Thursday, February 16, 2023
Liturgical Season: 
II The Season of Yaldo-Denho

Rom 3:1-8

Answers to Objections. 1* What advantage is there then in being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2Much, in every respect. [For] in the first place, they were entrusted with the utterances of God.a 3What if some were unfaithful? Will their infidelity nullify the fidelity of God?b 4Of course not! God must be true, though every human being is a liar,* as it is written:

“That you may be justified in your words,

and conquer when you are judged.”c

5But if our wickedness provides proof of God’s righteousness, what can we say? Is God unjust, humanly speaking, to inflict his wrath?d 6Of course not! For how else is God to judge the world? 7But if God’s truth redounds to his glory through my falsehood, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8And why not say—as we are accused and as some claim we say—that we should do evil that good may come of it? Their penalty is what they deserve.e

Lk 13:22-30

The Narrow Door; Salvation and Rejection.* 22He passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. 23Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, 24j “Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.k 25After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’l 26And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ 27m Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where [you] are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ 28n And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. 29And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.o 30For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”p