A reading from the hoy Gospel according to Mathew (Mt 10:16-23)
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;
so
be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.
But beware of men,
for they will hand you over to courts
and scourge
you in their synagogues,
and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake
as a witness before them and the
pagans.
When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given
at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through
you.
Brother will hand over brother to death,
and the father his child;
children will rise up against parents and
have them put to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but whoever endures to the end will be saved.
When
they persecute you in one town, flee to another.
Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel
before
the Son of Man comes.”
He grew up like a sapling before him,
like a shoot from the parched earth;
There was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him,
nor appearance that would attract us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering,
accustomed to infirmity,
One of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned,
and we held him in no esteem.
Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,
our sufferings that he endured,
While we thought of him as stricken,
as one smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins,
Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,
by his stripes we were healed.
We had all gone astray like sheep,
each following his own way;
But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.
Though he was harshly treated,
he submitted and opened not his mouth;
Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers,
he was silent and opened not his mouth.
Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away,
and who would have thought any more of his destiny?
When he was cut off from the land of the living,
and smitten for the sin of his people,
A grave was assigned him among the wicked
and a burial place with evildoers, T
hough he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood.
(But the LORD was pleased to crush him in infirmity.)
If he gives his life as an offering for sin,
he shall see his descendants in a long life,
and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.
Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days;
Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,
and their guilt he shall bear.
Therefore I will give him his portion among the great,
and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty,
Because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; And he shall take away the sins
of many, and win pardon for their offenses.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mathew (Mt 10:24-28)
No disciple is above his teacher,
no slave above his master.
It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher,
for the slave that he become like his master.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,
how much more those of his household!
"Therefore do not be afraid of them.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
