← Catholic Bible Study
Catholic Bible Study
Anchored Bible Conference: Jesus and the Mystery of the Beatitudes
00:40:35
This episode addresses common misconceptions about the Beatitudes and provides practical insights on how to live them out in our daily lives. Whether you're facing challenges, seeking spiritual growth, or simply looking to deepen your faith, this episode offers valuable guidance and inspiration.
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:03]
A
Thank you, everyone, for being here. It's a delight to be a speaker at this illustrious conference. This is my favorite kind of conference. I don't have to fly anywhere. I do not like getting on airplanes. I don't understand. Why do they have to call the place you leave from the terminal? That doesn't help. It doesn't encourage me anyway. All right, so there is a handout on the website for the conference, and I've printed a copy out here. I like to give you something to look at during the talk and also provide some references, some resources I'm drawing from ancient writers and contemporary scholars. Matthew, Chapter five, the Beatitudes. It's really at the heart of the Gospels, and in Catholic tradition, there's. There really is no section of Jesus teaching that's more influential. Why are the Beatitudes so important for Christian life? I want to talk about that here, but before we get any further, I'd like to begin with a word of prayer. And this is one of my favorites. This is a prayer attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas. The Prayer before studying. If you'll join me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Ineffable Creator, you are proclaimed the true font of light and wisdom, and the primal origin raised high beyond all things. Pour forth a ray of your brightness into the darkened places of my mind. Disperse from my soul the twofold darkness into which I was born, sin and ignorance. You make eloquent the tongues of infants. Refine my speech and pour forth upon my lips the goodness of your blessing. Grant to me keenness of mind, capacity to remember, skill in learning, subtlety to interpret, and eloquence in speech. May you guide the beginning of my work, direct its progress and bring it to completion. You who are true God and true man, who live and reign world without end. Glorious. Amen. Saint Augustine, pray for us. Saint Thomas Aquinas. Pray for us. Our lady, seat of wisdom. Pray for us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So oftentimes we experience a moment in our life where we are facing challenges, difficulties, where we perhaps have a renewal of our faith. And I think many people look for various books, various resources to help them grow in their prayer life, in their Catholic faith, and their understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. I've found myself in many settings where people have asked, well, what book would you recommend on discipleship? What book would you recommend to someone who wants to go deeper into their Catholic faith. You know, there are all sorts of great books that are recommended, oftentimes writings of the saints. But we need to be clear about the fact that as much as I love Thomas Aquinas, or as much as I might love St. Augustine, as much as I love St. Therese of Lisu or any of the other saints, we will never read their writings at Mass when we come together to celebrate the Eucharistic liturgy. As Catholics, the book that we read is Sacred Scripture. It is, in Catholic tradition, the book that's recognized as the word of God in the words of men, it's the inspired scripture. And really at the heart of Sacred Scripture is Jesus teaching in the Gospels. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus concludes this way. Everyone then, who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who. Who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus is highlighting these words of mine as essential. And what are those words? It's his words in the famous Sermon on the Mount. And so throughout Catholic tradition, it's been understood that if you really want to learn what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, you go to this particular sermon above all else. Let me draw here from our patron here at the Augustine Institute, St. Augustine. St. Augustine wrote a famous work on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount. And there he says, I think that whoever meditates in earnest love upon the Lord's Sermon on the mount found in St. Matthew's Gospel, we'll find there a perfect model for Christian living. At the close of the sermon, we see that it has brought together all the precepts we need for our guidance in life. I have made these observations to show that this sermon is perfect since it gives us all the precepts needed for Christian living. That's some endorsement, right? If there's one section of Scripture Augustine says that we should study, it's the Sermon on the Mount. But how often do we actually take that advice? The Sermon on the Mount is the words of Jesus, right, in the Gospel of Matthew. You'd think we'd give it a lot of attention, but. And Yet I find in my experience speaking at conferences like this one, that many people are more familiar with other works, with writings of various saints, than they are the Sermon on the Mount. I mean, that makes sense. I mean, these are only the words of Jesus. Yeah, obviously we should be focusing our attention here. And how does the Sermon on the Mount begin? Alright, so if Jesus is going to give the greatest sermon of all time, as many fathers and doctors of the Church recognize, then you'd think you'd have a great opening. Right. What is the most important line of any speech? Usually people recognize the opening is crucial. Right. So how does Jesus begin this great sermon? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, for a lot of Catholics, that doesn't do much for them. When you think of the most important lines of Jesus in the Gospels, that one rarely ranks in the top five, or dare I say the top ten. Maybe Jesus made a mistake. Maybe, you know, he. He flubbed here. I mean, maybe he should have started a little stronger. Or maybe we don't understand what it is he's talking about. What are the Beatitudes? First, let's talk about what's going on in these famous the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is the compendium of all the teachings of Catholic tradition, various saints, doctors. It's a wonderful collection. Here we see a teaching about the Beatitudes. I think it's very helpful. