Daily Reading for Sunday, March 11th, 2018

Reading 1, Second Chronicles 36:14-17, 19-23
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
Gospel, John 3:14-21
Reading 2, Ephesians 2:4-10

Chronicles 36:14-17, 19-23
14 Furthermore, all the leaders of Judah, the priests and the people too, added infidelity to infidelity, copying all the shameful practices of the nations and defiling the Temple of Yahweh which he himself had consecrated in Jerusalem.

15 Yahweh, God of their ancestors, continuously sent them word through his messengers because he felt sorry for his people and his dwelling,

16 but they ridiculed the messengers of God, they despised his words, they laughed at his prophets, until Yahweh's wrath with his people became so fierce that there was no further remedy.

17 So against them he summoned the king of the Chaldaeans and he put their young men to the sword within the very building of their Temple, not sparing young man or girl, or the old and infirm; he put them all at his mercy.

19 He burned down the temple of God, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces to the ground and destroyed everything of value in it.

20 And those who had escaped the sword he deported to Babylon, where they were enslaved by him and his descendants until the rise of the kingdom of Persia,

21 to fulfil Yahweh's prophecy through Jeremiah: Until the country has paid off its Sabbaths, it will lie fallow for all the days of its desolation -- until the seventy years are complete.

22 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia -- to fulfil the word of Yahweh through Jeremiah -- Yahweh roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation and to have it publicly displayed throughout his kingdom:

23 'Cyrus king of Persia says this, "Yahweh, the God of Heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! Let him go up."'

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6

1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept at the memory of Zion.

2 On the poplars there we had hung up our harps.

3 For there our gaolers had asked us to sing them a song, our captors to make merry, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.'

4 How could we sing a song of Yahweh on alien soil?

5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither!

6 May my tongue remain stuck to my palate if I do not keep you in mind, if I do not count Jerusalem the greatest of my joys.

Gospel, John 3:14-21

14 as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up

15 so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

16 For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17 For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.

18 No one who believes in him will be judged; but whoever does not believe is judged already, because that person does not believe in the Name of God's only Son.

19 And the judgement is this: though the light has come into the world people have preferred darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.

20 And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, to prevent his actions from being shown up;

21 but whoever does the truth comes out into the light, so that what he is doing may plainly appear as done in God.'

Ephesians 2:4-10

4 But God, being rich in faithful love, through the great love with which he loved us,

5 even when we were dead in our sins, brought us to life with Christ -- it is through grace that you have been saved-

6 and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

7 This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how extraordinarily rich he is in grace.

8 Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God;

9 not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.

10 We are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life.