Sunday between 25 February and 3 March [not Sunday 3 March in a leap year] (if before Ash Wednesday) or Sunday between 24 and 28 May    (if after Trinity Sunday)    

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

First Reading - Isaiah 55.10-13

A reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it fruitful with grain, producing bread to eat, and new seed to sow. In the same way, says the Lord, the word that I speak will not return to me without accomplishing all that I intend, and succeeding in the purpose for which I sent it. And where once there were thorns and brambles, tall and blossoming trees will grow; and this will be a memorial, an everlasting sign, to honour the name of the Lord. And you will go out with joy, and return in peace; and the trees of the field will clap their hands, and the mountains and the hills will break into song. This is the word of the Lord.

Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 15.51b-57

A reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians. Those of us who are still alive when the last trumpet sounds will not die, but will be transformed, in that moment, in the blink of an eye. The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised, and we will be changed, as the mortal is transformed to immortality. And the word of the prophet will have been fulfilled, for death itself will have been defeated: ‘swallowed up in victory’. The power of death was in sin, and the power of sin was in the law. But thanks be to God, who has defeated all the powers of death, and has won for us the victory, in Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the word of the Lord.

Gospel - Luke 6.39-49

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke. Jesus taught them in parables, saying, ‘They are like the blind leading the blind. The one who is learning can do no better than the one who is teaching. And the one who completes their learning will become like their teacher. You should not be trying to remove a speck from someone else’s eye while you still have a log in your own. You know a tree by its fruit: you do not find figs on a thorn bush, or grapes on a bramble; a good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit; in the same way, a good person produces good words and deeds from the goodness stored up in their heart; while a wicked person produces wicked words and deeds from the wickedness stored up in their heart. And in the same way, if you call me Lord, you should surely act on what I say; for if you come to me, and hear my words, and act on them, you are building a house on deep foundations, dug right down to the rock, so that when the flood comes, it will stand secure. But those who hear my words, and do not act on what they hear - they are building a house without foundations, and it will fall when the floods rise against it.’ This is the Gospel of the Lord.