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First reading |
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2 Chronicles
36:14-16,19-23 |
God's wrath and mercy are revealed in the
exile and release of his people
All
the heads of the priesthood, and the people too, added infidelity to
infidelity, copying all the shameful practices of the nations and defiling the
Temple that the Lord had consecrated for himself in Jerusalem. The Lord, the
God of their ancestors, tirelessly sent them messenger after messenger, since
he wished to spare his people and his house. But they ridiculed the messengers
of God, they despised his words, they laughed at his prophets, until at last
the wrath of the Lord rose so high against his people that there was no further
remedy.
Their enemies burned down the
Temple of God, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, set fire to all its palaces,
and destroyed everything of value in it. The survivors were deported by
Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon; they were to serve him and his sons until the
kingdom of Persia came to power. This is how the word of the Lord was fulfilled
that he spoke through Jeremiah, ‘Until this land has enjoyed its sabbath rest,
until seventy years have gone by, it will keep sabbath throughout the days of
its desolation.’
And in the first year of Cyrus
king of Persia, to fulfil the word of the Lord that was spoken through
Jeremiah, the Lord roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a
proclamation and to have it publicly displayed throughout his kingdom: ‘Thus
speaks Cyrus king of Persia, “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the
kingdoms of the earth; he has ordered me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in
Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him!
Let him go up.”’
The
word of the Lord.
|
Responsorial Psalm |
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Psalm
136(137):1-6 |
O
let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!
By
the rivers of Babylon
there
we sat and wept,
remembering
Zion;
on
the poplars that grew there
we
hung up our harps.
O
let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!
For
it was there that they asked us,
our
captors, for songs,
our
oppressors, for joy.
‘Sing
to us,’ they said,
‘one
of Zion’s songs.’
O
let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!
O
how could we sing
the
song of the Lord
on
alien soil?
If
I forget you, Jerusalem,
let
my right hand wither!
O
let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!
O
let my tongue
cleave
to my mouth
if
I remember you not,
if
I prize not Jerusalem
above
all my joys!
O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!
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Second reading |
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Ephesians
2:4-10 · |
You have been saved through grace
God
loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were
dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through
grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a
place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.
This was to show for all ages
to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich
he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith;
not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you
have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art,
created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had
meant us to live it.
The word of the Lord.
|
Gospel Acclamation |
Jn3:16 |
Glory
and praise to you, O Christ!
God
loved the world so much that he gave his only Son:
everyone
who believes in him has eternal life.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
|
Gospel |
John 3:14-21 |
God sent his Son so that through him the
world might be saved
Jesus
said to Nicodemus:
‘The
Son of Man must be lifted up
as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so
that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
Yes,
God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,
so
that everyone who believes in him may not be lost
but
may have eternal life.
For
God sent his Son into the world
not
to condemn the world,
but
so that through him the world might be saved.
No
one who believes in him will be condemned;
but
whoever refuses to believe is condemned already,
because
he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son.
On
these grounds is sentence pronounced:
that
though the light has come into the world
men
have shown they prefer darkness to the light
because
their deeds were evil.
And
indeed, everybody who does wrong
hates
the light and avoids it,
for
fear his actions should be exposed;
but
the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light,
so
that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.’
The
Gospel of the Lord.
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