July 15, 2014

Reading

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah    7: 1-9

7:1	And it happened in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, ascended to Jerusalem to battle against it. But they were not able to defeat it.
7:2	And they reported to the house of David, saying: “Syria has withdrawn to Ephraim.” And his heart was shaken, with the heart of his people, just as the trees of the forest are moved by the face of the wind.
7:3	And the Lord said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son, Jashub, who was left behind, to the end of the aqueduct, at the upper pool, on the road to the fuller’s field.
7:4	And you shall say to him: “See to it that you are silent. Do not be afraid. And have no dread in your heart over the two tails of these firebrands, nearly extinguished, which are the wrath of the fury of Rezin, king of Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.”
7:5	For Syria has undertaken a plan against you, with the evil of Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying:
7:6	“Let us ascend to Judah, and stir it up, and tear it away for ourselves, and appoint the son of Tabeel as a king in its midst.”
7:7	Thus says the Lord God: This shall not stand, and this shall not be.
7:8	For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years from now, Ephraim will cease to be a people.
7:9	For the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you will not continue.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew    11: 20-24

11:20	Then he began to rebuke the cities in which many of his miracles were accomplished, for they still had not repented.
11:21	“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in haircloth and ashes.
11:22	Yet truly, I say to you, Tyre and Sidon shall be forgiven more than you, on the day of judgment.
11:23	And you, Capernaum, would you be exalted all the way to heaven? You shall descend all the way to Hell. For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Sodom, perhaps it would have remained, even to this day.
11:24	Yet truly, I say to you, that the land of Sodom shall be forgiven more than you, on the day of judgment.”