Certain Gospels and Canticles: 10 The eternal ages - Truth and not error

Truth and not error

Canticle of Isaias:

Is. 45, 15-26

VERILY thou art a hidden God [1], the God of Israel the saviour.

They are all confounded and ashamed: the forgers of errors are gone together into confusion.

Israel is saved in the Lord with an eternal salvation: you shall not be confounded, and you shall not be ashamed for ever and ever.

For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth, and made it, the very maker thereof:

He did not create it in vain: he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other.

I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth:

I have not said to the seed of Jacob: Seek me in vain. I am the Lord that speak justice, that declare right things.

Assemble yourselves, and come, and draw near together, ye that are saved of the Gentiles:

They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven work, and pray to a god that cannot save.

Tell ye, and come, and consult together: who hath declared this from the beginning, who hath foretold this from that time?

Have not I the Lord, and there is no God else besides me? A just God and a saviour, there is none besides me.

Be converted to me, and you shall be saved, all ye ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other.

I have sworn by myself, the word of justice shall go out of my mouth, and shall not return:

For every knee shall be bowed to me, and every tongue shall swear.

Therefore shall he say: In the Lord are my justices and empire: theyshall come to him, and all that resist him shall be confounded.

In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and praised.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Ant. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and praised.

Ant. 5 Praise.

Gospel According to Saint Luke

Chapter 20

The parable of the husbandmen. Of paying tribute to Caesar and of the resurrection of the dead.

1 And it came to pass, that on one of the days, as he was teaching the people in the temple, and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes, with the ancients, met together, 2 And spoke to him, saying: Tell us, by what authority dost thou these things? or, Who is he that hath given thee this authority? 3 And Jesus answering, said to them: I will also ask you one thing. Answer me: 4 The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? 5 But they thought within themselves, saying: If we shall say, From heaven: he will say: Why then did you not believe him?

6 But if we say, Of men, the whole people will stone us: for they are persuaded that John was a prophet. 7 And they answered, that they knew not whence it was. 8 And Jesus said to them: Neither do I tell thee by what authority I do these things. 9 And he began to speak to the people this parable: A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen: and he was abroad for a long time. 10 And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard. Who, beating him, sent him away empty.

11 And again he sent another servant. But they beat him also, and treating him reproachfully, sent him away empty. 12 And again he sent the third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out. 13 Then the lord of the vineyard said: What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be, when they see him, they will reverence him. 14 Whom when the husbandmen saw, they thought within themselves, saying: This is the heir, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. 15 So casting him out of the vineyard, they killed him. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do to them?

16 He will come, and will destroy these husbandmen, and will give the vineyard to others. Which they hearing, said to him: God forbid. 17 But he looking on them, said: What is this then that is written, The stone, which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? 18 Whosoever shall fall upon that stone, shall be bruised: and upon whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 19 And the chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him the same hour: but they feared the people, for they knew that he spoke this parable to them. 20 And being upon the watch, they sent spies, who should feign themselves just, that they might take hold of him in his words, that they might deliver him up to the authority and power of the governor.

21 And they asked him, saying: Master, we know that thou speakest andteachest rightly: and thou dost not respect any person, but teachest the way of God in truth. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or no? 23 But he considering their guile, said to them: Why tempt you me? 24 Shew me a penny. Whose image and inscription hath it? They answering, said to him, Caesar's. 25 And he said to them: Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's: and to God the things that are God's.

26 And they could not reprehend his word before the people: and wondering at his answer, they held their peace. 27 And there came to him some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is any resurrection, and they asked him, 28 Saying: Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die, having a wife, and he leave no children, that his brother should take her to wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 29 There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the next took her to wife, and he also died childless.

31 And the third took her. And in like mannerall the seven, and they left no children, and died. 32 Last of all the woman died also. 33 In the resurrection therefore, whose wife of them shall she be? For all the seven had her to wife. 34 And Jesus said to them: The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: 35 But they that shall be accounted worthy of that world, and of the resurrection from the dead, shall neither be married, nor take wives.

36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. 37 Now that the dead rise again, Moses also shewed, at the bush, when he called the Lord, The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; 38 For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live to him. 39 And some of the scribes answering, said to him: Master, thou hast said well. 40 And after that they durst not ask him any more questions.

41 But he said to them: How say they that Christ is the son of David? 42 And David himself saith in the book of Psalms: The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, 43 Till I make thy enemies thy footstool. 44 David then calleth him Lord: and how is he his son? 45 And in the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples: 46 Beware of the scribes, who desire to walk in long robes, and love salutations in the marketplace, and the first chairs in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts: 47 Who devour the houses of widows, feigning long prayer. These shall receive greater damnation.

[1] hidden to those who are perishing due to hardened hearts, their own self willed blindness. See:

2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore, seeing we have this ministration, according as we have obtained mercy, we faint not; 2 But we renounce the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the word of God; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience, in the sight of God. 3 And if our gospel be also hid, it is hid to them that are lost, 4 In whom the God of this age [aeon in Greek] hath blinded the minds of unbelievers, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine unto them. 5 For we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ our Lord; and ourselves your servants through Jesus.

"God of this age," is the revelation of God in His Christ come in this age of grace to offer His salvation to all men. That revelation is the light of the world and it blinds those who through their own self willed obstinacy choose the works of darkness and reject Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ said the same thing here, as St. Irenaeus quotes in reference to 2 Cor. 4:4 -

John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him. 18 He that believeth in him is not judged. But he that doth not believe, is already judged: because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: because the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil. 20 For every one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved.