Daily Mass Readings for July 04, 2025: Gospel — Mt 9,9-13

¹ Sarah lived 1 2 ⁷ years. ² Then she died in Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. ³ Then Abraham got up from mourning his dead wife and said to the sons of Heth, ⁴ “I am a foreign resident, a temporary settler, among you. Grant me ownership of a burial site among you so that I may bury my dead.” 1 9 :¹ The two angels came to Sodom in the evening while Lot was sitting in the city’s gateway. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face toward the ground. ² He said, “Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning.” “No,” they replied, “we’ll spend the night in the town square.” ³ But he urged them persistently, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, including bread baked without yeast, and they ate. ⁴ Before they could lie down to sleep, all the men—both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom—surrounded the house. ⁵ They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can take carnal knowledge of them!” ⁶ Lot went outside to them, shutting the door behind him. ⁷ He said, “No, my brothers! Don’t act so wickedly! ⁸ Look, I have two daughters who have never been intimate with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please. Only don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.” ⁹ “Out of our way!” they cried, “This man came to live here as a foreigner, and now he dares to judge us! We’ll do more harm to you than to them!” They kept pressing in on Lot until they were close enough to break down the door. 1 ⁰ So the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house as they shut the door. 1 ¹ Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, with blindness. The men outside wore themselves out trying to find the door. 1 ² Then the two visitors said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? Do you have any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or other relatives in the city? Get them out of this place 1 ³ because we are about to destroy it. The outcry against this place is so great before the Lord that he has sent us to destroy it.” 1 ⁴ Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them. 1 ⁵ At dawn the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!” 1 ⁶ When Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters because the Lord had compassion on them. They led them away and placed them outside the city. 1 ⁷ When they had brought them outside, they said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!” 1 ⁸ But Lot said to them, “No, please, Lord! 1 ⁹ Your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because this disaster will overtake me and I’ll die. 2 ⁰ Look, this town over here is close enough to escape to, and it’s just a little one. Let me go there. It’s just a little place, isn’t it? Then I’ll survive.” 2 ¹ “Very well,” he replied, “I will grant this request too and will not overthrow the town you mentioned. 2 ² Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.) 2 ³ The sun had just risen over the land as Lot reached Zoar. 2 ⁴ Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord. 2 ⁵ So he overthrew those cities and all that region, including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew from the ground. 2 ⁶ But Lot’s wife looked back longingly and was turned into a pillar of salt. 2 ⁷ Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 2 ⁸ He looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace. 2 ⁹ So when God destroyed the cities of the region, God honored Abraham’s request. He removed Lot from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed the cities Lot had lived in. 3 ⁰ Lot went up from Zoar with his two daughters and settled in the mountains because he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 3 ¹ Later the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the country to sleep with us, the way everyone does. 3 ² Come, let’s make our father drunk with wine so we can go to bed with him and preserve our family line through our father.” 3 ³ So that night they made their father drunk with wine, and the older daughter came in and went to bed with her father. But he was not aware of when she lay down with him or when she got up. 3 ⁴ So in the morning the older daughter said to the younger, “Since I went to bed with my father last night, let’s make him drunk again tonight. Then you go in and go to bed with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 3 ⁵ So they made their father drunk that night as well, and the younger one came and went to bed with him. But he was not aware of when she lay down with him or when she got up. 3 ⁶ In this way both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 3 ⁷ The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the ancestor of the Moabites of today. 3 ⁸ The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben Ammi. He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today. 2 4 :¹ Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed him in everything. ² Abraham said to his servant, the senior one in his household who was in charge of everything he had, “Put your hand under my thigh ³ so that I may make you solemnly promise by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth: You must not acquire a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living. ⁴ You must go instead to my country and to my relatives to find a wife for my son Isaac.” ⁵ The servant asked him, “What if the woman is not willing to come back with me to this land? Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” ⁶ “Be careful never to take my son back there!” Abraham told him. ⁷ “The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and the land of my relatives, promised me with a solemn oath, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ He will send his angel before you so that you may find a wife for my son from there. ⁸ But if the woman is not willing to come back with you, you will be free from this oath of mine. But you must not take my son back there!” 1 :¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. ³ God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light! ⁴ God saw that the light was good, so God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” There was evening, and there was morning, marking the first day. ⁶ God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate water from water.” ⁷ So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. It was so. ⁸ God called the expanse “sky.” There was evening, and there was morning, a second day. ⁹ God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear.” It was so. 1 ⁰ God called the dry ground “land” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good. 1 ¹ God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: plants yielding seeds and trees on the land bearing fruit with seed in it, according to their kinds.” It was so. 1 ² The land produced vegetation—plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. God saw that it was good. 1 ³ There was evening, and there was morning, a third day. 1 ⁴ God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs to indicate seasons and days and years, 1 ⁵ and let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” It was so. 1 ⁶ God made two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also. 1 ⁷ God placed the lights in the expanse of the sky to shine on the earth, 1 ⁸ to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. 1 ⁹ There was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day. 2 ⁰ God said, “Let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 2 ¹ God created the great sea creatures and every living and moving thing with which the water swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. God saw that it was good. 2 ² God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” 2 ³ There was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day. 2 ⁴ God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” It was so. 2 ⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the cattle according to their kinds, and all the creatures that creep along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good. 2 ⁶ Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” 2 ⁷ God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. 2 ⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.” 2 ⁹ Then God said, “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 3 ⁰ And to all the animals of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has living breath in it—I give every green plant for food.” It was so. 3 ¹ God saw all that he had made—and it was very good! There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.