and again, until all ten camels have drunk. The text is full of her speed: quickly, ran, quickly. Her generosity is not measured; it goes to the end. The servant “gazed at her in silence,” and when he learns that she is of Abraham's kindred, he bows his head and worships: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master.” Origen loved this scene. He noted that Rebekah came to the wells every day, and that is why the servant of Abraham found her there; so the soul that comes daily to the wells of Scripture will meet the messenger of the Bridegroom (in substance).
Paul tells us whose generosity Rebekah reflects: “be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Christ did not give a measured love; he gave himself, to the end, and that self-offering is made present on our altar in every Holy Qurbono. In the Gospel, Jesus goes to the synagogue at Nazareth “on the sabbath day, as was his custom,” and reads from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives.” Today we remember St Patrick, who knew captivity from the inside. Seized from Britain by raiders at about sixteen, he spent six years as a slave herding flocks in Ireland, and there, he tells us in his Confession, he learned to pray many times a day and through the night (in substance). He escaped, became a priest and bishop, and then did the most Christ-like thing: he went back to the land of his slavery to bring the people who had enslaved him the good news of release. That is what it means to be an imitator of God.
Theme: “Be imitators of God, as beloved children.”
On the memorial of St Patrick: Rebekah's generosity, Christ's self-offering, and the good news brought back to the land of captivity.
“She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy.” Proverbs 31:20
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Hebrews 13:2
Apply: Do one small help today fully and gladly, without being asked twice.
“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Leviticus 19:2
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” John 13:34
Apply: Give one hour of your time this week to someone who cannot repay you.
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;” Isaiah 61:1
“And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”” Romans 10:15
Apply: Pray by name for someone who hurt you, and look for a way to do them good.
Rebekah's generosity went to the end; Christ's love went to the Cross.
Patrick carried the good news back to those who had enslaved him.
Take-home resolution: Live in love as Christ loved us, and bring good news even to those who have wronged us.
Dear friends, God answers prayer quickly. Before the servant had finished speaking, there was Rebekah (Genesis 24:15). He asks for a little water. She says: Drink, my lord. Then, without being asked: I will draw for your camels also, until they have finished drinking (Genesis 24:18–19).
Ten thirsty camels! She runs to the well again and again. Her generosity does not stop halfway. That is what God's love is like, and what our love should be like.
Paul says: be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us (Ephesians 5:1–2). Christ did not give a little; he gave himself, and he gives himself still in the Holy Qurbono.
Today we remember St Patrick. He was taken as a slave to Ireland when he was a boy. He escaped, became a priest and bishop, and then went back to the same land to bring them Jesus. Like Jesus in Nazareth he brought release to the captives (Luke 4:18). May we also love even those who hurt us. Amen.
Children, Rebekah gave water to a tired man, and then to all his ten camels! That is a lot of running. When Mummy asks you to help with one thing, try doing two. And remember St Patrick: he went back to the people who had made him a slave, to tell them about Jesus. That is real love.
Lord God, you answered the servant's prayer before he had finished speaking and showed him Rebekah's generous heart. Make us imitators of you, as beloved children, living in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. By the prayers of St Patrick, who returned with the gospel to the land of his captivity, give us courage to bring good news to the poor and release to captives, and to love even those who have wronged us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
In Genesis the prayer of the servant is answered before he has finished it, and Rebekah gives far more than she is asked. In Ephesians 5:1–4 the Christian is told to be an imitator of God and to live in love, as Christ “gave himself up for us”. In Luke, Jesus opens the scroll at Nazareth and reads his own mission: good news to the poor and release to captives. All three speak of generous giving, and the Church today remembers St Patrick, who once was a slave in Ireland and went back to bring the Gospel to the land of his captivity.
Setting.
The narrator tells us who Rebekah is before the servant knows it: she belongs to Abraham's own family, the granddaughter of his brother Nahor (see 22:20–23). The reader watches and waits while the servant, who does not yet know, sees her come down to the spring and go up again with a full jar. The test he set in his prayer now unfolds in front of him.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Before he had finished speaking, there was Rebekah,” (24:15)
The narrator stresses how sudden this is. Isaiah will say of God: “while they are yet speaking I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24). The answer was already on its way while the servant was still praying.
“I will draw for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” (24:19)
This is the very sign the servant asked for, and she goes further: “until they have finished”. Ten camels mean many trips down to the spring and up again, for a stranger, at the end of the day.
“The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful.” (24:21)
He does not rush to a conclusion. Faith has its own way of watching: it has prayed, and now it looks to see what God is doing.
“As for me, the Lord has led me on the way” (24:27)
His blessing has been all about “my master”. At its close he adds a word about himself: the servant has walked into a story and found that God was leading him as well.
How the Church reads it.
Origen in his homilies on Genesis notes that Rebekah came to the well every day, and sees in her the soul that comes each day to the wells of Scripture and so meets the servant of God (in substance). Many readers have seen in the scene at the well the pattern of John 4, where Jesus asks for a drink and the woman receives far more. The Catechism begins its teaching on prayer at that very well (CCC 2560). In the Great Fast, Rebekah teaches that charity does not stop at what is required.
Setting.
Luke places this visit at the start of Jesus' public work, right after the temptation in the desert. It serves as the opening statement of his whole ministry. In the synagogue service of that time a passage of Scripture would be read and then explained. Jesus stands to read, as a member of the community might, and the scroll of Isaiah is handed to him.
What he reads is mainly Isaiah 61:1–2, with one line added from Isaiah 58:6 (“to let the oppressed go free”). Luke's quotation stops before Isaiah's next line, “and the day of vengeance of our God”, and the reading ends on the Lord's favour.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He stood up to read,” (4:16)
Luke notes that going to the synagogue “on the sabbath day” was “his custom”. Jesus' mission begins inside the faithful worship of his people, and not in opposition to it.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” (4:18)
The Spirit, the Lord and the Anointed One are named together. The first of those to receive the good news are the poor, those who have no one to lean on but God.
“to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,” (4:18)
Luke will show each of these things happening: the unclean spirit driven out (4:35), the blind man seeing (18:42), the sinful woman forgiven (7:48).
“to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (4:19)
The reading breaks off here, on a note of welcome. In the next verse Jesus will sit down and say that this has been fulfilled today (4:21).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Christ inaugurates the proclamation of the Good News by making this passage of Isaiah his own (CCC 714). It is why the Church serves the poor as part of her mission and not as something added on. In the Fast, when we are asked to give what we save, this reading says whom it is for.
Why did Luke leave out “the day of vengeance” from Isaiah?
Luke does not explain, and we should not say more than the text does. Judgment is not removed from Jesus' teaching: he speaks of it elsewhere in Luke. Yet by closing on the Lord's favour, the passage places this first announcement under the sign of grace. Many commentators see in this a deliberate emphasis on the present time as a time of mercy.
The Church today commemorates St Patrick, bishop and apostle of Ireland, of the fifth century. He tells in his own Confession that as a youth in Roman Britain he was captured by raiders and made a slave in Ireland, where he kept flocks and learned to pray, and that after escaping he went back as a bishop to preach to the people who had enslaved him. He also wrote a strong letter against a chief whose soldiers had carried off newly baptised Christians. Today's Gospel of release to captives was something he had lived in his own flesh.