True Food and True Drink

What did Jesus mean when he said, “you must eat my flesh and drink my blood?”  Did he mean this in a super literal sense as in being cannibals?  That is what some of the audience who was listening to Jesus thought.  “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”  They thought that Jesus was asking them to break the law, i.e. to become cannibals.  Jesus tries to explain himself one last time before some depart, “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.”

So what is it that we actually receive in the Eucharist?  Do we receive true flesh and true blood or some spiritual aspect of that, or a symbol, or sign of Jesus rather than actual flesh and blood?  Here is what we do not receive.  When we celebrate Mass the actual earthly Jesus does not come down from heaven and place himself on the altar and then give us parts of himself to consume, that would be cannibalism and we would be breaking God’s law.  Rather, we receive Jesus through sacramental signs – the signs being bread and wine but in some spiritual way they become truly, fully, and completely the entire person of Jesus, so that when we do receive we truly receive the Lord and become one with him.  We receive in a supernatural or miraculous way.

We do not receive half of Jesus or some symbolic aspect of him; we truly receive him, just not in a cannibalistic fashion.  That being said, think of how awesome and wonderful that is, that we truly become one with our Lord in our receiving of the Eucharist.  Marriage language is a way of describing this wonderful reception.  In a marriage two people give themselves freely to one another.  They exchange vows and then later the marriage is brought to completion through consummation and in both instances the two truly become one flesh.  We also when approaching Jesus exchange vows, when the priest says, “The Body of Christ,” we respond and say, “Amen.”  In some way we are exchanging vows, promises, or saying yes to one another, Jesus to us, and we to him.  In our actual receiving him the act is consummated, the two become one as St. Paul says so beautifully, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”

Today’s 2^nd reading from St. Paul to the Ephesians also uses marriage language to describe our relationship to Christ, which is the entire Church to its head, our Lord and Savior.  Jesus even became obedient to us in and that he offered himself without resistance, so too then should we be ever so obedient to him, especially in receiving him in the Eucharist, for we become one with our Lord, he in us and we in him.

The beauty and magnificence of the Eucharist knows no equal, in all that we can do as Christians nothing compares to what we receive in Holy Communion.  Jesus himself said, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”  The words were that his flesh is true food and that his blood is true drink.  We are called to this and very soon.  As you approach today remember that you will exchange words with Jesus when you say, Amen, but you will also exchange your very lives as he gives himself to you and you to him.  God bless you, Fr. John

Origin Of Marriage

Origin of Marriage

One Origin via two sources: Divine Law and Natural Development

We can discern nature and its laws because God has given us the ability to reason, think, observe, learn and understand.  “. . . the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature observe the prescriptions of the law, they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law.  They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even defend them . . .” (Romans 2:14-15)  One knows right or wrong even without the Ten Commandments, since God has given us a conscience but also to deduce what is right or wrong through observing nature – natural law.

What is natural law?

Natural Law is a philosophy of law that is determined by nature, and so is universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature — both social and personal — and deduce binding rules of moral behavior from it.

For instance when I observe nature working I can learn from it.  I can learn the difference between hot, cold, warm, etc.  But we can go further I can also observe things like virtue and vice, i.e. physical harm as opposed to assistance or lying as opposed to telling the truth.

I can also learn the nature of things, i.e. what is a chair and its purpose as well as if it is a good or a poor one, whether it is comfortable or not.  So we learn two things, one) the nature of things and also two) their moral significance should there be one.

The question then becomes can I deduce what marriage is through the natural law?  Of course you can and this takes us back to the beginning.  It is quite clear that marriage and its understanding have developed since the beginning of time.

Actually, marriage has been in a process of constant change (evolution). Since the Stone Age as a way of organizing and controlling sexual conduct and providing a stable structure for child-rearing and the tasks of daily life marriage was more functional then anything else.  Marriage has taken many forms across different cultures and throughout the centuries. "Whenever people talk about traditional marriage or traditional families, historians throw up their hands," said Steven Mintz, a history professor at Columbia University. "We say, 'When and where?'" The ancient Hebrews, for instance, engaged in polygamy — according to the Bible, King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines — and men have taken multiple wives in cultures throughout the world . . .

