Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time (II)

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Isaiah 7.1-9

In the days of Ahaz,
the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah,
king of Judah,
Rezin the king of Syria,
and Pekah the son of Remaliah,
king of Israel,
went up to Jerusalem to war against it,
but could not prevail against it.
It was said to the house of David,
“Aram is allied with Ephraim.”
His heart trembled,
and the heart of his people,
as the trees of the forest
tremble with the wind.

Then the Lord said to Isaiah,
“Go out now to meet Ahaz,
you, and Shearjashub your son,
at the end of the conduit of the upper pool,
on the highway of the fuller’s field.
Tell him, ‘Be careful, and keep calm.
Do not be afraid,
nor let your heart be faint
because of these two stumps of smoking torches,
for the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram,
and of the son of Remaliah.

Because Aram, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah,
have plotted evil against you, saying,
“Let us go up against Judah, and tear it apart,
and let us divide it among ourselves,
and set up a king within it,
even the son of Tabeel.”

This is what the Lord says:
“It shall not stand, nor shall it happen.”
For the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin;
and within sixty-five years
Ephraim shall be broken in pieces,
so that it shall not be a people;
and the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son.

If your faith is not firm,
you will not be firm.

Responsorial – Psalm 48.2-3a, 3b-4, 5-6, 7-8 Resp. 9d

R. God will establish his city forever.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
in the city of our God,
in his holy mountain, beautiful on the heights,
the joy of the whole earth.

R. God will establish his city forever.

Mount Zion, in the far north,
the city of the great King.
God has shown himself in her citadels
as a refuge.

R. God will establish his city forever.

For, behold, the kings assembled themselves,
they passed by together.
They saw it, then they were amazed.
They were dismayed; they hurried away.

R. God will establish his city forever.

Trembling took hold of them there,
pain, as of a woman in travail.
With the east wind,
you break the ships of Tarshish.

R. God will establish his city forever.

Gospel – Matthew 11.20-24

Jesus began to denounce
the cities in which
most of his mighty works had been done,
because they did not repent.
“Woe to you, Chorazin!
Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty works had been done
in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you,
they would have repented long ago
in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you,
it will be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon
on the day of judgment than for you.

You, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven,
you will go down to Hades.
For if the mighty works
had been done in Sodom
which were done in you,
it would have remained until this day.
But I tell you that it will be
more tolerable for the land of Sodom,
on the day of judgment, than for you.”