1st Reading - 2 Chr 36:14-16. 19-23
In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and
the people added infidelity to
infidelity, practicing all the
abominations of the nations
and polluting the Lord’s temple which he had consecrated
in Jerusalem.
Early and often did the Lord, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the Lord against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy. Their enemies burned the house of God, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, set all its palaces afire, and destroyed all its precious objects. Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon, where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons until the kingdom of the Persians came to power. All this was to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah: “Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths, during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest while seventy years are fulfilled.”
In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord inspired King Cyrus of Persia to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing: “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people, let him go up, and may his God be with him!”
Early and often did the Lord, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the Lord against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy. Their enemies burned the house of God, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, set all its palaces afire, and destroyed all its precious objects. Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon, where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons until the kingdom of the Persians came to power. All this was to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah: “Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths, during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest while seventy years are fulfilled.”
In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord inspired King Cyrus of Persia to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing: “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people, let him go up, and may his God be with him!”
Responsorial Psalm - Ps 137
R –Let my tongue be silenced,
if I ever forget you!
* By the streams of Babylon
we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. On the aspens
of that land we hung up our
harps. R.
* For there our captors
asked of us the lyrics of our
songs, and our despoilers
urged us to be joyous: “Sing
for us the songs of Zion!” R.
* How could we sing a song
of the Lord in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem, may
my right hand be forgotten! R.
* May my tongue cleave to
my palate if I remember you
not, if I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy. R.
2nd Reading - Eph 2:4-10
Brothers and sisters:
God, who is rich in mercy,
because of the great love he
had for us, even when we were
dead in our transgressions,
brought us to life with Christ.
By grace you have been saved.
He raised us up with him, and
seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the
ages to come he might show
the immeasurable riches of his
grace in his kindness to us in
Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been
saved through faith, and this
is not from you; it is the gift of
God; it is not from works, so no
one may boast.
For we are his handiwork,
created in Christ Jesus for
the good works that God has
prepared in advance, that we
should live in them.
Verse before the Gospel
God so loved the world that
he gave his only Son, so everyone who believes in him
might have eternal life.
Gospel - Jn 3:14-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“Just as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the desert, so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, so
that everyone who believes in
him may have eternal life.”
For God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son, so
that everyone who believes in
him might not perish but might
have eternal life. For God did
not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but
that the world might be saved
through him.
Whoever believes in him
will not be condemned, but
whoever does not believe has
already been condemned, because he has not believed in the
name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict, that
the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness
to light, because their works
were evil. For everyone who
does wicked things hates the
light and does not come toward
the light, so that his works
might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the
light, so that his works may be
clearly seen as done in God.
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