The first recorded evidence of marriage contracts and ceremonies dates to 4,000 years ago, in Mesopotamia. In the ancient world, marriage served primarily as a means of preserving power, with kings and other members of the ruling class marrying off daughters to forge alliances, acquire land, and produce legitimate heirs. Even in the lower classes, women had little say over whom they married. The purpose of marriage was the production of heirs, as implied by the Latin word matrimonium, which is derived from mater (mother).

You can see that people are developing themselves, societies are being built, political structures, people are discerning their purpose, their value, what is good, what is useful, what makes them happy.  I would not use the word evolution as does this author but more like, “maturing,” growing up.  Even though cultures and societies in the ancient world varied in their practice of marriage, some things always remain the same, i.e. procreation and unity (within that unity was the desire to become stronger in one’s tribe, village, to make alliances and I would not rule out that love had no part in it)  Some authors believe that marriage in ancient times and for quite a while was simply functional, but this would mean that people had no feelings, we were just like workers bees, which is not true, true marriage may have looked different because its focal points varied due to time, place, and circumstance, but I still believe it was what it always was in its nature it just took time for us to mature and discern the fullness of its meaning, no different than humans discerning the value of law, right and wrong.

Regardless of the actual historical development one constant remains be it 10,000 BC or 2015 AD people by nature are social animals and have always sought unions, be they marriage unions, tribes forming, all the way to Empires being forged, man’s desire is to be with others, and marriage is one of the foundational aspects of building community and family, please remember that.

In Divine Law

What is Divine Law, God’s Law (Word) revealed to us through Sacred Scripture.

The LORD God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him.  So the LORD God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each living creature was then its name.  The man gave names to all the tame animals, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be a helper suited to the man.  So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  The LORD God then built the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman. When he brought her to the man, the man said:  “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man this one has been taken.”  That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body.  The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.  Genesis 2:18-25

And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” ... (Mt. 19:2-9)

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Eph 5:31

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ... 1 Cor 7:1-40

Questions for consideration

1.    Has the institution of marriage changed – evolved throughout human history or has it always been the same but that it took time for us to grasp its meaning or did God allow the differences for a while, for whatever reasons but in recent times as Paul argues with the Athenians, “God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent.” Acts 17:30

2.    What is the purpose of marriage?

3.    The Church believes that marriage is for unity\happiness and for procreation

4.    Two rallying cries for same sex marriage, i.e. “love is love and live and let live.” 

5.     Can homosexual couples fulfill the criteria of marriage and if so, then how?

6.    Does the Church recognize Civil marriage?

Sin begins with a Lie, Virtue begins with Truth

In today’s 2nd reading from St. Paul to Ephesians he exhorts us to, “not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption.  All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice.   And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.  So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.”

Often times we are bitter, furious, and angry with one another and in some circumstances even malicious.  Why are we like this sometimes?  As I have said before, all sin begins with a lie.  We lie to ourselves.  This goes for all sin, not just bitterness, fury or malice, but greed, drunkenness, lust, gluttony, jealousy, envy, laziness, pride . . . did I get all 7 deadly sins, anyway you get the point, it does not matter the sin, they all begin with a lie.

Let’s take for example the very first sin, the sin of Adam and Eve.  We know that God had only asked Adam and Eve to follow one rule, one command, besides that they were entirely free.  In the story, which is a marvelous one, the serpent approaches Eve and says, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden’?”  The woman answered the snake: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, or else you will die.’”  But the snake said to the woman: “You certainly will not die!  God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil.”  Eve then takes from the tree and so too does Adam, they believed they could be like God, yes, one could argue they were tricked, but they allowed the lie to develop inside of them.  The first lie was when Eve said, “or even touch it,” God never said they could not touch the tree, they just could not eat of it, the next lie was that they would become like gods, they were already like God, yet they wanted to be their own gods.  They fell to the sin of pride, which began with a lie.

We do this as well.  We can take malice or gossip for example.  When we speak ill of another we do not realize that we are sinning, far from it, we actually think we are doing something good, we justify ourselves by believing that we are speaking truth.  The person whom we are gossiping about or even destroying their character we have come to believe a lie in our hearts, the lie is that I am justified in doing so because the other person is a, b, or c.  Therefore I can speak ill of them.  This is a lie, since Jesus always asks that we look for the good in a person first, and that we also look at the log in our own eye before we look at the splinter in the eye of another.

