St Hieron and the Holy 33 Martyrs of Melitene; Saint Willibrord, first Bishop of Utrecht and Apostle of Holland (739); Lazarus the Wonderworker

Therefore comfort one another with these words.

¹But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you. ²For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. ³For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape. ⁴But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. ⁵You are all children of light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness, ⁶so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober. ⁷For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunk are drunk in the night. ⁸But since we belong to the day, let’s be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. ⁹For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

Now there were some present at the same time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ²Jesus answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such things? ³I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way. ⁴Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the men who dwell in Jerusalem? ⁵I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.”

⁶He spoke this parable. “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. ⁷He said to the vine dresser, ‘Behold, these three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and found none. Cut it down! Why does it waste the soil?’ ⁸He answered, ‘Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down.’”