O Lord, open my lips.
And we shall praise your name.
Invitatory Psalm
Psalm 66 (67)
The Lord has truly risen,
alleluia.
O God, take pity on us and bless us,
and let your face shine upon us,
so that your ways may be known across the world,
and all nations learn of your salvation.
The Lord has truly risen,
alleluia.
Let the peoples praise you, O God,
let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and rejoice,
for you judge the peoples with fairness
and you guide the nations of the earth.
The Lord has truly risen,
alleluia.
Let the peoples praise you, O God,
let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has produced its harvest:
may God, our God, bless us.
May God bless us,
may the whole world revere him.
The Lord has truly risen,
alleluia.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
The Lord has truly risen,
alleluia.
Hymn
Love’s redeeming work is done,
fought the fight, the battle won.
Lo, our Sun’s eclipse is o’er!
Lo, he sets in blood no more!
Vain the stone, the watch, the seal!
Christ has burst the gates of hell;
death in vain forbids him rise;
Christ has opened paradise.
Lives again our victorious King;
where, O death, is now thy sting?
Dying once, he all doth save;
where thy victory, O grave?
Soar we now where Christ has led,
following our exalted Head;
made like him, like him we rise,
ours the cross, the grave, the skies.
Hail the Lord of earth and heaven!
Praise to thee by both be given:
thee we greet triumphant now;
hail, the Resurrection thou!
Psalm 77 (78)
The history of salvation: the Lord's goodness,
his people's infidelity
The Lord saved them from their foe.
Alleluia.
How often they rebelled in the wilderness!
How often they grieved him in the desert!
Again and again they put God to the test
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
They forgot his strength, they forgot the time
when he saved them from the oppressor’s power.
When he showed his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the plain of Tanis,
he turned their rivers into blood
and the streams: there was nothing they could drink.
He sent biting flies to eat them up,
and frogs to bring devastation.
He gave their fruit to the caterpillar,
the fruit of their labours to the locust.
He killed their vines with hail,
he killed their sycamores with frost.
He gave their herds as victims to hail;
their flocks, to lightning.
He loosed upon them the heat of his anger:
rage, fury, and destruction;
he sent his destroying angels among them.
He cleared a path for his anger:
he did not spare them from death,
but cut off their lives in pestilence.
He struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt,
the first-fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
The Lord saved them from their foe.
Alleluia.
Psalm 77 (78)
The Lord brought them to his holy mountain.
Alleluia.
He led his people away like sheep,
like a flock through the wilderness.
They were led in hope, they did not fear –
and the sea covered up their enemies.
He brought them within the borders he had sanctified,
to the mountain that his right hand had conquered.
He drove out the nations before them
divided their land, to be an inheritance,
and made Israel dwell in their tents.
Still they tested and angered God, the Most High,
and would not keep his decrees.
They went back to their unfaithfulness,
like their fathers before them:
they twisted round, like a crooked bow.
They stirred him to anger by their worship in high places:
they provoked him to jealousy with their idols.
God heard, and burned with anger:
then truly he spurned Israel.
He abandoned his dwelling-place in Shiloh,
the tent where he had lived among men.
He gave up his power to captivity,
his glory to the hands of the enemy.
He gave up his people to the sword,
he burned hot against his own inheritance.
Fire burned up their youths,
and their maidens remained unwed.
Their priests fell to the sword,
and their widows died unmourned.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
The Lord brought them to his holy mountain.
Alleluia.
Psalm 77 (78)
He chose the tribe of Judah and David his servant to be shepherd of Israel,
his own possession.
Alleluia.
The Lord awoke as a sleeper awakes,
like a warrior fuddled with wine.
He attacked his foes from behind,
he put them to everlasting shame.
He rejected the tents of Joseph,
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
but the tribe of Judah he chose,
and his beloved mountain of Zion.
He built his sanctuary as a high place,
firm as the earth he had founded for ever.
He chose David for his servant
and raised him up from his flocks.
He took him from following the pregnant ewes
to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people,
and of Israel, his inheritance.
He pastured them with a pure heart
and led them with skilful hands.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
He chose the tribe of Judah and David his servant to be shepherd of Israel,
his own possession.
Alleluia.
God has given us a new birth into living hope, alleluia,
– through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, alleluia.
First Reading
Apocalypse 18:1-20
After this, I saw another angel come down from heaven, with great authority given to him; the earth was lit up with his glory. At the top of his voice he shouted, ‘Babylon has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, and has become the haunt of devils and a lodging for every foul spirit and dirty, loathsome bird. All the nations have been intoxicated by the wine of her prostitution; every king in the earth has committed fornication with her, and every merchant grown rich through her debauchery.’
