First Reading
Reading from the second book of Samuel
2 Samuel 11, 1-4. 5-10. 13-17
At the time of year when kings usually went out to war, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel against the Ammonites. They defeated them and laid siege to Rabbah.
David had stayed in Jerusalem. One evening, he got up from bed and walked around on the roof of the palace; from there he saw a woman bathing. She was a very beautiful woman. David sent to inquire who the woman was, and they told him: “She is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, wife of Uriah the Hittite.” David sent messengers to fetch her. They brought her to his house, and he slept with her. The woman conceived and sent word to David: “I am pregnant.”
Then David sent a message to Joab: “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” Joab complied, and when Uriah came to David, the king asked him about Joab, the army, and how the war was going. Then he said: “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” Uriah left the palace, and David sent a gift after him. But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. They told David: “Uriah did not go down to his house.” The next day, David invited him to eat with him and made him drink until he was drunk. Late in the evening, Uriah went out and slept again with his lord’s servants, and did not go down to his house.
The next morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he said: “Put Uriah in the fiercest fighting, and then withdraw from him so that he is struck down and dies.” Joab, who was besieging the city, stationed Uriah where he knew the defenders were strongest. The men of the city made a sortie against Joab, and some of David’s soldiers died, including Uriah the Hittite.
Gospel
Reading from the holy Gospel according to Saint Mark
Mark 4, 26-34
At that time, Jesus said to the crowds: “The Kingdom of God is like what happens when a man sows seed in the ground: night and day, whether he sleeps or wakes, the seed sprouts and grows; and the earth produces the crop by itself: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle, for the time for harvest has come.”
He also said: “What shall we compare the Kingdom of God to? With what parable can we describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown, is the smallest of all seeds; but once sown, it grows up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth branches so large that the birds of the air can nest in its shade.”
With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. He spoke to them only in parables, but to his disciples he explained everything in private.