Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Numbers 21.4b-9

They traveled from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea,
to go around the land of Edom.
The soul of the people was very discouraged because of the journey.
The people spoke against God and against Moses,
“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
For there is no bread, and there is no water,
and our soul loathes this worthless food.”

The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people.
Many people of Israel died.
The people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned,
because we have spoken against the Lord, and against you.
Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.”
Moses prayed for the people.
The Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole.
It shall happen that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
Moses made a serpent of bronze, and set it on the pole.
If a serpent had bitten anyone, when they looked at the serpent of bronze, they lived.

Responsorial – Psalm 78.1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38 Resp. 7b

R. Do not forget God’s deeds.

Hear my teaching, my people.
Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable.
I will utter dark sayings of old.

R. Do not forget God’s deeds.

When he killed them, then they sought him.
They returned and inquired after God earnestly.
They remembered that God was their rock,
that the Most High God was their redeemer.

R. Do not forget God’s deeds.

But they flattered him with their mouth,
and lied to him with their tongue.
For their heart was not right with him,
neither were they faithful to his covenant.

R. Do not forget God’s deeds.

But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity,
and did not destroy them.
Yes, many times he turned his anger away,
and did not stir up all his wrath.

R. Do not forget God’s deeds.

Reading 2 – Philippians 2.6-11

Brothers and sisters:
Christ Jesus,
though existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
being made in the likeness of humans.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death,
yes, the death of the cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him,
and gave to him the name which is above every name;
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.

Gospel – John 3.13-17

Jesus said to Nicodemus:
No one has ascended into heaven,
except he who descended out of heaven:
the Son of Human.

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Human be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him
should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world,
but that the world should be saved through him.

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