A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy
6:4-13
Moses said to the people:
"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!
Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God,
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength.
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.
Drill them into your children.
Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.
Bind them at your wrist as a sign
and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.
Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
"When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which he swore
to your fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
that he would give you,
a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,
with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner,
with cisterns that you did not dig,
with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant;
and when, therefore, you eat your fill,
take care not to forget the LORD,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
The LORD, your God, shall you fear;
him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear."
From the Gospel according to Matthew
17:14-20
A man came up to Jesus, knelt down before him, and said,
"Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely;
often he falls into fire, and often into water.
I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him."
Jesus said in reply,
"O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you?
Bring the boy here to me."
Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him,
and from that hour the boy was cured.
Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said,
"Why could we not drive it out?"
He said to them, "Because of your little faith.
Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
'Move from here to there,' and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you."
On the ground prepared by the prophets, the New Testament presents Jesus Christ as the Bridegroom for the new People of God: He is the “Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel” foretold and announced from afar; it is in Him that the prophecies have been fulfilled: the Christ-Bridegroom. [...] Even in the parable of the ten virgins, “who, having taken their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom” (Mt 25:1), we find the marital analogy used by Jesus to convey His thoughts on the Kingdom of God and the Church in which it is realized. There is also His insistence on the need for interior preparation, without which one cannot participate in the wedding feast. In this parable, Jesus calls for readiness, vigilance, and fervent commitment in waiting for the Bridegroom. Only five of the ten virgins had worked to keep their lamps burning for the Bridegroom’s arrival. The others, unprepared, ran out of oil. “The Bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut” (Mt 25:10). This is a delicate but unmistakable reference to the fate of those who lack the interior disposition to meet God, and therefore lack fervor and perseverance in waiting; a reference, therefore, to the risk of having the door shut in their face. Once again, we find the call to a sense of responsibility in the face of the Christian vocation. (St. John Paul II, General Audience, 11 December 1991)