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First Reading: Genesis Chapter 49 and 50Genesis 49
49:1 Then Jacob called for his sons and said: "Gather around so I can
tell you what will happen to you in days to come.
2 "Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob;listen to your father Israel.
3 "Reuben, you are my firstborn,my might, the first sign of my strength,excelling
in honor, excelling in power. 4 Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer
excel,for you went up onto your father's bed,onto my couch and defiled it.
5 "Simeon and Levi are brothers — their swords are weapons of violence.
6 Let me not enter their council,let me not join their assembly,for they have
killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. 7 Cursed be their
anger, so fierce,and their fury, so cruel!I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse
them in Israel.
8 "Judah, your brothers will praise you;your hand will be on the neck of
your enemies;your father's sons will bow down to you. 9 You are a lion's cub,
O Judah;you return from the prey, my son.Like a lion he crouches and lies down,like
a lioness — who dares to rouse him? 10 The scepter will not depart from
Judah,nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,until he comes to whom it
belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. 11 He will tether his donkey
to a vine,his colt to the choicest branch;he will wash his garments in wine,his
robes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes will be darker than wine,his teeth
whiter than milk.
13 "Zebulun will live by the seashore and become a haven for ships;his
border will extend toward Sidon.
14 "Issachar is a rawboned donkey lying down between two saddlebags. 15
When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land,he will
bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labor.
16 "Dan will provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan will be a serpent by the roadside,a viper along the path,that bites the
horse's heels so that its rider tumbles backward.
18 "I look for your deliverance, O LORD.
19 "Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders,but he will attack them at
their heels.
20 "Asher's food will be rich;he will provide delicacies fit for a king.
21 "Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.
22 "Joseph is a fruitful vine,a fruitful vine near a spring,whose branches
climb over a wall. 23 With bitterness archers attacked him;they shot at him
with hostility. 24 But his bow remained steady,his strong arms stayed limber,because
of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,because of the Shepherd, the Rock of
Israel, 25 because of your father's God, who helps you,because of the Almighty,
who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above,blessings of the deep that
lies below,blessings of the breast and womb. 26 Your father's blessings are
greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains,than the bounty of the age-old
hills.Let all these rest on the head of Joseph,on the brow of the prince among
his brothers.
27 "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;in the morning he devours the prey,in the
evening he divides the plunder."
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father
said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.
29 Then he gave them these instructions: "I am about to be gathered to
my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30 the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought
as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, along with the field. 31 There Abraham
and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried,
and there I buried Leah. 32 The field and the cave in it were bought from the
Hittites."
33 When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet
up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.
Genesis 50
50:1 Joseph threw himself upon his father and wept over him and kissed him.
2 Then Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel.
So the physicians embalmed him, 3 taking a full forty days, for that was the
time required for embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
4 When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh's court, "If
I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him, 5'My father
made me swear an oath and said, "I am about to die; bury me in the tomb
I dug for myself in the land of Canaan." Now let me go up and bury my father;
then I will return.'"
6 Pharaoh said, "Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do."
7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh's officials accompanied
him — the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt —
8 besides all the members of Joseph's household and his brothers and those belonging
to his father's household. Only their children and their flocks and herds were
left in Goshen. 9 Chariots and horsemen also went up with him. It was a very
large company.
10 When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan, they lamented
loudly and bitterly; and there Joseph observed a seven-day period of mourning
for his father. 11 When the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the
threshing floor of Atad, they said, "The Egyptians are holding a solemn
ceremony of mourning." That is why that place near the Jordan is called
Abel Mizraim.
12 So Jacob's sons did as he had commanded them: 13 They carried him to the
land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre,
which Abraham had bought as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, along with
the field. 14 After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, together with
his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father.
15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What
if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did
to him?" 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father left
these instructions before he died: 17'This is what you are to say to Joseph:
I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in
treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God
of your father." When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are
your slaves," they said.
19 But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what
is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don't be afraid. I
will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke
kindly to them.
22 Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father's family. He lived a hundred
and ten years 23 and saw the third generation of Ephraim's children. Also the
children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph's knees.
24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die. But God will surely
come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on
oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." 25 And Joseph made the sons of Israel
swear an oath and said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you
must carry my bones up from this place."
26 So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him,
he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Matthew 22
22:1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 "The kingdom of
heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent
his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come,
but they refused to come.
4 "Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been
invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been
butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.'
5 "But they paid no attention and went off-one to his field, another to
his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned
their city.
8 "Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those
I invited did not deserve to come. 9 Go to the street corners and invite to
the banquet anyone you find.' 10 So the servants went out into the streets and
gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding
hall was filled with guests.
11 "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there
who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get
in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless.
13 "Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw
him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.'
14 "For many are invited, but few are chosen."
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They
sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. "Teacher," they
said, "we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of
God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay
no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right
to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are
you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They
brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this?
And whose inscription?"
21 "Caesar's," they replied.
Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what
is God's."
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him
with a question. 24 "Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that
if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and
have children for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first
one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his
brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on
down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection,
whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"
29 Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures
or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be
given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the
resurrection of the dead-have you not read what God said to you, 32'I am the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of
the dead but of the living."
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 "Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law
and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 "What
do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?"
"The son of David," they replied.
43 He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit,
calls him 'Lord'? For he says,
44 "'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your
enemies under your feet." '
45 If then David calls him 'Lord,' how can he be his son?" 46 No one could
say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
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