Monday of week 13 in Ordinary Time, or Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop, Doctor

First reading

Amos 2:6-10,13-16

Because of your crimes I will crush you into the ground

The Lord says this:
For the three crimes, the four crimes, of Israel
I have made my decree and will not relent:
because they have sold the virtuous man for silver
and the poor man for a pair of sandals,
because they trample on the heads of ordinary people
and push the poor out of their path,
because father and son have both resorted to the same girl,
profaning my holy name,
because they stretch themselves out by the side of every altar
on clothes acquired as pledges,
and drink the wine of the people they have fined
in the house of their god…
Yet it was I who overthrew the Amorites when they attacked,
men tall as cedars and strong as oaks,
I who destroyed them,
both fruit above ground
and root below.
It was I who brought you out of the land of Egypt
and for forty years led you through the wilderness
to take possession of the Amorite’s country.

See then how I am going to crush you into the ground
as the threshing-sledge crushes when clogged by straw;
flight will not save even the swift,
the strong man will find his strength useless,
the mighty man will be powerless to save himself.
The bowman will not stand his ground,
the fast runner will not escape,
the horseman will not save himself,
the bravest warriors will run away naked that day.
It is the Lord who speaks.

Psalm or canticle

Psalm 49(50):16-23

‘How can you recite my commandments
 and take my covenant on your lips,
you who despise my law
 and throw my words to the winds?

‘You who see a thief and go with him;
 who throw in your lot with adulterers,
who unbridle your mouth for evil
 and whose tongue is plotting crime.

‘You who sit and malign your brother
 and slander your own mother’s son.
You do this, and should I keep silence?
 Do you think that I am like you?

‘Mark this, you who never think of God,
 lest I seize you and you cannot escape;
a sacrifice of thanksgiving honours me
 and I will show God’s salvation to the upright.’

Gospel

Matthew 8:18-22

The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head

When Jesus saw the great crowds all about him he gave orders to leave for the other side. One of the scribes then came up and said to him, ‘Master, I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’
Another man, one of his disciples, said to him, ‘Sir, let me go and bury my father first.’ But Jesus replied, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.’


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Scripture readings taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. For on-line information about other Random House, Inc. books and authors, see the Internet web site at http://www.randomhouse.com.