Reading 1

1 Thes 3:7-13

We have been reassured about you, brothers and sisters,

in our every distress and affliction, through your faith.

For we now live, if you stand firm in the Lord.

What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you,

for all the joy we feel on your account before our God?

Night and day we pray beyond measure to see you in person

and to remedy the deficiencies of your faith.

Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus

direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase

and abound in love for one another and for all,

just as we have for you,

so as to strengthen your hearts,

to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father

at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen.

Gospel

Mt 24:42-51

Jesus said to his disciples:

"Stay awake!

For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.

Be sure of this: if the master of the house

had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,

he would have stayed awake

and not let his house be broken into.

So too, you also must be prepared,

for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

"Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant,

whom the master has put in charge of his household

to distribute to them their food at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.

Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.

But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is long delayed,'

and begins to beat his fellow servants,

and eat and drink with drunkards,

the servant's master will come on an unexpected day

and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely

and assign him a place with the hypocrites,

where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."