Daily Reading for Wednesday, July 4th, 2018

Reading 1, Amos 5:14-15, 21-24

¹⁴ Seek good and not evil so that you may survive, and Yahweh, God Sabaoth, be with you as you claim he is.

¹⁵ Hate evil, love good, let justice reign at the city gate: it may be that Yahweh, God Sabaoth, will take pity on the remnant of Joseph.

²¹ I hate, I scorn your festivals, I take no pleasure in your solemn assemblies.

²² When you bring me burnt offerings . . . your oblations, I do not accept them and I do not look at your communion sacrifices of fat cattle.

²³ Spare me the din of your chanting, let me hear none of your strumming on lyres,

²⁴ but let justice flow like water, and uprightness like a never-failing stream!

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 50:7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 16-17

⁷ 'Listen, my people, I am speaking, Israel, I am giving evidence against you, I, God, your God.

⁸ 'It is not with your sacrifices that I find fault, those burnt offerings constantly before me;

⁹ I will not accept any bull from your homes, nor a single goat from your folds.

¹⁰ 'For all forest creatures are mine already, the animals on the mountains in their thousands.

¹¹ I know every bird in the air, whatever moves in the fields is mine.

¹² 'If I am hungry I shall not tell you, since the world and all it holds is mine.

¹³ Am I to eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁶ But to the wicked, God says: 'What right have you to recite my statutes, to take my covenant on your lips,

¹⁷ when you detest my teaching, and thrust my words behind you?

Gospel, Matthew 8:28-34

²⁸ When he reached the territory of the Gadarenes on the other side, two demoniacs came towards him out of the tombs -- they were so dangerously violent that nobody could use that path.

²⁹ Suddenly they shouted, 'What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the time?'

³⁰ Now some distance away there was a large herd of pigs feeding,

³¹ and the devils pleaded with Jesus, 'If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.'

³² And he said to them, 'Go then,' and they came out and made for the pigs; and at that the whole herd charged down the cliff into the lake and perished in the water.

³³ The herdsmen ran off and made for the city, where they told the whole story, including what had happened to the demoniacs.

³⁴ Suddenly the whole city set out to meet Jesus; and as soon as they saw him they implored him to leave their neighbourhood.