Another reason why we sometimes overly criticize or gossip is because we are actually deflecting our own weaknesses.  In order to deflect my responsibility by examining my conscience I focus on the faults of others and place impossible expectations on them in order not to deal with my own faults which we sometimes suppress and only concentrate on everyone else’s faults.  This is not the way of the Christian; we are always to judge ourselves first and to offer compassion to others.  I think all of us have been guilty of this at least once.

Good, holy or virtuous acts are the opposite, they all begin with truth.  Every time I humble myself, offer forgiveness, kindness, generosity, patience, perseverance, discipline, it begins with truth, the truth which points away from self and points towards God and neighbor, and their good and happiness.  The truth contains outward movements and is connected to goodness, unity, happiness, selflessness, where as lies are connected to evil, darkness, fear, selfishness, sadness, anger.

St. Paul pleads with us, “be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.”  Jesus hands himself over to us in the Eucharist which we will receive soon, in doing that He demands then that what hand ourselves over to each other in love, if not then we receive in vain.  We must pray for each other that we cling to Truth and never to lies

Rest for a While

“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”  This bible verse is used often for those who go on retreats, whether they are silent retreats or directed retreats.  The difference being is that on silent retreats, be they 3, 5, 7 or 30 days long one remains silent for a great majority of time during that retreat were as directed retreats would involve more interaction.  Can you imagine me on a 30 day silent retreat, oh boy! 

Anyway, this verse about being alone and quiet is not just about retreats, though I strongly recommend them.  It is also about making a daily retreat.  Think of where we are in society and culture.  The things that press on us the most are “busyness,” “constant contact,” and “the latest trend.”  All of these take us away from quite moments.

Busyness comes from all the things we need to do or get done.  Today 15 year old's have full schedules and calendars to deal with.  They are up at 6:30am getting ready for school, at 3:00pm practice or club event, 4:30pm dance class or karate practice, 6:00pm dinner, 7:00pm graduation practice, etc.  The same goes for adults, the days, the hours, minutes and seconds are all accounted for and taken up.  No time - not even for 60 seconds of quiet.  Sometimes in this busyness we do not even talk to one another and the days just go by and eventually become a blur.

Constant contact, oh yes, that’s the world we live in now, always on the phone – twitter, chats, facebook, text messages, rarely is a cell phone used for phone calls.  This constant contact is always on and running.  It doesn’t matter the time, be it 9am, noon, 6pm or even 3 in the morning.  I remember being out with Fr. Sanjai and Deacon Joe and Deacon Jerry and we observed a family sitting next to us, a family of four and each of them was doing their own thing on their cell phones, they were like zombies, entrenched in the virtual world while missing out on the most beautiful thing they had, each other.

The latest trend, this one just as big as the other two.  I love my Iphone 4, oh, here comes the Iphone 5, got to get it, wait, wait a minute, here comes the Iphone 5c and s, no, no, hold on, here is the latest Iphone 6 and soon and very soon the Iphone 6c and s.  It never ends, but more importantly where does it end for you?

In the midst of all this madness Jesus says to us, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”  This resting is for our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well being.  We must enter into it, to enter into those moments alone with our God in the peace and quiet.  It is there that we hear his voice clearly but it is also there were two friends simple are in one another’s presence.  Constant contact, busyness, and the latest trends take us away from the moments we all need with God.

I pray you put the phones down, get off the pads and computers, leave the schedule open, and don’t worry about the next big thing, “rather go into your room and pray to your heavenly Father,” it is there or any quiet place that you will find rest.  In that rest we will find that what is truly important is God, neighbor, and happiness, everything else is just fleeting and here one minute and gone the next, just like the latest iphone.

God Bless You, Fr. John 

Words of Great Hope

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.   In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved.  In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.  In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.

This is one of the most positive and reassuring letters we have in the entire New Testament, this letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians.  It has positive elements on three counts, one) we have been blessed, two) we have been adopted and three) we have been redeemed.

