Reading 1, Jer 14:17-22

¹⁷ 'So say this word to them: May my eyes shed tears night and day, unceasingly, since the daughter of my people has sustained a fearsome wound, a crippling injury.

¹⁸ If I go into the countryside, there lie those killed by the sword; if I go into the city, I see people tortured with hunger; even prophets and priests roam the country at their wits' end.'

¹⁹ Have you rejected Judah altogether? Does your very soul revolt at Zion? Why have you struck us down without hope of cure? We were hoping for peace -- no good came of it! For the moment of cure -- nothing but terror!

²⁰ Yahweh, we acknowledge our wickedness and our ancestors' guilt: we have indeed sinned against you.

²¹ For your name's sake do not reject us, do not dishonour the throne of your glory. Remember us; do not break your covenant with us.

²² Can any of the nations' Futile Ones make it rain? Can the heavens of their own accord give showers? Are you not the one, Yahweh our God? In you is our hope, since you make all these things.

Gospel, Mt 13:36-43

³⁶ Then, leaving the crowds, he went to the house; and his disciples came to him and said, 'Explain to us the parable about the darnel in the field.'

³⁷ He said in reply, 'The sower of the good seed is the Son of man.

³⁸ The field is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the kingdom; the darnel, the subjects of the Evil One;

³⁹ the enemy who sowed it, the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels.

⁴⁰ Well then, just as the darnel is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time.

⁴¹ The Son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of falling and all who do evil,

⁴² and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.

⁴³ Then the upright will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Anyone who has ears should listen!

September 2010

October 2010