Readings for
Sunday, August 2, 1998
Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

First Reading

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23 (115)

     Ecclesiastes 1

2

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

     Ecclesiastes 2

21

because sometimes a man who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

22

What has a man from all the toil and strain with which he toils beneath the sun?

23

For all his days are full of pain, and his work is a vexation; even in the night his mind does not rest. This also is vanity.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9

1

O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

2

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

6

O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

7

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would hearken to his voice!

8

Harden not your hearts, as at Mer'ibah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

9

when your fathers tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

Second Reading

Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11

1

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

2

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

3

For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

4

When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

9

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices

10

and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

11

Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scyth'ian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.

Gospel

Luke 12:13-21

13

One of the multitude said to him, "Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me."

14

But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?"

15

And he said to them, "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

16

And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully;

17

and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?'

18

And he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

19

And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.'

20

But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'

21

So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."