This notion of being blessed but also given every spiritual blessing is something we receive at our baptism and confirmation.  Yet these blessings God choose for us from “before the foundation of the world.”  Think on that for a moment.  Before there was anything or at least before creation as we understand it we were already in God’s mind.  God has always loved us.  God has always known us, in some ways we existed in his being.  I know the whole time thing and how we actually may have existed could get confusing, but isn’t nice to know that God blessed us, chose us, and loved us always!  I believe, my personal opinion is that once God created us and we were here (on earth) and He was there (in Heaven) that He loved us so much that even though we may have sinned and the tree of life was removed from our midst He still longed to be with us that He became one of us.

This leads us into the second notion, that we are adopted.  When humanity fell to sin we separated ourselves from the Divine, we wounded our relationship with God, no longer able on our own to fix things if you will.  We became wayward sons and daughters, we became the prodigal son.  We were given our inheritance and then squandered it, through our own fault.  Yet, with all the weakness, with all the sin God did not want to leave us as wayward children, just like a parent will do everything humanly possible to bring back home a lost child.  God does the same, He searches for us always to bring us back home, so that He can be a Father to us and that we will always be His sons and daughters.

The third notion is closely connected to the idea of being adopted as His own and that is that He redeems us.  St. Paul says, “In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.” We are forgiven our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  It was not that God the Father was blood thirsty, but rather that it would be the greatest act of love that would forgive the gravest act of sins.  Jesus going quietly to the cross and not raising a finger to defend himself and cast into hell his accusers and executioners, which was you and I speaks with a love so great that it reaches to the heavens and restores the tree of life which we sent away through our own actions.  It is incredible that St. Paul uses the words, “in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.”  God is not cheap when He gives gifts, not like very frugal Uncle Harry who gave you a two dollar gift for your Graduation (just kidding Uncle Harry maybe the nicest guy in the word he’s just a little to frugal), no it’s not like that at all, God pours out His gifts in incredible abundance.

Please don’t ever sell yourselves short or be too hard on yourselves.  I know there is such a thing as Catholic guilt and in small doses and in the right mind frame that’s not always a bad thing, but if guilt drags you down you allow Satan to win.  God does not speak to us in terms of guilting (no such word) us into submission rather God speaks to us as beloved children.  Allow me to close as I opened so that you can once again hear the beautiful words St. Paul was so inspired to write and let these words be your hope.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.   In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved.  In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us. He

Understanding Marriage

As you are well aware the Supreme Court last week issued a ruling that all 50 states must allow people of the same gender to marry one another, under the marriage equality act.  I cannot get into how or why the Supreme Court decided such; I am not a Constitutional lawyer.  As Americans we obviously hold to the Constitution and consider ourselves good and faithful servants of this great nation.  However, our fist allegiance is always to God, everything and everyone else comes second.  I am reminded of the beautiful words of Saint Thomas More prior to his execution, “I am the king’s good servant, but God’s first.”

With those words of Saint Thomas More, words by which we should all live, we as Catholics, as Christians oppose the ruling of the Supreme Court on two grounds, marriage as understood within our theology and also in our basic and fundamental understating of Natural law.

Many people have accepted the Supreme Court’s decision, even Catholics of good reputation.  They have done so by separating the idea of civil marriage from that of sacramental marriage and by forming a slogan, “love is love.”  Dealing with the slogan or rally cry first, yes it is true, no one can judge the love between two people regardless of sex, that is why and in the context of Pope Francis words when asked about homosexuals he responded, “Who am I to judge.”  I agree with Pope Francis we are not to judge, but rather hold to the dignity and sacredness of every human person regardless of sexual orientation.  With that being said we do as a Church have to address when civil laws are contrary to the Natural or Divine law.

Let’s have a look at what we as Catholics consider a sacramental marriage.  From the Catechism: 1601 "The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."

Marriage finds its origin in the book of Genesis and it was instituted by God for two purposes, for happiness and the possibility of procreation.  We understand the meaning and the purpose of marriage from the biblical and catechetical perspective.  What about civil marriage, since that is not performed as a sacrament why do we still oppose same sex couples marrying one another civilly?

We oppose it because the institution of marriage comes from nature and ultimately from God.  Our understanding of marriage has always been between one man and one woman and has been so long before the Constitution was written.  The natural law is that law by which we can determine the order of things, understanding things in their nature and purpose, and knowing the difference between good and evil, i.e. right and wrong.

