Reading 1, Isaiah 35:1-10

¹ Let the desert and the dry lands be glad, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom; like the asphodel,

² let it burst into flower, let it rejoice and sing for joy. The glory of Lebanon is bestowed on it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; then they will see the glory of Yahweh, the splendour of our God.

³ Strengthen all weary hands, steady all trembling knees

⁴ and say to the faint-hearted, 'Be strong! Do not be afraid. Here is your God, vengeance is coming, divine retribution; he is coming to save you.'

⁵ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed,

⁶ then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy; for water will gush in the desert and streams in the wastelands,

⁷ the parched ground will become a marsh and the thirsty land springs of water; the lairs where the jackals used to live will become plots of reed and papyrus.

⁸ And through it will run a road for them and a highway which will be called the Sacred Way; the unclean will not be allowed to use it; He will be the one to use this road, the fool will not stray along it.

⁹ No lion will be there, no ferocious beast set foot on it, nothing of the sort be found; it will be used by the redeemed.

¹⁰ For those whom Yahweh has ransomed will return, they will come to Zion shouting for joy, their heads crowned with joy unending; rejoicing and gladness will escort them and sorrow and sighing will take flight.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14

⁹ His saving help is near for those who fear him, his glory will dwell in our land.

¹⁰ Faithful Love and Loyalty join together, Saving Justice and Peace embrace.

¹¹ Loyalty will spring up from the earth, and Justice will lean down from heaven.

¹² Yahweh will himself give prosperity, and our soil will yield its harvest.

¹³ Justice will walk before him, treading out a path.

Gospel, Luke 5:17-26

¹⁷ Now it happened that he was teaching one day, and Pharisees and teachers of the Law, who had come from every village in Galilee, from Judaea and from Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was there so that he should heal.

¹⁸ And now some men appeared, bringing on a bed a paralysed man whom they were trying to bring in and lay down in front of him.

¹⁹ But as they could find no way of getting the man through the crowd, they went up onto the top of the house and lowered him and his stretcher down through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, in front of Jesus.

²⁰ Seeing their faith he said, 'My friend, your sins are forgiven you.'

²¹ The scribes and the Pharisees began to think this over. 'Who is this man, talking blasphemy? Who but God alone can forgive sins?'

²² But Jesus, aware of their thoughts, made them this reply, 'What are these thoughts you have in your hearts?

²³ Which of these is easier: to say, "Your sins are forgiven you," or to say, "Get up and walk"?

²⁴ But to prove to you that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins,' -- he said to the paralysed man-'I order you: get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.'

²⁵ And immediately before their very eyes he got up, picked up what he had been lying on and went home praising God.

²⁶ They were all astounded and praised God and were filled with awe, saying, 'We have seen strange things today.'

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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