FIRST
READING: Micah
6: 1 - 4, 6 - 8
1
Listen to what Yahweh said to me, "Stand up, let the mountains
hear your claim, and the hills listen to your plea."
2
Hear, O mountains, Yahweh's complaint! Foundations of the earth, pay
attention! For Yahweh has a case against his people, and will argue
it with Israel.
3
"O my people, what have I done to you? In what way have I been a
burden to you? Answer me.
4
I brought you out of Egypt; I rescued you from the land of bondage; I
sent Moses, Aaron and Miriam to lead you.
6
"What shall I bring when I come to Yahweh and bow down before
God the most high? Shall I come with burnt offerings, with sacrifices
of yearling calves?
7
Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams, with an overabundance
of oil libations? Should I offer my firstborn for my sins, the fruit
of my body for my wrongdoing?"
8
"You have been told, O man, what is good and what Yahweh
requires of you: to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with your God.
PSALM:
Psalms 50:
5 - 6, 8 - 9, 16 - 17, 21, 23
5
"Gather before me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me
by sacrifice."
6
The heavens will proclaim his sentence, for God himself is the judge.
8
Not for your sacrifices do I reprove you, for your burnt offerings
are ever before me.
9
I need no bull from your stalls, nor he-goat from your pens.
16
But God says this to the wicked: "What right have you to mouth
my laws, or to talk about my covenant?
17
You hate my commands and cast my words behind you.
21
Because I was silent while you did these things, you thought I was
like you. But now I rebuke you and make this charge against you.
23
Those who give with thanks offerings honor me, but the one who walks
blamelessly, I will show him the salvation of God."
GOSPEL:
Matthew 12:
38 - 42
38
Then some teachers of the Law and some Pharisees spoke up, "Teacher,
we want to see a sign from you."
39
Jesus answered them, "An evil and unfaithful people want a sign,
but no sign will be given them except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40
In the same way that Jonah spent three days and three nights in the
belly of the monster fish, so will the Son of Man spend three days
and three nights in the depths of the earth.
41
At the judgment, the people of Niniveh will rise with this generation
and condemn it, because they reformed their lives at the preaching of
Jonah, and here there is greater than Jonah.
42
At the judgment, the Queen of the South will stand up and condemn
you. She came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of
Solomon, and here there is greater than Solomon.
