Reading
The Book of Exodus 20: 1-17
| 20:1 | And the Lord spoke all these words: |
| 20:2 | “I am the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, out of the house of servitude. |
| 20:3 | You shall not have strange gods before me. |
| 20:4 | You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor a likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on earth below, nor of those things which are in the waters under the earth. |
| 20:5 | You shall not adore them, nor shall you worship them. I am the Lord your God: strong, zealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, |
| 20:6 | and showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my precepts. |
| 20:7 | You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not hold harmless one who takes the name of the Lord his God falsely. |
| 20:8 | Remember that you are to sanctify the day of the Sabbath. |
| 20:9 | For six days, you will work and accomplish all your tasks. |
| 20:10 | But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. You shall not do any work in it: you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, your beast and the newcomer who is within your gates. |
| 20:11 | For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all the things that are in them, and so he rested on the seventh day. For this reason, the Lord has blessed the day of the Sabbath and sanctified it. |
| 20:12 | Honor your father and your mother, so that you may have a long life upon the land, which the Lord your God will give to you. |
| 20:13 | You shall not murder. |
| 20:14 | You shall not commit adultery. |
| 20:15 | You shall not steal. |
| 20:16 | You shall not speak false testimony against your neighbor. |
| 20:17 | You shall not covet the house of your neighbor; neither shall you desire his wife, nor male servant, nor female servant, nor ox, nor donkey, nor anything that is his.” |
Second Reading
The First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 1: 22: 25
| 1:22 | For the Jews ask for signs, and the Greeks seek wisdom. |
| 1:23 | But we are preaching Christ crucified. Certainly, to the Jews, this is a scandal, and to the Gentiles, this is foolishness. |
| 1:24 | But to those who have been called, Jews as well as Greeks, the Christ is the virtue of God and the wisdom of God. |
| 1:25 | For what is foolishness to God is considered wise by men, and that which is weakness to God is considered strong by men. |
| 1:26 | So take care of your vocation, brothers. For not many are wise according to the flesh, not many are powerful, not many are noble. |
| 1:27 | But God has chosen the foolish of the world, so that he may confound the wise. And God has chosen the weak of the world, so that he may confound the strong. |
| 1:28 | And God has chosen the ignoble and contemptible of the world, those who are nothing, so that he may reduce to nothing those who are something. |
Gospel
The Holy Gospel According to John 2: 13-25
| 2:13 | And the Passover of the Jews was near, and so Jesus ascended to Jerusalem. |
| 2:14 | And he found, sitting in the temple, sellers of oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers. |
| 2:15 | And when he had made something like a whip out of little cords, he drove them all out of the temple, including the sheep and the oxen. And he poured out the brass coins of the moneychangers, and he overturned their tables. |
| 2:16 | And to those who were selling doves, he said: “Take these things out of here, and do not make my Father’s house into a house of commerce.” |
| 2:17 | And truly, his disciples were reminded that it is written: “Zeal for your house consumes me.” |
| 2:18 | Then the Jews responded and said to him, “What sign can you show to us, that you may do these things?” |
| 2:19 | Jesus responded and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” |
| 2:20 | Then the Jews said, “This temple has been built up over forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” |
| 2:21 | Yet he was speaking about the Temple of his body. |
| 2:22 | Therefore, when he had resurrected from the dead, his disciples were reminded that he had said this, and they believed in the Scriptures and in the word that Jesus had spoken. |
| 2:23 | Now while he was at Jerusalem during the Passover, on the day of the feast, many trusted in his name, seeing his signs that he was accomplishing. |
| 2:24 | But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he himself had knowledge of all persons, |
| 2:25 | and because he had no need of anyone to offer testimony about a man. For he knew what was within a man. |