Gospel of 26 June 2018

Tuesday of the XII week of Ordinary Time holidays

Second book of the Kings 19,9b-11.14-21.31-35a.36.
In those days, Sennàcherib sent messengers to Hezekiah to say to him:
“You will say to King Hezekiah of Judah: Do not deceive the God in whom you trust, telling you: Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hands of the king of Assyria.
Behold, you know what the kings of Assyria have done in all the countries that voted for extermination. Would you only save yourself?
Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers' hands and read it, then went up to the temple and, carrying out the writing before the Lord,
he prayed, “Lord God of Israel, who sit on cherubs, you alone are God for all kingdoms of the earth; you made heaven and earth.
Incline, Lord, your ear and listen; open, Lord, your eyes and see; listen to all the words that Sennacherib had said to insult the living God.
It is true, O Lord, that the kings of Assyria have ravaged all nations and their territories;
they threw their gods into the fire; those, however, were not gods, but only the work of human hands, wood and stone; therefore they destroyed them.
Now, Lord our God, free us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord, the only God ”.
Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah: “Says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have heard what you asked for in your prayer regarding Sennacherib king of Assyria.
This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: he despises you, the virgin daughter of Zion derides you. Behind you the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head.
For the rest will come out of Jerusalem, the rest from Mount Zion.
Therefore the Lord says against the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city and will not shoot an arrow at it, will not face it with shields and will not build an embankment there.
He will return on the way he came; will not enter this city. Oracle of the Lord.
I will protect this city to save it, for love of me and my servant David ”.
Now that night the angel of the Lord went down and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians.
King Sennacherib of Assyria raised his tents, returned and remained in Nineveh.

Salmi 48(47),2-3ab.3cd-4.10-11.
Great is the Lord and worthy of all praise
in the city of our God.
Its holy mountain, a splendid hill,
it is the joy of the whole earth.

Mount Zion, divine home,
it is the city of the great Sovereign.
God in his bulwarks
an impregnable fortress has appeared.

Let us remember, God, your mercy
inside your temple.
Like your name, O God,
so your praise
extends to the ends of the earth;
your right hand is full of justice.

From the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Matthew 7,6.12-14.
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not give holy things to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them with their paws and then turn to tear you to pieces.
Everything you want men to do to you, you too do it to them: this is in fact the Law and the Prophets.
Enter through the narrow door, because the door is wide and the way leading to perdition is wide, and many are those who enter through it;
how narrow is the door and how cramped the way that leads to life, and how few are those who find it! "