19 March 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4
Today the forty days are complete. Since Shubkono on 8 February the Church has fasted, prayed and made her prostrations, walking with the Lord who “fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.” The Panchangam sets side by side two scenes of temptation. In a garden full of fruit the serpent asks, “Did God say…?” and promises, “You will not die… you will be like God.” The woman sees that the tree is “good for food,” “a delight to the eyes,” and “to be desired to make one wise”; she takes and eats, and gives to her husband. In a desert without bread the same tempter comes to Jesus with the same three hungers: for bread, for display, for power. Where Adam doubted the word of God, Jesus answers each time with that word: “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” St Irenaeus taught that the Lord fought as a man against the enemy who had taken us captive in Adam, and conquered him, so that what was lost at a tree in a garden was won back in obedience (in substance). Luke adds a sober line: “When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.” That time will come in Gethsemane and on the Cross.
The other readings ask what our fast has been for. Isaiah hears the people complain, “Why do we fast, but you do not see?” and God answers: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice… Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house?” Jeremiah, at the Temple gate, warns against trusting in holy places while living unholy lives: “Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place.” David, buying the threshing floor where the Temple would later stand, refuses a free gift: “I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” And Peter shows us the price of our own redemption: “not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.” So Paul can say: “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” The forty days end today, but the Fast is not over: tomorrow we stand at the tomb of Lazarus, and on Sunday we enter Jerusalem with the Lord and begin the Week of the Passion.
This year the Fortieth Friday falls on the feast of Mar Yauseph, St Joseph, and so the Church does not fast or make the prostrations today. Joseph is the right companion for this day. Like Abraham, of whom Paul writes, “Hoping against hope, he believed,” Joseph trusted God's word when nothing made sense. Finding Mary with child, “being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace,” he planned to dismiss her quietly. Then the angel spoke in a dream: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” And Matthew gives the whole of Joseph in one line: “When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” Where Adam heard God's word and doubted it, Joseph heard and obeyed at once, without a single recorded word. Pope Francis, in Patris Corde, called him a father in the shadows, beloved, tender, obedient, accepting, creatively courageous and a working man (in substance). The guardian of the Child in Bethlehem stood near the Mother at the beginning of the road that ends at Calvary. On the last day of the Forty, we ask him to guard the Church as he guarded the Holy Family.
Theme: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
On the Fortieth Friday and the feast of St Joseph: the tempter overcome, the fast God chooses, and the righteous man who obeyed.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15
Apply: Learn one verse by heart today and use it against temptation in Holy Week.
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” Isaiah 58:6
“You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.” 1 Peter 1:18–19
Apply: Give what you saved in the forty days to the hungry before Sunday.
“Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.” 2 Samuel 7:16
“When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,” Matthew 1:24
Apply: Do at once the one thing God has long been asking of you.
The forty days end in the victory of the word over the tempter.
With St Joseph we go on, obedient and hoping, toward Lazarus, Jerusalem and the Cross.
Take-home resolution: Live by every word from the mouth of God, and obey it at once, like Joseph.
Dear friends, today the forty days of the Great Fast are complete. Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights, and the devil came to tempt him. Long ago, in a garden full of fruit, our first parents listened to the tempter and doubted God's word (Genesis 3:1–6). In a desert without bread, Jesus answered: One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).
What was our fast for? Isaiah tells us: Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice… to share your bread with the hungry? (Isaiah 58:6–7). David said: I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing (2 Samuel 24:24). And Peter reminds us what our salvation cost: not silver or gold, but the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18–19).
Today is also the feast of St Joseph, so we do not fast today. Joseph is a man of few words and quick obedience. When the angel spoke to him in a dream, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him (Matthew 1:24). Adam heard God's word and doubted; Joseph heard and obeyed.
The forty days end, but our journey goes on. Tomorrow we stand with Martha and Mary at the tomb of Lazarus; on Sunday we wave palms and go up to Jerusalem with the Lord. Let us ask St Joseph to walk with us as he walked with Mary and the Child. Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's (Romans 14:8). Amen.
Children, when the devil tempted Jesus, Jesus answered with words from the Bible. You can do the same: when you feel like lying or being unkind, say a Bible word, like: Jesus, I love you more. And St Joseph, whose feast is today, did what God asked right away. Can you obey your parents right away today, like Joseph?
Lord Jesus Christ, for forty days and forty nights you fasted in the wilderness and overcame the tempter by the word of God, where our first parents fell. Thank you for bringing us to the end of these forty days. Let our fast bear fruit in mercy to the hungry, in amended lives, and in offerings that cost us something, for you have ransomed us with your precious blood. By the prayers of Mar Yauseph, the righteous man who did at once what the Lord commanded, give us silent and ready obedience, guard our families, and lead us with you into Jerusalem, to your Cross and your Resurrection. Amen.
