Saturday, March 30, 2024
Liturgical Season: 
VII The Season of Sleebo
Special Significance: 
Holy Saturday
IV Season of Qyomtho

Am 6:10-14

10When a relative or one who prepares the body picks up the remains

to carry them out of the house,

If he says to someone in the recesses of the house,

“Is anyone with you?” and the answer is, “No one,”

Then he shall say, “Silence!”

for no one must mention the name of the LORD.* b

11Indeed, the LORD has given the command

to shatter the great house to bits,

and reduce the small house to rubble.

12Can horses run over rock,

or can one plow the sea with oxen?

Yet you have turned justice into gall,

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,c

13You who rejoice in Lodebar,

and say, “Have we not, by our own strength,

seized Karnaim* for ourselves?”

14Look, I am raising up against you, house of Israel—

oracle of the LORD, the God of hosts—

A nation* that shall oppress you

from Lebo-hamath even to the Wadi Arabah.

Rom 6:1-11

Freedom from Sin; Life in God. 1* What then shall we say? Shall we persist in sin that grace may abound? Of course not!a 2How can we who died to sin yet live in it?b 3Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?c 4We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.d

5For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.e 6We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.f 7For a dead person has been absolved from sin. 8If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.g 9We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him.h 10As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God.i 11Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as [being] dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.j

Mt 27:62-66

The Guard at the Tomb.* 62The next day, the one following the day of preparation,* the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63c and said, “Sir, we remember that this impostor while still alive said, ‘After three days I will be raised up.’ 64Give orders, then, that the grave be secured until the third day, lest his disciples come and steal him and say to the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead.’ This last imposture would be worse than the first.”* 65Pilate said to them, “The guard is yours;* go secure it as best you can.” 66So they went and secured the tomb by fixing a seal to the stone and setting the guard.