First Reading

Book of Genesis (Gn 22: 1b-19)

The sacrifice of our patriarch Abraham.

God put Abraham to the test.
He called to him,

“Abraham!”

“Here I am,”

he replied.

Then God said:

“Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah.
There you shall offer him up as a burnt offering
on a height that I will point out to you.”

Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey,
took with him his son Isaac, and two of his servants as well,
and with the wood that he had cut for the burnt offering,
set out for the place of which God had told him.

On the third day Abraham got sight of the place from afar.
Then he said to his servants:

“Both of you stay here with the donkey,
while the boy and I go on over yonder.
We will worship and then come back to you.”

Thereupon Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering
and laid it on his son Isaac’s shoulders,
while he himself carried the fire and the knife.
As the two walked on together, Isaac spoke to his father Abraham:

“Father!“ he said.

“Yes, son,“ he replied.

Isaac continued,

“Here are the fire and the wood,
but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”

“Son,“ Abraham answered,
”God himself will provide the sheep for the burnt offering.”

Then the two continued going forward.

When they came to the place of which God had told him,
Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.
Next he tied up his son Isaac,
and put him on top of the wood on the altar.
Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the LORD’s messenger called to him from heaven,

“Abraham, Abraham!”

“Here I am,“ he answered.

“Do not lay your hand on the boy,“ said the messenger.

“Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.”

As Abraham looked about,
he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket.
So he went and took the ram
and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son.
Abraham named the site Yahweh-yireh;
hence people now say, “On the mountain the LORD will see.”

Again the LORD’s messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:

“I swear by myself, declares the LORD,
that because you acted as you did
in not withholding from me your beloved son,
I will bless you abundantly
and make your descendants as countless
as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore;
your descendants shall take possession
of the gates of their enemies,
and in your descendants all the nations of the earth
shall find blessing--all this because you obeyed my command.”

Abraham then returned to his servants,
and they set out together for Beer-sheba,
where Abraham made his home.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 115: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

I will walk in the presence of the Lord, in the land of the living.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name give glory
because of your kindness, because of your truth.
Why should the pagans say,
“Where is their God?”

Our God is in heaven;
whatever he wills, he does.
Their idols are silver and gold,
the handiwork of men.

They have mouths but speak not;
they have eyes but see not;
They have ears but hear not;
they have noses but smell not.

Their makers shall be like them,
everyone who trusts in them.
The house of Israel trusts in the LORD;
he is their help and their shield.

Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew (Mt 9: 1-8)

The crowds were glorified God who had given such authority.

After entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came into his own town.
And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,

“Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.”

At that, some of the scribes said to themselves,

“This man is blaspheming.”

Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said,

“Why do you harbor evil thoughts?
Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?
But that you may know that the Son of Man
has authority on earth to forgive sins”–

he then said to the paralytic,

“Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”

He rose and went home.
When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe
and glorified God who had given such authority to men.

— The Gospel of the Lord.

First Reading

Book of Genesis (Gn 21: 5, 8-20a)

No son of that slave is going to share the inheritance with my son Isaac!

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Isaac grew, and on the day of the child’s weaning
Abraham held a great feast.

Sarah noticed the son whom Hagar the Egyptian
had borne to Abraham
playing with her son Isaac;
so she demanded of Abraham:

“Drive out that slave and her son!
No son of that slave is going to share the inheritance
with my son Isaac!”

Abraham was greatly distressed,
especially on account of his son Ishmael.
But God said to Abraham:

“Do not be distressed about the boy
or about your slave woman.
Heed the demands of Sarah, no matter what she is asking of you;
for it is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name.
As for the son of the slave woman,
I will make a great nation of him also,
since he too is your offspring.”

Early the next morning Abraham got some bread and a skin of water
and gave them to Hagar.
Then, placing the child on her back, he sent her away.
As she roamed aimlessly in the wilderness of Beer-sheba,
the water in the skin was used up.
So she put the child down under a shrub,
and then went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away;
for she said to herself,

“Let me not watch to see the child die.”

As she sat opposite Ishmael, he began to cry.
God heard the boy’s cry,
and God’s messenger called to Hagar from heaven:

“What is the matter, Hagar?
Don’t be afraid; God has heard the boy’s cry in this plight of his.
Arise, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand;
for I will make of him a great nation.”

Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water.
She went and filled the skin with water, and then let the boy drink.

God was with the boy as he grew up.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 34: 7-8. 10-11. 12-13

The Lord hears the cry of the poor.

When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.

Fear the LORD, you his holy ones,
for nought is lacking to those who fear him.
The great grow poor and hungry;
but those who seek the LORD want for no good thing.

Come, children, hear me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Which of you desires life,
and takes delight in prosperous days?

Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

The Father willed to give us birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew (Mt 8: 28-34)

Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?

When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes,
two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him.
They were so savage that no one could travel by that road.
They cried out,

“What have you to do with us, Son of God?
Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?”

Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding.
The demons pleaded with him,

“If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine.”

And he said to them,

“Go then!”

They came out and entered the swine,
and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea
where they drowned.
The swineherds ran away,
and when they came to the town they reported everything,
including what had happened to the demoniacs.
Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus,
and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.

— The Gospel of the Lord.

First Reading

Book of Genesis (Gn 19: 15-29)

The LORD rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying,

“On your way!
Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here,
or you will be swept away in the punishment of Sodom.”

When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD’s mercy,
seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters
and led them to safety outside the city.
As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told:

“Flee for your life!
Don’t look back or stop anywhere on the Plain.
Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away.”

“Oh, no, my lord! ” Lot replied,

“You have already thought enough of your servant
to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life.
But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me,
and so I shall die.
Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to.
It’s only a small place.
Let me flee there – it’s a small place, is it not? –
that my life may be saved.”

“Well, then,” he replied,

“I will also grant you the favor you now ask.
I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
Hurry, escape there!
I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”

That is why the town is called Zoar.

The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar;
at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire
upon Sodom and Gomorrah
from the LORD out of heaven.
He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain,
together with the inhabitants of the cities
and the produce of the soil.
But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

Early the next morning Abraham went to the place
where he had stood in the LORD’s presence.
As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah
and the whole region of the Plain,
he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace.

Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain,
he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval
by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 26: 2-3, 9-10, 11-12

O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.

Search me, O LORD, and try me;
test my soul and my heart.
For your mercy is before my eyes,
and I walk in your truth.

Gather not my soul with those of sinners,
nor with men of blood my life.
On their hands are crimes,
and their right hands are full of bribes.

But I walk in integrity;
redeem me, and have mercy on me.
My foot stands on level ground;
in the assemblies I will bless the LORD.

Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew (Mt 8: 23-27)

Jesus got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.

As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him.
Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea,
so that the boat was being swamped by waves;
but he was asleep.
They came and woke him, saying,

“Lord, save us! We are perishing!”

He said to them,

“Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?”

Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea,
and there was great calm.
The men were amazed and said,

“What sort of man is this,
whom even the winds and the sea obey?”

— The Gospel of the Lord.