FIRST
READING: Jeremiah
7: 1 - 11
1
These words were spoken by Yahweh, to Jeremiah,
2
"Stand at the gate of Yahweh's house and proclaim this in a loud
voice: Listen to what Yahweh says, all you people of Judah (who enter
these gates to worship Yahweh).
3
Yahweh the God of Israel says this:
Amend
your ways and your deeds and I will stay with you in this place.
4
Rely not on empty words such as: "Look, the Temple of Yahweh!
the Temple of Yahweh! This is the Temple of Yahweh!"
5
It is far better for you to amend your ways and act justly with all.
6
Do not abuse the stranger, orphan or widow or shed innocent blood in
this place or follow false gods to your own ruin.
7
Then I will stay with you in this place, in the land I gave to your
forefathers in times past and forever.
8
But you trust in deceptive and useless words.
9
You steal, kill, take the wife of your neighbor; you swear falsely,
worship Baal and follow foreign gods who are not yours.
10
Then, after doing all these horrible things, you come and stand
before me in this temple that bears my Name and say, "Now we are
safe."
11
Is this house on which rests my Name a den of thieves? I have seen
this myself - it is Yahweh who speaks.
PSALM:
Psalms 84:
3 - 6, 8, 11
3
My soul yearns, pines, for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my
flesh cry out for the living God.
4
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest where she may
lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God!
5
Happy are those who live in your house, continually singing your
praise!
6
Happy the pilgrims whom you strengthen, to make the ascent to you.
8
They go from strength to strength till they appear before God in
Zion.
11
One day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would
rather be left at the threshold in the house of my God than to dwell
in the tents of the wicked.
GOSPEL:
Matthew 13:
24 - 30
24
Jesus told them another parable, "The kingdom of heaven can be
compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25
While everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the
wheat and left.
26
When the plants sprouted and produced grain, the weeds also appeared.
27
Then the servants of the owner came to him and said: 'Sir, was it not
good seed that you sowed in your field? Where did the weeds come
from?'
28
He answered them: 'This is the work of an enemy.' They asked him: 'Do
you want us to go and pull up the weeds?'
29
He told them: 'No, when you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the
wheat with them.
30
Let them just grow together until harvest; and at harvest time I will
say to the workers: Pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and
burn them; then gather the wheat into my barn."
