St Januarius

Brothers,
someone might ask:
"How are the dead raised?
With what kind of body will they return?"
– Think about it!
What you sow
cannot come to life unless it dies first;
and what you sow,
you do not sow the body that shall be,
but a simple seed:
wheat, for example, or something else.
So it is with the resurrection of the dead.
What is sown perishable
is raised imperishable;
what is sown in dishonor
is raised in glory;
what is sown in weakness
is raised in power;
what is sown a physical body
is raised a spiritual body;
for if there is a physical body,
there is also a spiritual body.

Scripture says:
The first man, Adam,
became a living being;
the last Adam – Christ –
became the life-giving spiritual being.
What comes first is not the spiritual,
but the physical;
then comes the spiritual.
Made from clay, the first man comes from the earth;
the second man comes from heaven.
As Adam is made of clay,
so men are made of clay;
as Christ is from heaven,
so men will be from heaven.
And just as we have borne the image
of the one made of clay,
so we will bear the image
of the one who comes from heaven.

– The word of the Lord.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
in God, I put my trust:
On the day I call, my enemies will turn back;
I know it, God is for me.

In God, whose word I praise,
in God, I put my trust:
nothing makes me afraid!
What can mere humans do to me?

My God, I will keep my promise,
I will offer you thanksgiving sacrifices;
for you have delivered me from death
and you keep my feet from falling.

At that time,
as a large crowd was gathering,
and people were coming to Jesus from every city,
he said in a parable:
"The sower went out to sow the seed,
and as he sowed, some fell along the path.
People walked over it,
and the birds of the sky ate it all.
Some fell on the rocks,
it sprang up and withered because it had no moisture.
Some fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.
Some finally fell on good soil,
it grew and produced fruit a hundredfold."
As he said this, he called out:
"Whoever has ears to hear,
let him hear!"

His disciples asked him what this parable meant.
He said to them:
"To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God,
but to others they are given only in parables.
Thus, as it is written:
They look without seeing,
they hear without understanding.

Here is what the parable means.
The seed is the word of God.
There are those along the path:
they have heard;
then the devil comes
and takes the Word from their heart,
to prevent them from believing and being saved.
There are those on the rocks:
when they hear, they welcome the Word with joy;
but they have no root,
they believe for a while
and, at the moment of trial, they fall away.
What fell among thorns,
these are the people who have heard,
but who are choked, as they go on their way,
by worries, riches
and the pleasures of life,
and do not reach maturity.
And those who fell on the good soil,
these are the people who have heard the Word
in a good and generous heart,
who hold it fast
and bear fruit through their perseverance."

– Let us acclaim the Word of God.