Daily Mass Readings for July 23, 2026: Gospel — Mt 13,10-17

¹ The Lord’s message came to me, ² “Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have fond memories of you, how devoted you were to me in your early years. I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted. ³ Israel was set apart to the Lord; they were like the firstfruits of a harvest to him. All who tried to devour them were punished; disaster came upon them,” says the Lord.’” 7 :¹ The Lord said to Jeremiah: ² “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s temple and proclaim this message: ‘Listen to the Lord’s message, all you people of Judah who have passed through these gates to worship the Lord. ³ The Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Change the way you have been living and do what is right. If you do, I will allow you to continue to live in this land. ⁴ Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, “We are safe! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” ⁵ You must change the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. ⁶ Stop oppressing resident foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. Stop killing innocent people in this land. Stop paying allegiance to other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ⁷ If you stop doing these things, I will allow you to continue to live in this land that I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession. 8 “‘But just look at you! You are putting your confidence in a false belief that will not deliver you. ⁹ You steal. You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to other gods whom you have not previously known. 1 ⁰ Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! 1 ¹ Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own is to be a hideout for robbers? You had better take note! I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord. 1 ² So, go to the place in Shiloh where I allowed myself to be worshiped in the early days. See what I did to it because of the wicked things my people Israel did. 1 ³ You also have done all these things, says the Lord, and I have spoken to you over and over again. But you have not listened! You have refused to respond when I called you to repent! 1 ⁴ So I will destroy this temple that I have claimed as my own, this temple that you are trusting to protect you. I will destroy this place that I gave to you and your ancestors, just like I destroyed Shiloh. 1 ⁵ And I will drive you out of my sight just like I drove out your relatives, the people of Israel.’ 1 ⁶ “But as for you, Jeremiah, do not pray for these people. Do not raise a cry of prayer for them! Do not plead with me to save them, because I will not listen to you. 1 ⁷ Do you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 1 ⁸ Children are gathering firewood, fathers are building fires with it, and women are mixing dough to bake cakes to offer to the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven. They are also pouring out drink offerings to other gods. They seem to do all this just to trouble me. 1 ⁹ But I am not really the one being troubled! says the Lord. Rather they are bringing trouble on themselves to their own shame! 2 ⁰ So, the Sovereign Lord says, my raging fury will be poured out on this land. It will be poured out on human beings and animals, on trees and crops. And it will burn like a fire that cannot be extinguished. 2 ¹ “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to the people of Judah: ‘You might as well go ahead and add the meat of your burnt offerings to that of the other sacrifices and eat it, too! 2 ² Consider this: When I spoke to your ancestors after I brought them out of Egypt, I did not merely give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices. 2 ³ I also explicitly commanded them: “Obey me. If you do, I will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you and things will go well with you.” 2 ⁴ But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better. 2 ⁵ From the time your ancestors departed the land of Egypt until now, I sent my servants the prophets to you again and again, day after day. 2 ⁶ But your ancestors did not listen to me nor pay attention to me. They became obstinate and were more wicked than even their own forefathers.’” 2 ⁷ Then the Lord said to me, “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you. When you call out to them, they will not respond to you. 2 ⁸ So tell them: ‘This is a nation that has not obeyed the Lord their God and has not accepted correction. Faithfulness is nowhere to be found in it. These people do not even profess it anymore. 2 ⁹ So mourn, you people of this nation. Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the hilltops. For the Lord has decided to reject and forsake this generation that has provoked his wrath!’” 3 ⁰ The Lord says, “I have rejected them because the people of Judah have done what I consider evil. They have set up their disgusting idols in the temple that I have claimed for my own and have defiled it. 3 ¹ They have also built places of worship in a place called Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters by fire. That is something I never commanded them to do! Indeed, it never even entered my mind to command such a thing! 3 ² So, watch out!” says the Lord. “The time will soon come when people will no longer call those places Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom. But they will call that valley the Valley of Slaughter, and they will bury so many people in Topheth that they will run out of room. 3 ³ Then the dead bodies of these people will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. There will not be any survivors to scare them away. 3 ⁴ I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness or the glad celebration of brides and grooms throughout the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. For the whole land will become a desolate wasteland.” 