FIRST
READING: Amos
8: 4 - 6, 9 - 12
4
Hear this, you who trample on the needy to do away with the weak of
the land.
5
You who say, "When will the new moon or the sabbath feast be
over that we may open the store and sell our grain? Let us lower the
measure and raise the price; let us cheat and tamper with the scales,
6
and even sell the refuse with the whole grain. We will buy up the
poor for money and the needy for a pair of sandals."
9
Yahweh says, "On that day I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10
I will turn your festivals into mourning and all your singing into
wailing. Everyone will mourn, covered with sackcloth and every head
will be shaved. I will make them mourn as for an only son and bring
their day to a bitter end."
11
Yahweh says, "Days are coming when I will send famine upon the
land, not hunger for bread or thirst for water, but for hearing the
word of Yahweh.
12
Men will stagger from sea to sea, wander to and fro, from north to
east, searching for the word of Yahweh, but they will not find it.
PSALM:
Psalms 119:
2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131
2
Blessed are they who treasure his word and seek him with all their
heart.
10
I seek you with my whole heart; let me not stray from your commands.
20
My soul is consumed with desire for your ordinances at all times.
30
I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart upon your laws.
40
Oh, how I long for your precepts! Renew my life in your
righteousness.
131
I gasp in ardent yearning for your commandments that I love.
GOSPEL:
Matthew 9:
9 - 13
9
As Jesus moved on from there, he saw a man named Matthew at his seat
in the custom-house, and he said to him, "Follow me." And
Matthew got up and followed him.
10
Now it happened, while Jesus was at table in Matthew's house, many
tax collectors and other sinners joined Jesus and his disciples.
11
When the Pharisees saw this they said to his disciples, "Why is
it that your master eats with those sinners and tax collectors?"
12
When Jesus heard this he said, "Healthy people do not need a
doctor, but sick people do.
13
Go and find out what this means: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice.
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."
