Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time (II)

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Habakkuk 1.12-2:4

Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God,
my Holy One, immortal?
O Lord, you have marked him for judgment.
O Rock, you have established him for punishment.
You who have eyes too pure to see evil,
and who cannot look on misery,
why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously,
and keep silent when the wicked swallows up
the man who is more righteous than he?

You have made men like the fish of the sea,
like the creeping things,
that have no ruler over them.
He takes up all of them with the hook.
He catches them in his net,
and gathers them in his dragnet.
Therefore he rejoices and is glad.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net,
and burns incense to his dragnet,
because by them his life is luxurious,
and his food is good.
Will he then continually empty his net,
and kill the nations without mercy?

I will stand at my watch,
and set myself on the ramparts,
and will look out to see
what he will say to me,
and what he will answer
concerning my complaint.

The Lord answered me,
“Write the vision,
and make it plain on tablets,
that anyone may read it quickly.
For the vision is yet for the appointed time,
and it hurries toward the end,
and will not prove false.
Though it takes time, wait for it;
because it will surely come. It will not delay.
Behold, the soul of the puffed up is not upright,
but the righteous will live by his faith.

Responsorial – Psalm 9.8-9, 10-11, 12-13 Resp. 11b

R. You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

But the Lord reigns forever.
He has prepared his throne for judgment.
He will judge the world in righteousness.
He will administer judgment to the peoples in uprightness.

R. You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

The Lord will also be a high tower for the oppressed;
a high tower in times of trouble.
Those who know your name will put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

R. You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Sing praise to the Lord, who dwells in Zion,
and declare among the people what he has done.
For the avenger of blood remembers them.
He does not forget the cry of the poor.

R. You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Gospel – Matthew 17.14-20

When they came to the crowd,
a human came to him,
kneeling down to him, saying,
“Lord, have mercy on my son,
for he is epileptic, and suffers grievously;
for he often falls into the fire,
and often into the water.
I brought him to your disciples,
and they could not cure him.”

Jesus answered,
“Faithless and perverse kind!
How long will I be with you?
How long will I put up with you?
Bring him here to me.”

Jesus rebuked him,
and the demon went out of him,
and the boy was cured from that hour.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, and said,
“Why were we unable to cast it out?”
He said to them, “Because of your unbelief.
Amen I tell you, if you have faith
like a grain of mustard seed,
you will tell this mountain,
‘Move from here to there,’
and it will move,
and nothing will be impossible for you.