A new voice spoke from heaven; I heard it say, ‘Come out, my people, away from her, so that you do not share in her crimes and have the same plagues to bear. Her sins have reached up to heaven, and God has her crimes in mind: she is to be paid in her own coin. She must be paid double the amount she exacted. She is to have a doubly strong cup of her own mixture. Every one of her shows and orgies is to be matched by a torture or a grief. I am the queen on my throne, she says to herself, and I am no widow and shall never be in mourning. For that, within a single day, the plagues will fall on her: disease and mourning and famine. She will be burnt right up. The Lord God has condemned her, and he has great power.’
There will be mourning and weeping for her by the kings of the earth who have fornicated with her and lived with her in luxury. They see the smoke as she burns, while they keep at a safe distance from fear of her agony. They will say:
‘Mourn, mourn for this great city,
Babylon, so powerful a city,
doomed as you are within a single hour.’
There will be weeping and distress over her among all the traders of the earth when there is nobody left to buy their cargoes of goods; their stocks of gold and silver, jewels and pearls, linen and purple and silks and scarlet; all the sandalwood, every piece in ivory or fine wood, in bronze or iron or marble; the cinnamon and spices, the myrrh and ointment and incense; wine, oil, flour and corn; their stocks of cattle, sheep, horses and chariots, their slaves, their human cargo.
‘All the fruits you had set your hearts on have failed you; gone for ever, never to return, is your life of magnificence and ease.’
The traders who had made a fortune out of her will be standing at a safe distance from fear of her agony, mourning and weeping. They will be saying:
‘Mourn, mourn for this great city;
for all the linen and purple and scarlet that you wore,
for all your finery of gold and jewels and pearls;
your riches are all destroyed within a single hour.’
All the captains and seafaring men, sailors and all those who make a living from the sea will be keeping a safe distance, watching the smoke as she burns, and crying out, ‘Has there ever been a city as great as this!’ They will throw dust on their heads and say, with tears and groans:
‘Mourn, mourn for this great city
whose lavish living has made a fortune
for every owner of a sea-going ship;
ruined within a single hour.’
‘Now heaven, celebrate her downfall, and all you saints, apostles and prophets: God has given judgement for you against her.’
Responsory
Come out of Babylon,
keep yourselves pure,
you who carry the vessels of the Lord,
for the Lord will march at your head:
your rearguard will be Israel’s God, alleluia.
Come out of her, O my people,
and let every man save himself from the anger of the Lord: your rearguard will be Israel’s God, alleluia.
Second Reading
From the commentary on the letter to the Romans
by Saint Cyril of Alexandria, bishop
God's mercy has been extended to all; the whole world has been saved
Though many, we are one body, and members one of another, united by Christ in the bonds of love. Christ has made Jews and Gentiles one by breaking down the barrier that divided us and abolishing the law with its precepts and decrees. This is why we should all be of one mind and if one member suffers some misfortune, all should suffer with him; if one member is honoured, all should be glad.
Paul says: Accept one another as Christ accepted you, for the glory of God. Now accepting one another means being willing to share one another’s thoughts and feelings, bearing one another’s burdens, and preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is how God accepted us in Christ, for John’s testimony is true and he said that God the Father loved the world so much that he gave his own Son for us. God’s Son was given as a ransom for the lives of us all. He has delivered us from death, redeemed us from death and from sin.
Paul throws light on the purpose of God’s plan when he says that Christ became the servant of the circumcised to show God’s fidelity. God had promised the Jewish patriarchs that he would bless their offspring and make it as numerous as the stars of heaven. This is why the divine Word himself, who as God holds all creation in being and is the source of its well-being, appeared in the flesh and became man. He came into this world in human flesh not to be served, but, as he himself said, to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Christ declared that his coming in visible form was to fulfil the promise made to Israel. I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he said. Paul was perfectly correct, then, in saying that Christ became a servant of the circumcised in order to fulfil the promise made to the patriarchs and that God the Father had charged him with this task, as also with the task of bringing salvation to the Gentiles, so that they too might praise their Saviour and Redeemer as the Creator of the universe. In this way God’s mercy has been extended to all men, including the Gentiles, and it can be seen that the mystery of the divine wisdom contained in Christ has not failed in its benevolent purpose. In the place of those who fell away the whole world has been saved.
Responsory
We had to proclaim the word of God to you first, but since you have rejected it,
since you do not think yourselves worthy of eternal life, we must turn to the pagans, alleluia.
For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when he said,
‘I have made you a light for the nations’ – we must turn to the pagans, alleluia.
Let us pray.
All-powerful, ever-living God,
keep the mystery of Easter alive in us always.
You gave us a new birth in holy baptism:
give us grace to bear much fruit,
and bring us to the joys of eternal life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Let us praise the Lord.
– Thanks be to God.