8 :¹ The Lord says, “When that time comes, the bones of the kings of Judah and its leaders, the bones of the priests and prophets, and of all the other people who lived in Jerusalem will be dug up from their graves. ² They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon, and the stars. These are things they adored and served, things to which they paid allegiance, from which they sought guidance and worshiped. The bones of these people will never be regathered and reburied. They will be like manure used to fertilize the ground. ³ However, I will leave some of these wicked people alive and banish them to other places. But wherever these people who survive may go, they will wish they had died rather than lived,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. ⁴ The Lord said to me, “Tell them, ‘The Lord says, Do people not get back up when they fall down? Do they not turn around when they go the wrong way? ⁵ Why, then, do these people of Jerusalem continually turn away from me in apostasy? They hold fast to their deception. They refuse to turn back to me. ⁶ I have listened to them very carefully, but they do not speak honestly. None of them regrets the evil he has done. None of them says, “I have done wrong!” All of them persist in their own wayward course like a horse charging recklessly into battle. ⁷ Even the stork knows when it is time to move on. The turtledove, swallow, and crane recognize the normal times for their migration. But my people pay no attention to what I, the Lord, require of them. ⁸ How can you say, “We are wise! We have the law of the Lord”? The truth is, those who teach it have used their writings to make it say what it does not really mean. ⁹ Your wise men will be put to shame. They will be dumbfounded and be brought to judgment. Since they have rejected the Lord’s message, what wisdom do they really have? 1 ⁰ So I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. For from the least important to the most important of them, all of them are greedy for dishonest gain. Prophets and priests alike all practice deceit. 1 ¹ They offer only superficial help for the hurt my dear people have suffered. They say, “Everything will be all right!” But everything is not all right. 1 ² Are they ashamed because they have done such disgusting things? No, they are not at all ashamed! They do not even know how to blush. So they will die just like others have died. They will be brought to ruin when I punish them, says the Lord. 1 ³ I will take away their harvests, says the Lord. There will be no grapes on their vines. There will be no figs on their fig trees. Even the leaves on their trees will wither. The crops that I gave them will be taken away.’” 1 ⁴ The people say, “Why are we just sitting here? Let us gather together inside the fortified cities. Let us at least die there fighting, since the Lord our God has condemned us to die. He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment because we have sinned against him. 1 ⁵ We hoped for good fortune, but nothing good has come of it. We hoped for a time of relief, but instead we experience terror. 1 ⁶ The snorting of the enemy’s horses is already being heard in the city of Dan. The sound of the neighing of their stallions causes the whole land to tremble with fear. They are coming to destroy the land and everything in it. They are coming to destroy the cities and everyone who lives in them.” 1 ⁷ The Lord says, “Yes indeed, I am sending an enemy against you that will be like poisonous snakes that cannot be charmed away. And they will inflict fatal wounds on you.” 1 ⁸ Then I said, “There is no cure for my grief! I am sick at heart! 1 ⁹ I hear my dear people crying out throughout the length and breadth of the land. They are crying, ‘Is the Lord no longer in Zion? Is her divine King no longer there?’” The Lord answers, “Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?” 2 ⁰ “They cry, ‘Harvest time has come and gone and the summer is over, and still we have not been delivered.’ 2 ¹ My heart is crushed because my dear people are being crushed. I go about crying and grieving. I am overwhelmed with dismay. 2 ² There is still medicinal ointment available in Gilead! There is still a physician there! Why then have my dear people not been restored to health? 1 2 :¹ Lord, you have always been fair whenever I have complained to you. However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. Why are wicked people successful? Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives? ² You plant them like trees, and they put down their roots. They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. They always talk about you, but they really care nothing about you. ³ But you, Lord, know all about me. You watch me and test my devotion to you. Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered! Appoint a time when they will be killed! ⁴ How long must the land be parched and the grass in every field be withered? How long must the animals and the birds die because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land? For these people boast, “God will not see what happens to us.” ⁵ The Lord answered, “If you have raced on foot against men and they have worn you out, how will you be able to compete with horses? And if you feel secure only in safe and open country, how will you manage in the thick undergrowth along the Jordan River? ⁶ As a matter of fact, even your own brothers and the members of your own family have betrayed you as well. Even they have plotted to do away with you. So do not trust them even when they say kind things to you. ⁷ “I will abandon my nation. I will forsake the people I call my own. I will turn my beloved people over to the power of their enemies. ⁸ The people I call my own have turned on me like a lion in the forest. They have roared defiantly at me, so I will treat them as though I hate them. ⁹ The people I call my own attack me like birds of prey or like hyenas. But other birds of prey are all around them. Let all the nations gather together like wild beasts. Let them come and destroy these people I call my own. 1 ⁰ Many foreign rulers will ruin the land where I planted my people. They will trample all over my chosen land. They will turn my beautiful land into a desolate wilderness. 