July 31, 2016

First Reading

Ecclesiastes 1: 2, 2: 21- 23

1:2 Ecclesiastes said: Vanity of vanities! Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity!

2:21 For when someone labors in wisdom, and doctrine, and prudence, he leaves behind what he has obtained to one who is idle. So this, too, is emptiness and a great burden.
2:22 For how can a man benefit from all his labor and affliction of spirit, by which he has been tormented under the sun?
2:23 All his days have been filled with sorrows and hardships; neither does he rest his mind, even in the night. And is this not emptiness?

Second Reading

Colossians 3: 1- 5, 9- 11

3:1 Therefore, if you have risen together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
3:2 Consider the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth.
3:3 For you have died, and so your life is hidden with Christ in God.
3:4 When Christ, your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
3:5 Therefore, mortify your body, while it is upon the earth. For because of fornication, impurity, lust, evil desires, and avarice, which are a kind of service to idols,

3:9 Do not lie to one another. Strip yourselves of the old man, with his deeds,
3:10 and clothe yourself with the new man, who has been renewed by knowledge, in accord with the image of the One who created him,
3:11 where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, servant nor free. Instead, Christ is everything, in everyone.

Gospel

Luke 12: 13- 21

12:13 And someone from the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
12:14 But he said to him, “Man, who has appointed me as judge or arbitrator over you?”
12:15 So he said to them: “Be cautious and wary of all avarice. For a person’s life is not found in the abundance of the things that he possesses.”
12:16 Then he spoke to them using a comparison, saying: “The fertile land of a certain wealthy man produced crops.
12:17 And he thought within himself, saying: ‘What should I do? For I have nowhere to gather together my crops.’
12:18 And he said: ‘This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And into these, I will gather all the things that have been grown for me, as well as my goods.
12:19 And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods, stored up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, and be cheerful.’
12:20 But God said to him: ‘Foolish one, this very night they require your soul of you. To whom, then, will those things belong, which you have prepared?’
12:21 So it is with him who stores up for himself, and is not wealthy with God.”