First Reading

Beginning of the first letter of the apostle Saint Paul to the Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1, 1-9

I, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes, my collaborator, greet the Christian community in Corinth. To all of you, whom God has sanctified in Christ Jesus and who are his holy people, as well as to all those who in any place invoke the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and their Lord, I wish you grace and peace from God, our Father, and from Christ Jesus, the Lord.

I continually thank my God for the divine gifts he has granted to you through Christ Jesus, since through him he has enriched you abundantly in everything concerning the word and knowledge; because the testimony we give of Christ has been confirmed in you to such a degree that you lack no gift, you who await the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you blameless until the end, until the day of his coming. God is the one who has called you to union with his Son Jesus Christ, and God is faithful.

Gospel

Reading from the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew

Matthew 24, 42-51

At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful and prepared, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Be certain that if a head of a household knew at what hour the thief was coming, he would be watching and would not let him break into his house through a hole. You also must be prepared, because at an hour you least expect, the Son of Man will come.

Consider a faithful and prudent servant, whom his master appointed in charge of all the household staff to provide them with food at the proper time. Blessed is that servant if, upon his master’s return, he finds him fulfilling his duty. I assure you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

But if the servant is wicked, and thinking that his master will be delayed, he begins to beat his companions, to eat and get drunk, his master will come on a day he least expects, at an unforeseen hour, he will punish him severely and make him share the same fate as the hypocrites. Then there will be weeping and despair.”