Key:
What these passages tell us about God
What these passages tell us to do
Commentary/observations
Reading 1 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 burnt 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 burnt 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 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6.
R. (6ab) 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. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
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. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
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. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
May my tongue cleave to my palate if I remember you not, if I place not Jerusalem ahead of my joy.
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. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
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. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
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. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
May my tongue cleave to my palate if I remember you not, if I place not Jerusalem ahead of my joy.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
Reading 2 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 —, 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 JN 3:16
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.
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.
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.
1. God loves us in spite of our
sin (second reading, gospel). He comes to us to draw us away from sin (first
reading). Like a loving parent He sometimes lets us feel the sting of sin in
order to correct us (first reading), but he ultimately does mighty works to
rescue us from our sin (First reading, gospel).
2. How should we respond to that
wonderful, persistent, energetic love? By reciprocating with energetic work on
His behalf (second reading, gospel). That work consists of both striving to get
closer to God and serving our fellow man.
God, infinitely perfect and blessed
in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in
his own blessed life. For this reason, at
every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his
strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into
the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of
time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Saviour. In his Son and through
him, he invites men to become, in the
Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.(emphasis
added)
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