22 March 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
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“But you are the same, and your years will never end.” Hebrews 1:12
Last evening, as Hosanna Sunday closed, our Church entered Hasha Week. Hasho is the Syriac word for suffering: this is the week of the Lord's Passion, and the Church walks beside him day by day. On Monday the Gospel finds Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem, teaching, a few days before his death. The chief priests and the elders come with a question: “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus answers with a question of his own: “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” They weigh the answer by what it will cost them, not by what is true, and at last say: “We do not know.” St John Chrysostom notes that the Lord did not refuse to answer people who wished to learn, but people who asked only in order to trap him (in substance). The question is not only theirs. Each of us knows how to say “We do not know” when the truth would ask too much. This week Jesus will answer the question of his authority, not with argument, but with the Cross and the empty tomb.
Isaiah shows why some do not hear. God offers himself as “a garland of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,” but the leaders of the city are drunk: “the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink.” They mock the prophet's plain teaching as baby talk, “precept upon precept... line upon line, here a little, there a little.” Yet the message God sent was simple and kind: “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; “yet they would not hear.” The Letter to the Hebrews then lifts our eyes to who it is that stands in the temple. To the Son the Father says: “In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain.” Everything wears out like clothing, “But you are the same, and your years will never end.” The man questioned in the temple courts is the Lord who laid the foundations of the earth. He has every authority, and he uses it this week to lay down his life for us.
How does a family keep Hasha Week? First, by going with the Church to the prayers of the hours. This week our Church prays the Evening, Compline, Night, Morning, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours with special solemnity, and the new Hasha Week lectionary gives readings from the Old Testament, the Apostle and the Gospel for each hour; follow your parish timetable for the hours and for the Holy Qurbono. Second, by keeping the fast and the abstinence of the Great Lent to its end, with the prostrations (kumbideel) as your parish practises them; the Panchangam asks priests to remind the faithful of the special prayers and abstinences of this week. Third, by preparing for Pesaha with a good confession before Thursday. At home, light the lamp in the evening, read the day's Gospel aloud, pray the evening prayer from the Shehimo, and end with a few moments of silence before the cross. Today we also remember Fr Seraphion Attupurathu OIC, known as Alexander Shemmashan, who came into Catholic communion in the reunion of 1930 and served the Church until his death in 1975.
Theme: “But you are the same, and your years will never end.”
On Hasha Monday: the question in the temple, the rest God offers, and the Lord who remains.
“To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.” Daniel 7:14
“No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” John 10:18
Apply: Bring one truth you have been avoiding to confession before Pesaha.
“Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Apply: Take one burden off a weary person during Hasha Week.
“but you are the same, and your years have no end.” Psalm 102:27
“I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades.” Revelation 1:18
Apply: Each evening this week, end the day with a few minutes of silence before the cross.
The Lord of all lets himself be questioned, and answers with his life.
Hasha Week asks us to stop evading and to stay with him.
Take-home resolution: Keep the hours, the fast and a good confession this Hasha Week, and give rest to someone who is weary.
Dear friends, last evening Hasha Week began, the week of our Lord's Passion. Today the Gospel shows Jesus in the temple, and the chief priests and elders ask him: by what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority? (Matthew 21:23).
Jesus asks them about John's baptism, and they answer: we do not know (Matthew 21:27). They knew, but the truth would cost them. Let us be honest: we too say “I do not know” when God asks something hard of us.
Isaiah tells of a people to whom God said: this is rest; give rest to the weary; yet they would not hear (Isaiah 28:12). And Hebrews sings to the Son: they will perish, but you remain (Hebrews 1:11). The Lord who made heaven and earth stands in the temple and lets himself be questioned.
His answer will come on Friday: not a speech, but the Cross; and on Sunday, the empty tomb. This week let us go to the prayers of the hours, keep the fast, make a good confession, and give rest to someone who is weary. Amen.
Children, this week is called Hasha Week. It is the most special week of the year, because Jesus suffered and died for us, and then rose again. Some people asked Jesus: who gave you the power to do these things? Jesus is God's Son. All power belongs to him, and he used it to love us. Can you say a short prayer to Jesus every evening this week?