Two celebrations meet today. The Great Fast reaches its Fortieth Friday, and the Church keeps the feast of Mar Yauseph, spouse of the Virgin Mary, with his own readings. The evening Gospel (Matthew 4:1–11) and the Gospel of the Holy Qurbono (Luke 4:1–13) both tell of Jesus in the desert, and beside them stands Genesis 3, the temptation in the garden. Three other lessons ask what a true offering is: David will not offer what costs him nothing (2 Samuel 24:18–25), Jeremiah warns those who trust in the Temple without justice (Jeremiah 7:1–7), and Isaiah names “the fast that I choose” (Isaiah 58:1–8). Then 1 Peter 1:13–21 recalls the price of our redemption, and Romans 14:1–9 says that whether we eat or abstain, live or die, we belong to the Lord.
St Joseph's readings seem at first to be another subject, but they fit. Where Adam and Eve doubted God's word, Joseph, like Abraham, took God at his word when everything seemed to say otherwise. Hoping against hope, he did as the angel commanded. The key words are tempted, it is written and he did.
Setting.
Genesis 2 has shown a garden full of gift. Every tree may be eaten from, except one (2:16–17). Chapter 2 ended with the man and woman “naked, and … not ashamed” (2:25). Genesis 3 tells how that peace was broken. The Catechism says that this account uses figurative language but affirms a primeval event that took place at the beginning of human history (CCC 390).
The story is told simply, and it is not about a fruit. It is about whether the creature can trust the Creator's word.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (3:1)
The first temptation begins with a question that turns God's generosity into a prohibition. God had given every tree but one. The serpent makes him sound like a God who gives none.
“You will not die;” (3:4)
The question has become a flat denial. Temptation usually moves in these two stages: first “is that really what God said?”, then “it will not harm you.”
“good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,” (3:6)
A threefold attraction: appetite, the eye, and pride of mind. 1 John 2:16 has a similar list (“the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches”). In Luke's Gospel today the tempter comes with three offers.
“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked;” (3:7)
The serpent's promise comes true in a bitter way. Their eyes open, and what they see is their own shame. They make a covering, but it is God who will clothe them (3:21).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says: “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of” (CCC 397). The Church reads this passage only in the light of Christ, for the doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the “reverse side” of the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all (CCC 389). Paul sets the two men side by side: “by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).
In the Syriac tradition, Mar Aprem and others speak of Adam and Eve as clothed in a robe of glory which they lost when they sinned, and which Christ restores to us in Baptism (in substance).
Setting.
Paul writes to the Christians of Rome, a church he has not yet visited, some time in the 50s. Chapters 12–15 turn to daily life. In this chapter the community is divided over food and holy days. Some are “weak in faith” and abstain from certain foods; others eat anything. Many scholars think the “weak” were mostly believers who kept Jewish food and calendar customs, and the “strong” mostly believers of Gentile background, though the text does not say so directly. Paul himself sides with the “strong” on the question (15:1), but his interest lies elsewhere: how they treat one another.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions.” (14:1)
Welcome that is really a chance to argue is not welcome at all. Parishes know this temptation.
“while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.” (14:6)
Paul does not make fasting unimportant. He gives it its true direction. To abstain “in honor of the Lord” is the very reason for a fast. What he rules out is using one's own practice as a measure of another person's standing before God.
“We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.” (14:7)
The Catechism quotes this verse on the communion of saints: no one's life or death concerns that person alone (CCC 953).
“so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (14:8)
This is one of the great sentences of Christian comfort. At the end of a long fast, it says what the fast has been teaching: we belong to him.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism opens its teaching on Christ's reign with verse 9: “Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (CCC 668). The Church's own laws of fasting are not cancelled by these words. Paul's concern is charity among believers over matters on which they differ. The Church's discipline serves the same aim that he names: all is done “in honor of the Lord”.
Setting.
Luke has just told of Jesus' baptism (3:21–22), and has traced his genealogy back through Adam, who is called “son of God” (3:38). So the next scene follows closely on the words “Adam, son of God”, and here another Son of God faces the tempter. The forty days also recall Israel's forty years in the desert, where the people were tested and often failed (Deuteronomy 8:2), and the fasts of Moses (Exodus 34:28) and Elijah (1 Kings 19:8).
All three of Jesus' answers come from Deuteronomy (8:3; 6:13; 6:16). The devil's one quotation comes from Psalm 91:11–12.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,” (4:1)
Being full of the Spirit does not protect him from the desert; it leads him there. A person may be in temptation and yet exactly where God wants him to be.
“If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” (4:3)
The voice at the Jordan said “You are my Son” (3:22), and the devil begins by casting doubt on it. The temptation is to use his sonship for himself, whereas later he will give bread to thousands (9:12–17) and give himself as bread.
“If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” (4:7)
This offers the kingdom without the Cross. The Father will indeed give him all, by way of the road the devil tries to spare him.
“for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’” (4:10)
The devil can quote Scripture. Knowing the words is not enough; they must be read with a heart that trusts God and does not try to force his hand.
“When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.” (4:13)
“Every” test: these three stand for the whole of temptation. Hebrews says of Christ: “one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says: “Jesus is the new Adam who remained faithful just where the first Adam had given in to temptation” (CCC 539), and that the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert (CCC 540). St Irenaeus taught that the Lord fought as a man, and overcame the enemy in the very flesh in which Adam had been overcome (Against Heresies 5.21, in substance). The answer to each temptation is the same in every age: not a clever argument, but obedience to the word of God.
Setting.
Paul has been arguing that God's promise came to Abraham before circumcision and before the Law, and that it came by faith (4:9–15). The conclusion is that Abraham is the father of all who believe, whatever their origin. On the feast of St Joseph, the Church sets the father of faith beside the man who received in faith the child promised to Abraham's line.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“he is the father of all of us,” (4:16)
“Our father Abraham” is a title dear to Israel. Paul widens the circle without removing anyone from it: the promise is “not only to the adherents of the law” but also to those who share Abraham's faith.
“who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” (4:17)
Abraham's and Sarah's bodies were beyond childbearing. His faith was in a God who creates from nothing and raises the dead. The verse foreshadows Easter, and Lazarus tomorrow.
“Hoping against hope, he believed” (4:18)
The Catechism quotes these words on the virtue of hope (CCC 1819). It takes up the hope of Israel, whose origin and model is the hope of Abraham.
How the Church reads it.
The Church honours Abraham as the model of the obedience of faith (CCC 144–146), and Joseph is the one who, at the end of the long line from Abraham, believes in the same manner. St John Paul II says in Redemptoris Custos that in doing what the angel commanded, Joseph showed the “obedience of faith”, and so shared from the first in Mary's faith (sections 4–5, in substance).
Setting.
Matthew has just given Jesus' genealogy through the line of David, and has ended it with an unusual phrase: “Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born” (1:16). The present passage explains how this can be. Jesus is truly son of David through Joseph, who gives him legal fatherhood by naming him, and yet he is not conceived by a man.
In Jewish custom of the time, betrothal was a binding legal bond. The couple were already called husband and wife, and it could be ended only by a formal divorce, though they did not yet live together. This is why Joseph is called “husband” and why he must “dismiss” her.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” (1:19)
Joseph has made a just and gentle decision, but God has something else in mind. God does not rebuke him; he gives him more light. His goodness had reached as far as he could see.
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,” (1:20)
The angel calls him by his royal title, and it matters. The Catechism says that this is how Jesus comes to be born of Joseph's spouse into the messianic line of David (CCC 437).
“for he will save his people from their sins.” (1:21)
Not from Rome or from their enemies, as some might have hoped. The name of the child states his mission in plain words. It is the answer to Genesis 3.
“which means, “God is with us.”” (1:23)
The Gospel opens with this and closes with the Lord's own promise: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (28:20). Matthew's whole Gospel lies between the two.
“When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him;” (1:24)
This is the first of several times that Joseph rises and obeys (2:14, 21). In Eden, the word of God was doubted and then disobeyed. Here it is received in a dream, in the middle of a crisis, and it is done at once.
How the Church reads it.
The Fathers did not all read Joseph's hesitation the same way. St John Chrysostom praises the gentleness of a man who would not shame her even though he could not explain what had happened. St Jerome, in his commentary on Matthew, thinks Joseph knew Mary's purity and, in the face of a mystery he did not understand, kept silence (both in substance). Either way, he is righteous.
St John Paul II wrote on him in Redemptoris Custos (1989), and Pope Francis in Patris Corde (2020), where he describes Joseph as a father in the shadows, obedient, accepting and courageous. Our own tradition calls him Mar Yauseph, and the feast keeps his quiet obedience before our eyes as Hasha Week approaches.
Matthew says Joseph “had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son”. Does this mean they did afterwards?
No. The Greek word for “until” (heōs) says what did not happen up to a certain time, and says nothing about what came after. Matthew's concern is that Jesus was not conceived by Joseph. The Church confesses Mary's perpetual virginity (CCC 499–501), and notes that the “brothers of Jesus” are close relations in the biblical manner of speaking (CCC 500).
Does Romans 14 mean that fasting does not matter?
No. Paul honours those who abstain “in honor of the Lord” (14:6), and Jesus himself fasted, as today's Gospels show. Paul is speaking of how believers treat one another when they differ. What he condemns is contempt and judging, not fasting. The Fast is a gift the Church gives her children, kept with charity toward those who, through illness or age or other reason, keep it differently.
If Jesus could not sin, were his temptations real?
They were real. The Letter to the Hebrews says he “in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin” (4:15). Hunger, the offer of power and the invitation to test God were real pressures on a real human will. That he did not give in does not make the struggle less. It means he knew its full force, since he never gave way before it had done its worst.
The Fortieth Friday is a turning point for our Church. The Panchangam notes that today there is no fasting and there are no forty prostrations (kumbideel). Tomorrow is the Saturday of Lazarus, and on Sunday we bring palm leaves and flowers for Hosanna. Today's readings gather up what the Great Fast has taught, a return to God's word and a fast that feeds the hungry, and hand us on to the days of the Lord's Passion in the company of a man who said nothing and did what he was told.