Fourth Sunday of Lent (B)

Official Translation

Reading 1 – 2 Chronicles 36.14-16, 19-23

In those days, all the heads
of the priests and the people,
sinned very greatly
after all the abominations of the nations;
and they polluted the Lord’s house
which he had made holy in Jerusalem.

The Lord, the God of their fathers,
sent to them by his messengers,
sending them early on,
because he had compassion on his people,
and on his dwelling place,
but they mocked the messengers of God,
and despised his words,
and scoffed at his prophets,
until the wrath of the Lord
arose against his people,
until there was no remedy.

Their enemies burnt God’s house,
and broke down the wall of Jerusalem,
and burnt all its palaces with fire,
and destroyed all the goodly vessels of it.
Nebuchadnezzar carried those
who had escaped from the sword
away to Babylon,
and they were servants to him and his sons
until the reign of the kingdom of Persia,
to fulfill the Lord’s word
spoken through the mouth of Jeremiah,
“until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths”
As long as it lay desolate it kept Sabbath,
to fulfill seventy years.

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia,
that the Lord’s word by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be accomplished,
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia,
so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom,
and put it also in writing, saying,
“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia,
The Lord, the God of heaven,
has given all the kingdoms of the earth to me,
and he has commanded me
to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whoever there is among you of all his people,
the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.”

Responsorial – Psalm 137.1-2, 3, 4-5, 6. R. 6ab

R. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you.

By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat down; yes, we wept,
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows in that land,
we hung up our harps.

R. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you.

For there, those who led us captive
asked us for songs.
Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

R. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you.

How can we sing a song of the Lord
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its use.

R. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you.

Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you;
if I do not prefer Jerusalem
above my greatest joy.

R. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you.

Reading 2 - Ephesians 2.4-10

Brothers and sisters:
God, being rich in mercy,
because of his great love
with which he loved us,
even when we were dead
through our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ
(by grace you have been saved),
and raised us up with him,
and made us to sit with him
in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come
he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace in kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves;
it is the gift of God, not of works,
so that no one could boast.
For we are his handiwork,
created in Christ Jesus for the good works
which God prepared ahead of time
that we would walk in them.

Gospel – John 3.14-21

Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

For God so loved the world,
that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him
shall not perish, but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son
into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world should be saved through him.
Who believes in him is not condemned.
Who does not believe has been condemned already,
because they have not believed
in the name of the one and only Son of God.

This is the crisis:
the light has come into the world,
and humans loved the darkness so much more
than the light,
for their works were perverse.
For everyone who does evil
hates the light,
and does not come to the light,
lest his works would be exposed.
But he who does the truth
comes to the light,
that his works may be revealed,
that they have been done in God.