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First reading: Jeremiah 38:4-6,8-10
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The king’s leading men spoke to the king. ‘Let Jeremiah be put to death: he is unquestionably disheartening the remaining soldiers in the city, and all the people too, by talking like this. The fellow does not have the welfare of this people at heart so much as its ruin.’ ‘He is in your hands as you know,’ King Zedekiah answered ‘for the king is powerless against you.’ So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the well of Prince Malchiah in the Court of the Guard, letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the well, only mud, and into the mud Jeremiah sank.
Ebed-melech came out from the palace and spoke to the king. ‘My lord king,’ he said ‘these men have done a wicked thing by treating the prophet Jeremiah like this: they have thrown him into the well, where he will die.’ At this the king gave Ebed-melech the Cushite the following order: ‘Take three men with you from here and pull the prophet Jeremiah out of the well before he dies.’
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 39(40):2-4,18
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Lord, come to my aid!
I waited, I waited for the Lord
and he stooped down to me;
he heard my cry.
Lord, come to my aid!
He drew me from the deadly pit,
from the miry clay.
He set my feet upon a rock
and made my footsteps firm.
Lord, come to my aid!
He put a new song into my mouth,
praise of our God.
Many shall see and fear
and shall trust in the Lord.
Lord, come to my aid!
As for me, wretched and poor,
the Lord thinks of me.
You are my rescuer, my help,
O God, do not delay.
Lord, come to my aid!
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Second reading: Hebrews 12:1-4
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With so many witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too, then, should throw off everything that hinders us, especially the sin that clings so easily, and keep running steadily in the race we have started. Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which was still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it, and from now on has taken his place at the right of God’s throne. Think of the way he stood such opposition from sinners and then you will not give up for want of courage. In the fight against sin, you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of death.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Open our heart, O Lord,
to accept the words of your Son.
Alleluia!