If someone tries to redefine something contrary to natural law we should be able to see that it is so, contrary to what it should be.  Let’s look at an easy example.  We all know that murder is wrong, for it is a grave injustice done to another human being.  Is murder wrong because we have decided so or is it wrong in its very nature regardless of how I may understand it?  You see, a madman may believe murdering brings him happiness and he may argue, “Who are you to determine what is good or bad for me?”  We are not determining what is good or bad for you, you should know that almost instinctively since that is what the natural law prompts in each of us.

With our understanding of marriage being ordained by Divine precept and something that flows from the natural law or nature itself, both created by God, then we must oppose anything called marriage that does not meet the criteria of happiness and the possibility of procreation, since marriage is life giving and same sex couples cannot meet the second criteria.

Folks must also be very careful not to throw around such slogans as “love is love or live and let live.”  If you take love is love to its logical end you will see it is highly problematic.  For instance what happens when one man or one woman wants to marry multiple partners or if siblings related by blood wish to marry, does love is love still qualify?  Live and let live is contrary to the Gospel as we are not our own but have been purchased at a price, a ransom has been paid for us, therefore we are the Lord’s and responsible to him.  We are also not to remain silent when people are in error or if they are in sin.

Again, I am not judging the love that people have for one another and I am not an expert in the sociological and biological understanding of homosexuality.  Again like Saint Thomas More, “I think none harm, I wish none harm, I do none harm.”  But in good conscience I cannot accept same sex marriages.  My understanding of the institution of marriage is shaped by our Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and what I can understand through the observation of nature.

I am sure more discussion will follow as the above issue continues to be discussed.  We must be able to speak frankly with one another and not be afraid of political correctness, and yet we must remain respectful of each other.  Homilies will eventually follow that address sacramental marriage.  I did have a presentation on marriage here at the parish some months ago but that was mostly based on covenants and the discussion moved more towards annulments but maybe I need to have an open forum discussion on the understanding marriage as an institution in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision.  Please pray for me, Fr. Sanjai, Deacon Jerry and Deacon Joe as we continue to teach the sacred Truths of our faith and that we do so always in keeping with the sacredness and dignity of each human person.  God bless you all, Fr. John

Be of Good Couage

Brothers and sisters:
We are always courageous,
although we know that while we are at home in the body
we are away from the Lord,
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Yet we are courageous,
and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord.
Therefore, we aspire to please him,
whether we are at home or away.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
so that each may receive recompense,
according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil. (2 Cor. 5:6-10)

Today’s 2nd reading from St. Paul to the Corinthians reminds us that we are to always be courageous in the Lord and our aspirations should always be to please Him.  St. Paul’s courage is awe inspiring, especially in light of his troubles, being arrested, beat, tortured and eventually martyred. Tradition has it that he slept like a newborn babe and that the guard had to wake him on the morning of his execution. We are not sure if that is true but it would not surprise me given what we know of St. Paul from his letters and testimony by others.

St. Paul had this courage because of his complete surrender and trust in Jesus. That courage even caused a deep longing in him to rather be with the Lord then continue here on earth, but if it was God’s will he remain then so be it. For many of us we can always think of one or more reasons to continue to stick around here in this life for just a little longer.

When we think about our own aspirations in life, what we aspire to it is usually earthly things, i.e. will I advance at work, will I ever own my own business, will I be successful, will I have a nice home, etc. Its not that these things are bad, but what are the real reasons for me desiring them? Do I desire them along with the Lord? Is the Lord part of those plans? Have I brought those desires to the Lord? Or have those aspirations nothing to do with the Lord?

Finally, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of God.” Wow, that could be a little scary. There will be no opportunity to try and defend oneself, i.e. squirm our way out of it. All will be revealed, every action, thought and word along with their motivations - all will be laid bare. Makes one think doesn’t it. But here also we are to have courage, courage in our Lord that our love for Him and our neighbor will be enough. Here our ultimate trust is required that when all is laid bare that I can still surrender completely to my Lord’s will and not my own.

We have the opportunities each day to please our Lord and the commands he left for us are not burdensome but rather simple and only two of them so that there can be no excuse on our part. Therefore love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. AMEN!