First reading Joshua 24:1 - 18
Josue gathered together all the tribes of Israel in Sichem, and called for the elders, and the princes and the judges, and the masters: and they stood in the sight of the Lord. And he spoke thus to the people: “Thus says the Lord the God of Israel: ‘Your fathers dwelt of old on the other side of the river, Thare the father of Abraham, and Nachor: and they served strange gods’. But if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, you have your choice: choose this day what pleases you, whom you would rather serve, whether the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia, or the gods of the Amorrhites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”.
The people answered: “God forbid we should leave the Lord, and serve strange gods. The Lord our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: and did very great wonders before us, and preserved us in all the way by which we journeyed, and among all the people through whom we passed. And he has cast out all the nations, and the Amorrhite who were the inhabitants of the land into which we have come. Therefore we will serve the Lord, for he is our God”.
Psalm or canticle: Psalm 33
Second reading Ephesians 5:21 - 32
Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Saviour. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”. This mystery is a profound one, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church;
Gospel John 6:60 - 69
Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, “Do you take offence at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that do not believe”. For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father”.
After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God”.
