First Reading

Reading from the second book of Chronicles

2 Chronicles 24, 17-25

After the death of the priest Jehoiada, the leaders of Judah came to bow before the king; won over by their gifts, he accepted their proposal. Then they abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and worshiped the sacred groves and the idols. This sin provoked God’s wrath against Judah and Jerusalem. The Lord sent prophets to call them to repentance, but they paid no attention to their warnings.

Then the Spirit of God inspired Zechariah, son of the priest Jehoiada, to stand before the people and say to them: “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Why do you break the commandments of God? You are heading for disaster. You have abandoned the Lord, and he will abandon you.’ ”

But the people conspired against him, and by order of the king they stoned him in the temple courtyard. King Joash did not remember the good that Jehoiada had done for him and killed his son Zechariah, who cried out as he died: “May the Lord judge you and call you to account.”

A year later, the Syrian army marched against Joash and invaded Judah and Jerusalem; they killed all the leaders of the people and sent all the plunder to the king of Damascus. Although the Syrian army was not very large, the Lord gave them victory over the vast army of the Jews, because the people had abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers. Thus justice was carried out against Joash. When the Syrians withdrew, they left him gravely wounded, and then his courtiers conspired against him to avenge the son of the priest Jehoiada, and they murdered him in his bed. He was buried in the city of David, but they did not give him burial in the tombs of the kings.

Gospel

Reading from the holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew

Matthew 6, 24-34

At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: “No one can serve two masters, for he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the first and disregard the second. In short, you cannot serve both God and money.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?

And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”