When Abram prostrated himself, God spoke to him: “My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations.

Brothers and sisters: It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins.

The Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying: Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God; let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!

From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road, to bypass the land of Edom.

In Babylon there lived a man named Joakim, who married a very beautiful and God-fearing woman, Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah; her pious parents had trained their daughter according to the law of Moses.

Brothers and sisters: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel.

I knew their plot because the Lord informed me; at that time you, O Lord, showed me their doings.

The wicked said among themselves,/ thinking not aright:/ “Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;/ he sets himself against our doings,/ Reproaches us for transgressions of the law/ and ­charges us with violations of our training./ He professes to have knowledge of God/ and styles himself a child of the Lord./ To us he is the censure of our thoughts;/ merely to see him is a hardship for us,/ Because his life is not like that of ­others,/ and different are his ways./ He ­judges us debased;/ he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure./ He calls blest the destiny of the just/ and boasts that God is his Father./ Let us see ­whether his words be true;/ let us find out what will happen to him./ For if the just one be the son of God, he will ­defend him/ and deliver him from the hand of his foes./ With ­revilement and torture let us put him to the test/ that we may have proof of his gentleness/ and try his patience./ Let us condemn him to a shameful death;/ for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”/ These were their thoughts, but they erred;/ for their wickedness blinded them,/ and they knew not the hidden counsels of God;/ neither did they count on a recompense of ­holiness/ nor discern the innocent souls’ reward.

Brothers and sisters: It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.