The Second Book of Chronicles 36: 14 - 16, 19 - 23
The Temple priests and the people, copying the shameful ways of the time, heap infidelity upon infidelity, as they fail to keep the Covenant with their God. Certain parallels maybe, with our own times. So the Lord God repeatedly sends messengers to recall the people from their evil ways. These prophets of God are ignored, so Israel is invaded, the Temple is destroyed, and their enemies take the People of Israel into exile. Years later, God chooses their chief enemy, the Babylonian King Cyrus, to be the instrument of the restoration of the Temple, and the return of the exiles to Jerusalem. The message that despite their infidelity the Lord God is true to the Promise made to Abraham.

The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 2: 4 - 10
This reading picks up the theme of the generous mercy of God. There is just no way we can deserve the forgiveness and the gifts, that God bestows upon us. There is just nothing we can do to deserve the gift of faith, but to understand that we have been made by God to live a good life in Christ as we were meant to, as from the beginning.

Gospel according to John 3: 14 - 21
The contrast here is between light and darkness, between those who come to the light (Jesus), and those who will not do so because of their refusal to believe. John tells us that Nicodemus comes to Jesus, “by night”, and this fact will not have been lost upon the readership, it serves to emphasise that this leading Jewish citizen in searching for the truth about Jesus, is looking for enlightenment and appears to have found it in his faith in Jesus as Lord. It may help to understand that the early Christians called baptism “Illumination.” This may lead us to look forward to the liturgical celebration of baptism at the Great Vigil of Easter.