The 27th of March, 2021 is Saturday in the Fifth Week of Lent. The Holy Bible verses for the mass readings for this day came from the Liturgical Calendar Year 2021.
Reading 1: EZ 37:21-28
The first reading from the Book of Ezekiel.
Say to them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land.
I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. One king will be king to them all. They will no longer be two nations. They won’t be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
They won’t defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. So they will be my people, and I will be their God.”_’
“_ ‘ “My servant David will be king over them. They all will have one shepherd. They will also walk in my ordinances and observe my statutes, and do them.
They will dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant, in which your fathers lived. They will dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children’s children, forever. David my servant will be their prince forever.
Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will place them, multiply them, and will set my sanctuary among them forever more.
My tent also will be with them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
The nations will know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forever more.”_’_”
Responsorial Psalm: JER 31:10, 11-12ABCD, 13
Response: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.’
“Hear Yahweh’s word, you nations, and declare it in the distant islands. Say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.’_”
R: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.’
“For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
They will come and sing in the height of Zion, and will flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd.”
R: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.’
“Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.”
R: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.’
Verse Before Gospel: EZ 18:31
From the Book of Ezekiel.
“Cast away from you all your transgressions in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, house of Israel?”
Gospel of the Day: JN 11:45-56
From the gospel verse according to John.
Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him.
But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.
The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, “What are we doing? For this man does many signs.
If we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”
Now he didn’t say this of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
So from that day forward they took counsel that they might put him to death.
Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews, but departed from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim. He stayed there with his disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand. Many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves.
Then they sought for Jesus and spoke with one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think-that he isn’t coming to the feast at all?”