Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

4Verse 4. The word of the LORD came to me, saying: 5Verse 5. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” 6Verse 6. “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I surely do not know how to speak, for I am only a child!” 7Verse 7. But the LORD told me: “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ For to everyone I send you, you must go, and all that I command you, you must speak. 8Verse 8. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,” 9Verse 9. Then the LORD reached out His hand, touched my mouth, and said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. 10Verse 10. See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and plant.”

1Verse 1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. 2Verse 2. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3Verse 3. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4Verse 4. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5Verse 5. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. 6Verse 6. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. 7Verse 7. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Verse 8. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. 9Verse 9. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10Verse 10. but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away. 11Verse 11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. 12Verse 12. Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13Verse 13. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

21Verse 21. and He began by saying, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22Verse 22. All spoke well of Him and marveled at the gracious words that came from His lips. “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” they asked. 23Verse 23. Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in Your hometown what we have heard that You did in Capernaum.’” 24Verse 24. Then He added, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25Verse 25. But I tell you truthfully that there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and great famine swept over all the land. 26Verse 26. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to the widow of Zarephath in Sidon. 27Verse 27. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. Yet not one of them was cleansed— only Naaman the Syrian.” 28Verse 28. On hearing this, all the people in the synagogue were enraged. 29Verse 29. They got up, drove Him out of the town, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him over the cliff. 30Verse 30. But Jesus passed through the crowd and went on His way.