First Reading — Isaiah 66:18-21
Rashi
On 66:18
And I - their deeds and their thoughts have come etc. And I What am I to do? Their deeds and their thoughts have come to Me. And that forces Me to gather all the heathens (nations [Mss. and K’li Paz]), and to let them know that their deeds are vanity and the thoughts they are thinking, “For the sake of my name, the Lord shall be glorified,” let them understand that it is false. And where is the gathering? It is the gathering that Zechariah prophesied (14:2): “And I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem.” and they shall see My glory When I wage war with them with the plague of the following description (ibid. 14:12): “Their flesh shall disintegrate...and their eyes...and their tongue.”
On 66:19
And I will place a sign upon them etc. Refugees will survive the war, and I will allow them to remain in order to go to report to the distant islands My glory that they saw in the war, and also upon those refugees I will place one of the signs with which their colleagues were punished, in order to let the distant ones know that with this plague, those who gathered about Jerusalem were smitten.
On 66:20
and with covered wagons Heb. וּבַצַּבִּים. These are wagons equipped with partitions and a tent. Comp. (Num. 7:3) “Six covered wagons (עֶגְלוֹתצָב).” and with joyous songs Heb. וּבַכִּרְכָּרוֹת. With a song of players and dancers. Comp. (II Sam. 6:14) “And David danced (מְכַרְכֵּר),” treper in O.F. [Menahem (p. 109) explains it as an expression meaning a lamb. Comp. (supra 16:1) “Send lambs (כַּר) of the ruler of the land.”] as...bring an offering in a pure vessel for acceptance, so will they bring your brethren as an acceptable offering.
On 66:21
And from them too From the peoples bringing them and from those brought, I will take priests and Levites, for they are now assimilated among the heathens (nations [Mss. and K’li Paz]) under coercion, and before Me the priests and the Levites among them are revealed, and I will select them from among them, and they shall minister before Me, said the Lord. Now where did He say it? (Deut. 29:28) “The hidden things are for the Lord our God.” In this manner it is explained in the Aggadah of Psalms (87:6).
Responsorial Psalm — Psalm 117:1, 2
Augustine of Hippo
On 116:1
"O praise the Lord, all you heathen: praise Him, all you nations." These are the courts of the Lord's house, this all His people, this the true Jerusalem. Let those rather listen who have refused to be the children of this city, since they have cut themselves off from the communion of all nations.
On 116:2
"For His merciful kindness is ever more and more towards us: and the truth of the Lord endures for ever." These are those two things, loving-kindness and truth, which in the CXVth Psalm I admonished you should be committed to memory. But "the merciful kindness of the Lord is ever more and more towards us," since the furious tongues of hostile nations have yielded to His Name, through which we have been freed: "and the truth of the Lord endures for ever," whether in those things which He promised to the righteous, or in those which He has threatened to the ungodly.
Second Reading — Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13
Clement of Rome
On 12:6
Let us then also pray for those who have fallen into any sin, that meekness and humility may be given to them, so that they may submit, not unto us, but to the will of God. For in this way they shall secure a fruitful and perfect remembrance from us, with sympathy for them, both in our prayers to God, and our mention of them to the saints. Let us receive correction, beloved, on account of which no one should feel displeased. Those exhortations by which we admonish one another are both good [in themselves] and highly profitable, for they tend to unite us to the will of God. For thus saith the holy Word: "The Lord hath severely chastened me, yet hath not given me over to death." [Psalm 118:18] "For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." [Hebrews 12:6] "The righteous," saith it, "shall chasten me in mercy, and reprove me; but let not the oil of sinners make fat my head." [Psalm 141:5] And again he saith, "Blessed is the man whom the Lord reproveth, and reject not thou the warning of the Almighty. For He causes sorrow, and again restores [to gladness]; He woundeth, and His hands make whole. He shall deliver thee in six troubles, yea, in the seventh no evil shall touch thee. In famine He shall rescue thee from death, and in war He shall free thee from the power of the sword. From the scourge of the tongue will He hide thee, and thou shalt not fear when evil cometh. Thou shalt laugh at the unrighteous and the wicked, and shalt not be afraid of the beasts of the field. For the wild beasts shall be at peace with thee: then shalt thou know that thy house shall be in peace, and the habitation of thy tabernacle shall not fail. Thou shall know also that thy seed shall be great, and thy children like the grass of the field. And thou shall come to the grave like ripened corn which is reaped in its season, or like a heap of the threshing-floor which is gathered together at the proper time." [Job 5:17-26] Ye see, beloved, that protection is afforded to those that are chastened of the Lord; for since God is good, He corrects us, that we may be admonished by His holy chastisement.
Gospel — Luke 13:22-30
Eusebius of Caesarea
On 13:30
For the Fathers above mentioned, before the times of the Law, forsaking the sins of many gods to follow the Gospel way, received the knowledge of the most high God; to whom many of the Gentiles were conformed through a similar manner of life, but their children suffered estrangement from the Gospel rules; and herein it follows, And behold they are last which shall be first, and they are first which shall be last.