First Reading

Book of Exodus (Ex 2: 1-15a)

She called him Moses; for she said, “I drew him out of the water”. After Moses had grown up,
when he visited his kinsmen.

A certain man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,
who conceived and bore a son.
Seeing that he was a goodly child, she hid him for three months.
When she could hide him no longer, she took a papyrus basket,
daubed it with bitumen and pitch,
and putting the child in it,
placed it among the reeds on the river bank.
His sister stationed herself at a distance
to find out what would happen to him.

Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the river to bathe,
while her maids walked along the river bank.
Noticing the basket among the reeds, she sent her handmaid to fetch it.
On opening it, she looked, and lo, there was a baby boy, crying!
She was moved with pity for him and said,

“It is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter,

“Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women
to nurse the child for you?”

“Yes, do so,”

she answered.

So the maiden went and called the child’s own mother.
Pharaoh’s daughter said to her,

“Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will repay you.”

The woman therefore took the child and nursed it.
When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter,
who adopted him as her son and called him Moses;
for she said,

“I drew him out of the water.”

On one occasion, after Moses had grown up,
when he visited his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor,
he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen.
Looking about and seeing no one,
he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
The next day he went out again, and now two Hebrews were fighting!
So he asked the culprit,

“Why are you striking your fellow Hebrew?”

But the culprit replied,

“Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us?
Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”

Then Moses became afraid and thought,

“The affair must certainly be known.”

Pharaoh, too, heard of the affair and sought to put Moses to death.
But Moses fled from him and stayed in the land of Midian.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 69: 3, 14, 30-31, 33-34

Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

I am sunk in the abysmal swamp
where there is no foothold;
I have reached the watery depths;
the flood overwhelms me.

But I pray to you, O LORD,
for the time of your favor, O God!
In your great kindness answer me
with your constant help.

But I am afflicted and in pain;
let your saving help, O God, protect me;
I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.

“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”

Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew (Mt 11: 20-24)

It will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon and the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.

Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum:

Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the netherworld.

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

— The Gospel of the Lord.

First Reading

Book of Exodus (Ex 1: 8-14, 22)

Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase.

A new king, who knew nothing of Joseph, came to power in Egypt.
He said to his subjects,

“Look how numerous and powerful
the people of the children of Israel are growing, more so than we ourselves!
Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase;
otherwise, in time of war they too may join our enemies
to fight against us, and so leave our country.”

Accordingly, taskmasters were set over the children of Israel
to oppress them with forced labor.
Thus they had to build for Pharaoh
the supply cities of Pithom and Raamses.
Yet the more they were oppressed,
the more they multiplied and spread.
The Egyptians, then, dreaded the children of Israel
and reduced them to cruel slavery,
making life bitter for them with hard work in mortar and brick
and all kinds of field work—the whole cruel fate of slaves.

Pharaoh then commanded all his subjects,

“Throw into the river every boy that is born to the Hebrews,
but you may let all the girls live.”

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 124: 1b-3, 4-6, 7-8

Our help is in the name of the Lord.

Had not the LORD been with us –
let Israel say, had not the LORD been with us –
When men rose up against us,
then would they have swallowed us alive,
When their fury was inflamed against us.

Then would the waters have overwhelmed us;
The torrent would have swept over us;
over us then would have swept
the raging waters.
Blessed be the LORD, who did not leave us
a prey to their teeth.

We were rescued like a bird
from the fowlers’ snare;
Broken was the snare,
and we were freed.
Our help is in the name of the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew (Mt 10: 34 — 11: 1)

I have come to bring not peace but the sword.

Jesus said to his Apostles:

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is righteous
will receive a righteous man’s reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because he is a disciple –
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples,
he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.

— The Gospel of the Lord.