FIRST READING Exodus 40: 16-21.34-35
In those days: According to all that the Lord commanded him, so Moses did. And in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. Moses erected the tabernacle; he laid its bases, and set up its frames, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars; and he spread the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent over it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he took the covenant and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark, and set the mercy seat above on the ark; and he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the veil of the screen, and screened the ark of the covenant; as the Lord had commanded Moses. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud abode upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would go onward; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not go onward till the day that it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.
The word of the Lord.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Psalm 84:2.3.4-5a and 7a. 10 (R. 1)
R/. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul is longing and yearning
for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh cry out
to the living God. R/.
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself
in which she sets her young, at your altars,
O Lord of hosts, my king and my God. R/.
Blessed are they who dwell in your house,
forever singing your praise.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in you.
They walk with ever-growing strength. R/.
One day within your courts
is better than a thousand elsewhere.
The threshold of the house of God
I prefer to the dwellings of the wicked. R/.
ALLELUIA Acts 15:14b
Alleluia. Open our hearts, O Lord, that we may give heed to the words of your Son. Alleluia.
GOSPEL Matthew 13:47-53
At that time: Jesus said to the crowds, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and quashing of teeth. “Have you understood all this?” They said to him, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there.
The Gospel of the Lord.