First Reading

Habakkuk 1, 12–2, 4

Are you not from everlasting,
O Lord my God, my Holy One, who shall not die?
You, O Lord, have ordained the Chaldean people to execute judgment,
and you have established them to punish.
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil,
you cannot bear to see oppression.
Why then do you look on in silence while the treacherous swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

You treat people like fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
The Chaldean people bring all of them up with a hook;
they drag them out with their net;
they gather them in their dragnet;
so they rejoice and are glad.
Therefore they sacrifice to their net
and make offerings to their dragnet;
for by them they live in luxury,
and their food is rich.

Is he then to keep on emptying his net,
and mercilessly slaying nations forever?

I will stand at my watchpost,
and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,
and what he will answer concerning my complaint.

Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
it will surely come, it will not delay.
Look at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous live by their faith”.

Gospel

Matthew 17, 14-20

At that time, when they came to the crowd, a man came to Jesus, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; he often falls into the fire and often into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him”.

Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me”. And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly.

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you”.