Responsorial Psalm
By the streams of Babylon, we sat and then wept
as we remembered Zion.
When on the poplars we hung our harps
our captors asked for song.
Our tormentors wanted songs of joy:
"Sing to us one of the songs of Zion
How could we sing the Lord's song
in a strange and alien land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand fall useless!
May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
if Jerusalem is not the first of my joys.
2nd. READING (Eph 2,4-10)
But God, who is rich in mercy, revealed his immense love. As we were dead through
our sins, he gave us life with Christ. By grace you have been saved! And he raised us
to life with Christ, giving us a place with him in heaven. In showing us such kindness
in Christ Jesus, God willed to reveal and unfold in the coming ages the extraordinary
riches of his grace. By the grace of God you have been saved through faith. This has
not come from you: it is God's gift. This was not the result of your works, so you are
not to feel proud. What we are is God's work. He has created us in Christ Jesus for the
good works he has prepared that we should devote ourselves to them.
Gospel
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Yes, God so loved the world that
he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but may have
eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world; instead,
through him the world is to be saved. Whoever believes in him will not be
condemned. He who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not
believed in the Name of the only Son of God. This is how the Judgment is made: Light
has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than light because their
deeds were evil. For whoever does wrong hates the light and doesn't come to the light
for fear that his deeds will be shown as evil. But whoever lives according to the truth
comes into the light so that it can be clearly seen that his works have been done in
God."
