Liturgical Readings for : Sunday, 3rd March, 2024
Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle B
The law by which we live gives life and brings God’s love to the whole world.
The Ten Commandments are put before us today as the basic morality.
The Death and Resurrection of Christ leads to an understanding of a deeper way through self-giving love.
(The readings for year A may be used as alternative readings)
FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of Exodus 20:1-17
The Law was given through Moses.
God spoke all these words. He said,
‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
‘You shall have no gods except me.
‘You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God and I punish the father’s fault in the sons, the grandsons, and the great-grandsons of those who hate me; but I show kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
‘You shall not utter the name of the Lord your God to misuse it,
for the Lord will not leave unpunished the man who utters his name to misuse it.
‘Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath for the Lord your God. You shall do no work that day, neither you nor your son nor your daughter nor your servants, men or women, nor your animals nor the stranger who lives with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that these hold, but on the seventh day he rested; that is why the Lord has blessed the sabbath day and made it sacred.
‘Honour your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God has given to you.
‘You shall not kill.
‘You shall not commit adultery.
‘You shall not steal.
‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
‘You shall not covet your neighbour’s house.
You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his servant, man or woman, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is his.’
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
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Alternate Shorter form
A reading from the book of Exodus 20:1-3. 7-8. 12-17
The Law was given through Moses
God spoke all these words. He said,
‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
‘You shall have no gods except me.
‘You shall not utter the name of the Lord your God to misuse it, for the Lord will not leave unpunished the man who utters his name to misuse it.
‘Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy.
‘Honour your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God has given to you.
‘You shall not kill.
‘You shall not commit adultery.
‘You shall not steal.
‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
‘You shall not covet your neighbour’s house.
‘You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his servant, man or woman, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is his.’
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
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Responsorial Psalm Ps18
Response You, Lord, have the message of eternal life.
1. The law of the Lord is perfect, it revives the soul.
The rule of the Lord is to be trusted, it gives wisdom to the simple. Response
2. The precepts of the Lord are right, they gladden the heart.
The command of the Lord is clear, it gives light to the eyes. Response
3. The fear of the Lord is holy, abiding for ever.
The decrees of the Lord are truth and all of them just. Response
4. They are more to be desired than gold, than the purest of gold
and sweeter are they than honey, than honey from the comb. Response
SECOND READING
A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians 1:22-25
Here are we preaching a crucified Christ, an obstacle to men, but to those who are called the wisdom of God.
While the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, here are we preaching a crucified Christ; to the Jews an obstacle that they cannot get over, to the pagans madness, but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God.
For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Gospel Acclamation Jn 11:25. 26
Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory!
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord,
whoever believes in me will never die.
Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory!
Or Jn 3: 16
Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory!
God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son;
everyone who believes in him has eternal life.
Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John 2:13-25 Glory to you, O Lord
Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.
Just before the Jewish Passover Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting at their counters there. Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money changers’ coins, knocked their tables over and said to the pigeon-sellers,
‘Take all this out of here and stop turning my Father’s house into a market.‘
Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture:
Zeal for your house will devour me.
The Jews intervened and said,
‘What sign can you show us to justify what you have done?‘
Jesus answered, ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.’
The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary: are you going to raise it up in three days?‘
But he was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the words he had said.
During his stay in Jerusalem for the Passover many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he gave, but Jesus knew them all and did not trust himself to them; he never needed evidence about any man; he could tell what a man had in him.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflections
God’s building
Why is Jesus angry? – they have missed the point and the religious leaders are allowing this to happen! Religion has come down to ritual, and the centre is missing. Jesus was not much at home in the temple. He went there sometimes, and always caused trouble. The finding in the temple, the words – my body is the temple. Jesus is more at home at the table – the loaves at the lake, the fish on the beach, the last supper in a home. This is where he is most himself.
The falsity of the occasion was the using of the temple to be entrapped by riches. The poor were being overcharged to pay for the materials for sacrifices. This caused the anger of Jesus.
The temple has disappeared. We are God’s building. If we do not make God’s presence real in our area, then maybe we should knock down the church! Only if God is alive in us all the time, will he be alive in the building. If God is not alive all week in us, God will not be alive on Sunday. If he is not alive in our hearts – well, maybe that’s sometimes why religion can be so boring – it’s religion only from the neck up.
The forty six years are over, and the three days of the rebuilding have been going on for years, in the hearts of all who are faithful to God’s love. The building continues still and we are the living stones.
Think of what is most central to your life.
Is that a concern of God too?
Lord, keep me close to all you love and value in life.
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