1 ¹ They will lay it waste. It will lie parched and empty before me. The whole land will be laid waste, but no one living in it will pay any heed. 1 ² A destructive army will come marching over the hilltops in the wilderness. For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon against everyone from one end of the land to the other. No one will be safe. 1 ³ My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it. They will be disappointed in their harvests because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger. 1 ⁴ “I, the Lord, also have something to say concerning the wicked nations who surround my land and have attacked and plundered the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession. I say: ‘I will uproot the people of those nations from their land, and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there. 1 ⁵ But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands and to their own country. 1 ⁶ But they must make sure to learn to follow the religious practices of my people. Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, “As surely as the Lord lives, I swear.” If they do these things, then they will be included among the people I call my own. 1 ⁷ But I will completely uproot and destroy any of those nations that will not pay heed,’” says the Lord. 1 3 :¹ The Lord said to me, “Go and buy some linen shorts and put them on. Do not put them in water.” ² So I bought the shorts in keeping with the Lord’s instructionsand put them on. ³ Then the Lord’s message came to me again, ⁴ “Take the shorts that you bought and are wearing and go at once to Perath. Bury the shorts there in a crack in the rocks.” ⁵ So I went and buried them at Perath as the Lord had ordered me to do. ⁶ Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go at once to Perath and get the shorts I ordered you to bury there.” ⁷ So I went to Perath and dug up the shorts from the place where I had buried them. I found that they were ruined; they were good for nothing. ⁸ Then the Lord’s message came to me, ⁹ “I, the Lord, say: ‘This shows how I will ruin the highly exalted position in which Judah and Jerusalem take pride. 1 ⁰ These wicked people refuse to obey what I have said. They follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts and pay allegiance to other gods by worshiping and serving them. So they will become just like these linen shorts that are good for nothing. 1 ¹ For,’ I say, ‘just as shorts cling tightly to a person’s body, so I bound the whole nation of Israel and the whole nation of Judah tightly to me.’ I intended for them to be my special people and to bring me fame, honor, and praise. But they would not obey me. 1 ² “So tell them, ‘The Lord, the God of Israel, says: “Every wine jar is made to be filled with wine.”’ And they will probably say to you, ‘Do you not think we know that every wine jar is supposed to be filled with wine?’ 1 ³ Then tell them, ‘The Lord says: “I will soon fill all the people who live in this land with stupor. I will also fill the kings from David’s dynasty, the priests, the prophets, and the citizens of Jerusalem with stupor. 1 ⁴ And I will smash them like wine bottles against one another, children and parents alike. I will not show any pity, mercy, or compassion. Nothing will keep me from destroying them,’ says the Lord.” 1 ⁵ Then I said to the people of Judah: “Listen and pay attention! Do not be arrogant! For the Lord has spoken. 1 ⁶ Show the Lord your God the respect that is due him. Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. Do it before you stumble into distress like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. Do it before he turns the light of deliverance you hope for into the darkness and gloom of exile. 1 ⁷ But if you will not pay attention to this warning, I will weep alone because of your arrogant pride. I will weep bitterly, and my eyes will overflow with tears because you, the Lord’s flock, will be carried into exile.” 1 ⁸ The Lord told me: “Tell the king and the queen mother, ‘Surrender your thrones, for your glorious crowns will be removed from your heads. 1 ⁹ The gates of the towns in southern Judah will be shut tight. No one will be able to go in or out of them. All Judah will be carried off into exile. They will be completely carried off into exile.’” 2 ⁰ Then I said, “Look up, Jerusalem, and see the enemy that is coming from the north. Where now is the flock of people that were entrusted to your care? Where now are the ‘sheep’ that you take such pride in? 2 ¹ What will you say when the Lord appoints as rulers over you those allies that you, yourself, had actually prepared as such? Then anguish and agony will grip you like that of a woman giving birth to a baby. 2 ² You will probably ask yourself, ‘Why have these things happened to me? Why have I been treated like a disgraced adulteress whose skirt has been torn off and her limbs exposed?’ It is because you have sinned so much. 2 ³ But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots? 2 ⁴ “The Lord says, ‘That is why I will scatter your people like chaff that is blown away by a desert wind. 2 ⁵ This is your fate, the destiny to which I have appointed you because you have forgotten me and have trusted in false gods. 2 ⁶ So I will pull your skirt up over your face and expose you to shame like a disgraced adulteress! 2 ⁷ People of Jerusalem, I have seen your adulterous worship, your shameless prostitution to, and your lustful pursuit of, other gods. I have seen your disgusting acts of worship on the hills throughout the countryside. You are doomed to destruction! How long will you continue to be unclean?’”