Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Concluding Hallel—Pss 146–150^[a]

Psalm 146^[b]

Trust in God, Creator and Redeemer

^1 [c]Alleluia.

Chapter 15

Goodwill to the Poor.^{[a] 1} At the end of every seven years you are to cancel debts. ² This is how you are to do it. Everyone who has made a loan to his neighbor will forgive the debt. He will not require payment from his neighbor nor his brother, for the Lord’s pardon of debts has been proclaimed. ³ You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must forgive the debt that your brother owes. ⁴ There should be no poor among you, for the Lord will greatly bless you in the land that the Lord, your God, has given you to possess as an inheritance, ⁵ but only if you carefully heed the voice of the Lord, your God, and observe all of the commandments that I give you today. ⁶ The Lord, your God, will bless you as he promised you. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none. You shall rule over many nations, but none shall rule over you.

⁷ If there is a poor man among you in the towns of the land that the Lord, your God, has given you, do not harden your heart nor be stingy with your poor brother. ⁸ Be generous with him, lending him what he needs, whatever it is he needs. ⁹ Be careful not to harbor the evil thought in your mind, “The seventh year, the time for canceling debts, is near.” Do not show bad will toward your poor brother and end up giving him nothing. He might appeal to the Lord, and it would be your sin. ¹⁰ You must give to him, and you should not have a grudging heart when you give to him. The Lord, your God, will bless you in all the endeavors that you undertake because of what you have given. ¹¹ There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you, “Be generous to your poor brother and the needy in your land.”

¹⁵ A Covenant Sealed with the Blood of Christ.^[a] For this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who have been called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since his death has served to redeem the sins that were committed under the first covenant.

¹⁶ Now when a will is involved, it is obligatory to prove the death of the one who made it. ¹⁷ For a will takes effect only at death, since it has no force while the one who made it is still alive.

¹⁸ Hence, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. ¹⁹ For when all the commandments of the Law had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, together with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, ²⁰ saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to observe.”

²¹ And in the same way, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the liturgical vessels. ²² Indeed, under the Law almost everything is purified by blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

²³ Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves required still greater sacrifices.

²⁴ Once and for All.^[b] For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, so that he now appears in the presence of God on our behalf.