Lord Jesus Christ, in the beginning you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands; you remain when all things wear out. In these holy days you walked into Jerusalem to suffer for us. Give us hearts that hear your word and do not evade it. Make us a people who give rest to the weary. Keep us close to you through this week of your Passion, that we may rejoice in your Resurrection. Grant eternal rest to Fr Seraphion and to all who have served your Church faithfully. Amen.
Hasha Week opens with a question about hearing. In Isaiah, God offers rest to the weary, and the leaders of the city, unsteady with wine, call his plain teaching baby talk. In Matthew, Jesus stands in the temple a few days before his death, and those in charge ask by what authority he acts. The Epistle (Hebrews 1:10–14) gives the answer that neither crowd could yet see: heaven and earth will wear out like clothing, “But you are the same.” The key words are rest, authority and hearing.
Setting.
Isaiah spoke in Jerusalem in the eighth century before Christ, when Assyria was swallowing the small kingdoms around Judah. Chapter 28 opens with a cry over “the proud garland of the drunkards of Ephraim” (28:1), that is, the northern kingdom and its capital Samaria, which fell in 722 BC. Today's reading then turns. “These also” reel with wine (v. 7), and a few verses after our passage the prophet names them: “you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem” (28:14). What happened to the north can happen in the south.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“In that day the Lord of hosts will be a garland of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people;” (28:5)
The promise comes before the rebuke. God's first word is that a people will remain, and that he himself will be their beauty.
“the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,” (28:7)
The drunkenness may be literal, and it is also a picture. Those whose office was to see clearly and to judge fairly “err in vision” and “stumble in giving judgment”.
“to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear.” (28:12)
This is the centre of the passage. The message was never complicated. God's word for a frightened city was to care for the tired, and not to trust in clever alliances.
“Truly, with stammering lip and with alien tongue he will speak to this people,” (28:11)
Those who refused a plain word in their own tongue will hear God through the speech of foreign invaders. Paul takes up this verse in another setting (1 Corinthians 14:21).
How the Church reads it.
On a Monday of Hasha Week the reading sounds a note of warning to all who hold office in God's house, and first of all to us who hear it. Jesus' own invitation, “Come to me, all you that are weary” and “I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28), is the same offer made in person. The Catechism says that Christ himself is the Word in whom the Father says everything (CCC 65): the danger is the one Isaiah names, to be near the word and not to hear it.
Setting.
In Matthew's order, Jesus has entered Jerusalem to the cry of Hosanna (21:1–11), driven the buyers and sellers from the temple (21:12–17), and cursed a barren fig tree (21:18–22). Now he returns to the temple to teach. “These things” in the question may cover all of this. The chief priests and the elders had charge of the temple and of public order, so the question is one they had a right to ask. The trouble lies in how they weigh the answer.
Matthew is speaking of these particular leaders at this moment, not of a whole people. The Catechism recalls that there was division among the authorities themselves, and that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were secret disciples (CCC 595). The crowd in this very passage holds John to be a prophet.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” (21:23)
The question is the right one. All of Matthew's Gospel exists to answer it.
“Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” (21:25)
This is no dodge. John had pointed to Jesus (3:11–17). Whoever accepts John from heaven has the answer to the first question in his hands.
“we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” (21:26)
The debate has two columns, what it will cost if we say this and what it will cost if we say that. The column that is missing is whether it is true.
“Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” (21:27)
Jesus does not refuse a person who wants to learn. He declines to play a game whose result has been fixed in advance. He will give his answer before the high priest (26:64), and on the Cross.
How the Church reads it.
St John Chrysostom notes that the Lord did not refuse people who wished to learn, but people who asked in order to trap him (in substance). The Church reads the passage as a lesson on conscience: a person must seek what is true and good and follow it, even when the cost is high (CCC 1776–1778). The risen Lord's words in 28:18 are the last word on the question. His authority comes from the Father, and it was shown not in force but in the Cross and the empty tomb.
Was Jesus avoiding the question?
No. His counter-question is an answer for anyone willing to take it up. John said that one mightier than he was coming, and baptized Jesus. To say that John was from heaven is to take the first step toward Jesus. Those who will not take that step would not be helped by a further statement.
Our Church entered Hasha Week on the evening of Hosanna Sunday. Hasho is the Syriac word for suffering. The Panchangam notes that the newly prepared Hasha Week lectionary provides readings for every hour of prayer this week, and it also remembers today Fr Seraphion Attupurathu OIC, who came into Catholic communion in the reunion of 1930 and died in 1975.