Invitation
May I draw your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation is intended to share with you the joy
of the Gospel. Everyone, without exception,
can experience that joy by opening their heart
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day
Consideration
The image of Joseph as a foreshadowing of Jesus is not so far-fetched and has been repeated ever since the Church Fathers. Joseph is his father’s beloved son. He is sent to his brothers, but they hate him and sell him for silver. Later, he saves them from death. The parable of the Gospel is also unmistakable. The beloved son is put to death by the vineyard workers (Israel) outside the vineyard (city gate). The listening Jews themselves pronounce judgement on this action, and Jesus agrees with their judgement.
FIRST READING Gen . 37, 3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28
Behold, here comes the dreamer; let us kill him.
From the Book of Genesis
Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons,
because he had been born to him in his old age.
He had a beautiful robe made for him.
The brothers noticed that their father loved Joseph more
than them,
and they hated him so much
that they could no longer speak kindly to him.
Once, when his brothers were at Shechem
grazing their father’s flocks,
Israel said to Joseph:
“You know that your brothers are grazing the flock at Shechem.
Would you not like to go to them?”
Joseph then went after his brothers
and indeed found them in Dothan.
They had already seen him coming from afar,
and before he reached them, they hatched a plan to kill him.
They said to each other:
“Here comes the great dreamer!
Now we have our chance.
We will kill him and throw him into a pit.
We can say that a wild beast devoured him.
Then we will see what becomes of his dreams!”
When Judah heard this,
he tried to rescue Joseph from their hands and said:
“We must not kill him.”
Reuben said to them:
“Do not shed blood!
There is a pit in the steppe;
throw him in there, but do not lay a hand on him.”
He wanted to rescue him from their hands
and bring him back to his father.
As soon as Joseph came to his brothers,
they stripped him of his robe,
the beautiful robe he was wearing,
seized him and threw him into the pit.
The pit was empty and there was no water in it.
While they were eating,
they suddenly saw a caravan of Ishmaelites
coming from Gilead.
The camels were laden with gum, balm and resin;
they were on their way to Egypt
to deliver the merchandise there.
Now Judah said to his brothers:
“What good will it do us to kill our brother
and cover up his blood?
Let us rather sell him to the Ishmaelites
and not lay hands on him;
he is our brother, our own flesh.”
His brothers agreed.
When Midianite merchants passed by,
the brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit
and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver.
The merchants took Joseph to Egypt.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 105(104), 16-17, 18-19, 20-21
Never forget the wonders the Lord has done.
The Lord sent famine upon the land
and broke the breadsticks.
He sent a single man before them
when Joseph was sold into slavery.
His feet were bound in shackles,
his neck in an iron collar;
until what he had foretold came to pass,
the word of the Lord set him free.
The king released him from prison,
the ruler of the nations gave him his freedom.
He appointed him lord of his house,
manager of all his possessions.
VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL Ezekiel 18:31
Cast away all the transgressions you have committed,
says the Lord,
and renew your heart and spirit.
GOSPEL Mt . 21, 33-43, 45-46
That is the heir; let us kill him.
From the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Matthew
At that time, Jesus spoke
to the chief priests and elders of the people:
“Listen to another parable:
There was once a landowner who planted a vineyard;
he put a fence around it,
he carved out a wine press in it,
and built a watchtower.
“Then he leased it to vine-growers
and went abroad.
“When the harvest time came,
he sent his servants to the vine-growers
to collect the produce.
“But the vine-growers seized his servants.
“They mistreated one,
killed another, and stoned a third.
“Then he sent other servants,
more numerous than the first;
but they treated them the same way.
“Finally, he sent his son to them,
assuming
that they would spare his son.
“But when the vine-growers saw the son,
they said to one another,
‘This is the heir;
come, let us kill him
and take his inheritance for ourselves.’
“They seized him,
threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
Now when the owner of the vineyard comes,
what will he do to those vine-growers?”
They answered him,
“He will put those wretches to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other vine-growers,
who will give him the produce at harvest time.”
Then Jesus said to them,
“Have you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
This was done by the Lord,
and it is marvellous in our eyes.
“Therefore I tell you:
The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people
that will produce its fruit.”
When the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables,
they understood that he was speaking about them.
So they sought a way to arrest him,
but they were afraid of the people
because they regarded him as a prophet.
Laudato Si
POPE FRANCIS
On care for our common home
Planetary inequality
48. The human and natural environments are deteriorating together, and we
will not be able to adequately address the destruction of the environment
if we do not pay attention to the causes related to human and social decline.
The deterioration The deterioration of the environment and society particularly affects the weakest on the planet: “Both the common experience of ordinary life and scientific research show that the poorest people suffer the most serious effects of all attacks on the environment”. The depletion of fish stocks, for example, particularly affects those who live from commercial fishing and have nothing to replace it with. Water pollution particularly affects the poorest, who do not have the means to buy bottled water, and rising
sea levels mainly affect impoverished coastal communities, who have nowhere
else to move to. The effect of the current imbalance is also evident in the premature death of many poor people, in the conflicts caused by the lack of resources, and in so many other problems that do not find sufficient space on the world’s agendas.
To be continued
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text in this edition is taken from The New Bible Translation, © Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
The Bible text in this edition is taken fromThe New Bible Translation,
©Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap 2004/2007.
Reflections from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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