Sunday, October 15, 2017
Liturgical Season: 
VII The Season of Sleebo
Special Significance: 
V Sunday after sleebo
St. Therese of Avila

Mt 23:1-12

Denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees. 1a Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, 2* saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. 3Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. 4b They tie up heavy burdens* [hard to carry] and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. 5* c All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6* d They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, 7greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ 8* As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. 9Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. 10Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Messiah. 11e The greatest among you must be your servant. 12f Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Ex 3:1-8

1* Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock beyond the wilderness, he came to the mountain of God, Horeb.* 2There the angel of the LORD* appeared to him as fire flaming out of a bush.a When he looked, although the bush was on fire, it was not being consumed. 3So Moses decided, “I must turn aside to look at this remarkable sight. Why does the bush not burn up?” 4When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to look, God called out to him from the bush: Moses! Moses! He answered, “Here I am.” 5God said: Do not come near! Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.b 6I am the God of your father,* he continued, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.c Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

The Call and Commission of Moses. 7But the LORD said: I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry against their taskmasters, so I know well what they are suffering. 8Therefore I have come down* to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them up from that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.d

2 Mc 7:1-9

Martyrdom of a Mother and Her Seven Sons. 1It also happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king to force them to eat pork in violation of God’s law.a 2One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said: “What do you expect to learn by questioning us? We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.”

3At that the king, in a fury, gave orders to have pans and caldrons heated. 4These were quickly heated, and he gave the order to cut out the tongue of the one who had spoken for the others, to scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of his brothers and his mother looked on. 5When he was completely maimed but still breathing, the king ordered them to carry him to the fire and fry him. As a cloud of smoke spread from the pan, the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, with these words: 6“The Lord God is looking on and truly has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song, when he openly bore witness, saying, ‘And God will have compassion on his servants.’”b

7After the first brother had died in this manner, they brought the second to be made sport of. After tearing off the skin and hair of his head, they asked him, “Will you eat the pork rather than have your body tortured limb by limb?” 8Answering in the language of his ancestors, he said, “Never!” So he in turn suffered the same tortures as the first. 9With his last breath he said: “You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up* to live again forever, because we are dying for his laws.”c

Wis 3:1-7

1The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,a

and no torment shall touch them.

2They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;

and their passing away was thought an affliction

3and their going forth from us, utter destruction.

But they are in peace.b

4For if to others, indeed, they seem punished,

yet is their hope full of immortality;

5Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed,

because God tried them

and found them worthy of himself.c

6As gold in the furnace, he proved them,

and as sacrificial offerings* he took them to himself.d

7In the time of their judgment* they shall shine

and dart about as sparks through stubble;e

Is 65:17-25

17* See, I am creating new heavens

and a new earth;

The former things shall not be remembered

nor come to mind.e

18Instead, shout for joy and be glad forever

in what I am creating.

Indeed, I am creating Jerusalem to be a joy

and its people to be a delight;

19I will rejoice in Jerusalem

and exult in my people.

No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,

or the sound of crying;

20No longer shall there be in it

an infant who lives but a few days,

nor anyone who does not live a full lifetime;

One who dies at a hundred years shall be considered a youth,

and one who falls short of a hundred shall be thought accursed.f

21They shall build houses and live in them,

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit;

22They shall not build and others live there;

they shall not plant and others eat.

As the years of a tree, so the years of my people;

and my chosen ones shall long enjoy

the work of their hands.

23They shall not toil in vain,

nor beget children for sudden destruction;

For they shall be a people blessed by the LORD

and their descendants with them.

24Before they call, I will answer;

while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

25* The wolf and the lamb shall pasture together,

and the lion shall eat hay like the ox—

but the serpent’s food shall be dust.g

None shall harm or destroy

on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.

Acts 23:6-10

6Paul was aware that some were Sadducees and some Pharisees, so he called out before the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees; [I] am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead.”d 7When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the group became divided. 8For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection or angels or spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all three.e 9A great uproar occurred, and some scribes belonging to the Pharisee party stood up and sharply argued, “We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” 10The dispute was so serious that the commander, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, ordered his troops to go down and rescue him from their midst and take him into the compound.

1 Cor 15:20-28

Christ the Firstfruits.* 20h But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits* of those who have fallen asleep. 21* For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead came also through a human being. 22For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life,i 23but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ;j 24then comes the end,* when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power.k 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.l 26* The last enemym to be destroyed is death, 27* for “he subjected everything under his feet.”n But when it says that everything has been subjected, it is clear that it excludes the one who subjected everything to him. 28When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will [also] be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.o

Lk 20:27-40

The Question About the Resurrection.o 27Some Sadducees,* those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to him,p 28* saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’q 29Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. 30Then the second 31and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. 32Finally the woman also died. 33Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” 34Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage; 35but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.* 37That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;r 38and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”s 39Some of the scribes said in reply, “Teacher, you have answered well.” 40And they no longer dared to ask him anything.t