Reading 1, Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15

1 Moses was looking after the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led it to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

2 The angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame blazing from the middle of a bush. Moses looked; there was the bush blazing, but the bush was not being burnt up.

3 Moses said, ‘I must go across and see this strange sight, and why the bush is not being burnt up.’

4 When Yahweh saw him going across to look, God called to him from the middle of the bush. ‘Moses, Moses!’ he said. ‘Here I am,’ he answered.

5 ‘Come no nearer,’ he said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

6 I am the God of your ancestors,’ he said, ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this Moses covered his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7 Yahweh then said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying for help on account of their taskmasters. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings.

8 And I have come down to rescue them from the clutches of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that country, to a country rich and broad, to a country flowing with milk and honey, to the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.

13 Moses then said to God, ‘Look, if I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is his name?” what am I to tell them?’

14 God said to Moses, ‘I am he who is.’ And he said, ‘This is what you are to say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.” ‘

15 God further said to Moses, ‘You are to tell the Israelites, “Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is my name for all time, and thus I am to be invoked for all generations to come.

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Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 103:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11

1 [Of David] Bless Yahweh, my soul, from the depths of my being, his holy name;

2 bless Yahweh, my soul, never forget all his acts of kindness.

3 He forgives all your offences, cures all your diseases,

4 he redeems your life from the abyss, crowns you with faithful love and tenderness;

6 Yahweh acts with uprightness, with justice to all who are oppressed;

7 he revealed to Moses his ways, his great deeds to the children of Israel.

8 Yahweh is tenderness and pity, slow to anger and rich in faithful love;

11 As the height of heaven above earth, so strong is his faithful love for those who fear him.

Gospel, Luke 13:1-9

1 It was just about this time that some people arrived and told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. At this he said to them,

2 ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than any others, that this should have happened to them?

3 They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.

4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell, killing them all? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem?

5 They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.’

6 He told this parable, ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none.

7 He said to his vinedresser, “For three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?”

8 “Sir,” the man replied, “leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it:

9 it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.” ‘

Reading 2, First Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12

1 I want you to be quite certain, brothers, that our ancestors all had the cloud over them and all passed through the sea.

2 In the cloud and in the sea they were all baptised into Moses;

3 all ate the same spiritual food

4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ.

5 In spite of this, God was not pleased with most of them, and their corpses were scattered over the desert.

6 Now these happenings were examples, for our benefit, so that we should never set our hearts, as they did, on evil things;

10 Never complain; some of them complained, and they were killed by the Destroyer.

11 Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were described in writing to be a lesson for us, to whom it has fallen to live in the last days of the ages.

12 Everyone, no matter how firmly he thinks he is standing, must be careful he does not fall.