Wednesday of the 29th week of Ordinary Time

12Therefore, let not sin reign in your mortal body, such that you would obey its desires. 13Nor should you offer the parts of your body as instruments of iniquity for sin. Instead, offer yourselves to God, as if you were living after death, and offer the parts of your body as instruments of justice for God. 14For sin should not have dominion over you. For you are not under the law, but under grace. 15What is next? Should we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? Let it not be so! 16Do you not know to whom you are offering yourselves as servants under obedience? You are the servants of whomever you obey: whether of sin, unto death, or of obedience, unto justice. 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be the servants of sin, now you have been obedient from the heart to the very form of the doctrine into which you have been received. 18And having been freed from sin, we have become servants of justice.

1A Canticle in steps. If the Lord had not been with us, let Israel now say it:

2if the Lord had not been with us, when men rose up against us,

3perhaps they would have swallowed us alive. When their fury was enraged against us,

4perhaps the waters would have engulfed us.

5Our soul has passed through a torrent. Perhaps, our soul had even passed through intolerable water.

6Blessed is the Lord, who has not given us into the harm of their teeth.

7Our soul has been snatched away like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters. The snare has been broken, and we have been freed.

8Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

39But know this: that if the father of the family knew at what hour the thief would arrive, he would certainly stand watch, and he would not permit his house to be broken into. 40You also must be prepared. For the Son of man will return at an hour that you will not realize.” 41Then Peter said to him, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or also to everyone?” 42So the Lord said: “Who do you think is the faithful and prudent steward, whom his Lord has appointed over his family, in order to give them their measure of wheat in due time? 43Blessed is that servant if, when his Lord will return, he will find him acting in this manner. 44Truly I say to you, that he will appoint him over all that he possesses. 45But if that servant will have said in his heart, ‘My Lord has made a delay in his return,’ and if he has begun to strike the men and women servants, and to eat and drink, and to be inebriated, 46then the Lord of that servant will return on a day which he hoped not, and at an hour which he knew not. And he will separate him, and he will place his portion with that of the unfaithful. 47And that servant, who knew the will of his Lord, and who did not prepare and did not act according to his will, will be beaten many times over. 48Yet he who did not know, and who acted in a way that deserves a beating, will be beaten fewer times. So then, of all to whom much has been given, much will be required. And of those to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be asked.