Monday of the Twenty-eighth week in Ordinary Time

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant, and one by the free woman. However, the son by the servant was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through promise. These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren who don’t bear. Break out and shout, you that don’t travail. For more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband.” So then, brothers, we are not children of a servant, but of the free woman. Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Hallelujah! Praise, you servants of the Lord, praise the Lord’s name. Blessed be the Lord’s name, from this time forward and forever more. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the Lord’s name is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord, our God, who has his seat on high, Who stoops down to see in heaven and in the earth? He raises up the poor out of the dust. Lifts up the needy from the ash heap;

When the multitudes were gathering together to him, he began to say, “This is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. No sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet. For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will also the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and will condemn them: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, one greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, one greater than Jonah is here.