First reading Jeremiah 20:10-13

‘He has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.’

Jeremiah said:

I hear many whispering.

Terror is on every side!

‘Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’

say all my close friends,

watching for my fall.

‘Perhaps he will be deceived;

then we can overcome him

and take our revenge on him.’

But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;

therefore my persecutors will stumble;

they will not overcome me.

They will be greatly shamed,

for they will not succeed.

Their eternal dishonour

will never be forgotten.

O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous,

who sees the heart and the mind,

let me see your vengeance upon them,

for to you have I committed my cause.

Sing to the Lord;

praise the Lord!

For he has delivered the life of the needy

from the hand of evildoers.

The word of the Lord

Responsorial Psalm Ps 69(68):8-10. 14, 17. 33-35. ℟14c

In your great mercy, answer me, O Lord.

It is for you that I suffer taunts,

that shame has covered my face.

To my own kin I have become an outcast,

a stranger to the children of my mother.

Zeal for your house consumes me,

and taunts against you fall on me. 

In your great mercy, answer me, O Lord.

But I pray to you, O Lord,

at an acceptable time.

In your great mercy, answer me, O God,

with your faithful salvation.

Lord, answer, for your mercy is kind;

in your great compassion, turn towards me. 

In your great mercy, answer me, O Lord.

The poor when they see it will be glad,

and God-seeking hearts will revive;

for the Lord attends to the needy,

and does not spurn his own in their chains.

Let the heavens and the earth give him praise,

the seas and everything that moves in them. 

In your great mercy, answer me, O Lord.

Second reading Romans 5:12-15

‘The free gift is not like the trespass.’

Brothers and Sisters: Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned — for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

  But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many.

The word of the Lord

Gospel Acclamation John 15:26b, 27a

Alleluia, alleluia.

The Spirit of truth will bear witness about me, says the Lord,

and you also will bear witness.

Alleluia.