August 5, 2003, Saturday of the 17th week in ordinary time.

A reading from the Book of Leviticus.

The Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

7 weeks of years shall you count, 7 times 7 years,

so that the 7 cycles amount to 49 years. Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month,

let the trumpet resound. On this, the day of atonement, the trumpet blast shall re-echo throughout your

land. This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants.

It shall be a Jubilee for you, when every one of you shall return to his own property, everyone to his own family estate.

In this fiftieth year, your year of Jubilee, you shall not sow, nor shall you reap the aftergrowth or pick the grapes

from the untrimmed vines. Since this is the Jubilee, which shall be sacred for you, you

may not eat of its produce except as taken directly from the field. In this year of Jubilee,

then, every one of you shall return to his own property.

Therefore, when you sell any land to your neighbor or buy any from him, do not deal unfairly.

On the basis of the number of years since the last Jubilee shall you purchase the land

from your neighbor.

And so also, on the basis of the number of years for crops,

shall he sell it to you. When the years are many, the price shall be so much the more. When the

years are few, the price shall be so much to less, for it is really the number of crops that he

sells you. Do not deal unfairly, then, but stand in fear of your God.

I the Lord am your God. The word of the Lord.

The Responsorial Psalm. The response is, O God, let all the nations praise you.

May God have pity on us and bless us. May he let his face shine upon us. So may your way be known upon earth, among all nations your salvation. O God, let all the nations praise you. May the nations be glad and exult, because you rule the people's inequity,

...