Sunday of Meatfare

Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ²looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

³For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls. ⁴You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin. ⁵You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; ⁶for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

⁷It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? ⁸But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children. ⁹Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰For they indeed for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.

“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³²Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. ³⁶I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.’

³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? ³⁸When did we see you as a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?’

⁴⁰“The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ ⁴¹Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴²for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; ⁴³I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

⁴⁴“Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’

⁴⁵“Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’ ⁴⁶These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”