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says the Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus preaching. At the heart of Jesus teaching are the Beatitudes. So what are they? Go ahead. Blessed are the. See, a lot of people probably can't tell you what the Beatitudes are. They might be able to list the Ten Commandments, but you'd think that we'd spend a little bit more time trying to unpack these. I think the reason we don't is because they're a little obscure to us. In a recent letter commemorating the 1600th death of St. Jerome, he died 1600 years ago this year, Pope Francis explains that the reason a lot of people have trouble understanding Scripture is because they're unfamiliar with its expressions. And so there are lines in the Bible that we listen to with pious inattention. Right. We hear the words, we know they're important, but they go in one ear and out the other because we really don't know what to make of them. Well, let's begin by unpacking the Beatitudes here and show maybe what the meaning is here. That's hidden for us or obscured for us. Blessed are the. That's how all the Beatitudes begin. Blessed. The Greek word there, that's translated blessed is makarios. Makarios, it translates a Hebrew term, right? So remember, Jesus is a first century Jewish, and oftentimes if we're having a hard time understanding his teachings, it's because he is. If we're having a hard time understanding Jesus teachings, it's because Jesus is using a Jewish mindset that maybe is a little unfamiliar to us. So the Greek word makarios, blessed are the translates a Hebrew term, ashre, which literally means happy or fortunate, or it can mean blessed. All right, what is a makarism? A makarism is one of these blessed statements. All right, so Jesus is blessed are the. Jesus isn't the first person in history to speak this way, right? These kinds of statements, blessed are the so and so, it's called a makarism, right? These were common. Ancient Jews would have recognized these kinds of sayings. A makarism ascribes happiness or flourishing to a particular person or state. That's a definition given by a scholar named Jonathan Pennington. We see them throughout even the Scriptures of Israel. For example, in Proverbs we read, blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding for the gain from her is big, better than gain from silver, and her profit better than gold. So happy, fortunate, blessed, flourishing is the one who finds wisdom that's more important than all these other things like wealth. Psalm 1. The first Psalm begins with a macharism. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. So we have in the Greek makarios, from ashre, happy, fortunate, blessed. In the Latin, this gets translated into beatus, or where we get the word beatitude. What does beatitude means? It means happy, blissful, fortunate. Think of the Beatific vision, right? Heaven is called the Beatific vision. In Catholic tradition, the saints are called those who are happy, right? They've experienced beatus, beatitude. So in English we call them the Beatitudes. That's where it comes from, from this Latin term. But at root, the Beatitudes are about happiness, flourishing, right? Catechism of the Catholic Church, number 1718 says, the Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. We all long to be happy. Why do we choose to do anything why do we choose X instead of Z or X instead of Y? It's because we think X will make us happy. We all long for happiness, and the Beatitudes are responding to that desire. This desire, the catechism goes on to say, is of divine origin. God has placed it into the human heart in order to draw man to the one who alone can fulfill it. So we all long to be happy because the catechism says God has written into our heart a desire for fulfillment that can only be found in Him. So God wants to draw us into Himself, and that's what the Beatitudes are all about. So you could translate the Beatitudes. Happy are the meek. Happy are the peacemakers. The problem is that some of them say things like happy. Blessed are those who mourn. Happy are the mourners. What's going on here? So happiness is understood in its fullest sense Here we're happy because we find blessing. We find true happiness. We find true fulfillment. Jesus is teaching us how to be happy, but that happiness cannot be found apart from God. It's a basic lesson that Jesus wants to teach us, that the Gospels want to teach us. We think we know what will make us happy, but we don't know better than what. We don't know better than God what will make us happy. God made us. He knows how to bring us to fulfillment. So although you could translate this happy Artha, I do prefer blessed. Amy Jill Levine, a biblical scholar, Jewish biblical scholar, says in her translation, I'm staying with the traditional blessed because it has a sense of divine involvement. And I like that here there's a sense of happiness, but it's related to, of course, divine blessing. But the strange thing about the Beatitudes is they don't seem to describe happy people. Dale Allison writes, originally, the Beatitudes were intended to startle. Why do they startle us? Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Wait a minute, Jesus, I think you've got this backwards. Those who mourn are by definition, not happy. All right, here is where we need to penetrate a little bit deeper. What? Like to start with blessed are the poor in spirit? You know, growing up in a Catholic family, I went to Catholic school. We heard the Beatitudes all the time. I remember we would put them on these felt banners that would hang in the church at different times of the year. And sometimes those felt banners would get put in different order. I don't think they were ever actually in the order that Jesus actually gives them in the Gospels. And so what does that create for you? It creates a sense that these sayings are just kind of, you know, disconnected maxims. It's almost like, you know, Confucius says X, Y, or Z. The Beatitudes almost sound like something you'd find in a fortune cookie or something like that. Right? I mean, how are these interrelated? And first off, why would Jesus begin, blessed are the poor in spirit? What does this mean? The all important opening word of the sermon doesn't make sense to us too much, and so we sort of have a tendency to gloss over it. That would be a huge mistake. All right, so let's unpack. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for the theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, I want to explain something here that's really important for understanding all the Beatitudes, and that is blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The Greek word there, that's translated for Hati, is maybe best translated. Because here, in other words, I think a lot of people imagine Jesus saying, if you're poor in spirit and you really follow through, then, then I'll tell you what, you're going to have the kingdom of heaven. But that's not really what Jesus is saying. He's describing the fact that they already are happy. Those who are poor in spirit are happy because they have the kingdom of heaven. All right, so let's look at what Jesus is saying here. What does it mean to say blessed are the poor in spirit? I think a lot of people misunderstand this to mean, well, this is a description of those who lack spirit. That's not what's going on. Blessed are those who are poor in the Holy Spirit. Oh, happy are those who don't have the Holy Spirit. No, I don't think so. That wouldn't be right either. So what's going on here? Blessed are the poor in spirit. What is Jesus talking about? In Jesus Day and in the scriptures of Israel, it was understood that the poor are more inclined to be humble. The poor, those without material goods, those without material means, those without power and influence, were more inclined to lean on the Lord because they didn't have anything else to fall back on. Meanwhile, the rich, those who do have power and influence and free friends and I, places, and of course, lots of money stored away, tend to rely on their own resources and their own schemes and their own plans. Proverbs 16:19, we read, it is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud. So notice the poor are lowly of spirit. Sounds a lot like Jesus is saying here, the proud, they're the ones who have the wealth. They're the ones that can divide the spoil. The poor, the anawim in Hebrew, those who are weak, who are small, they tend to be more reliant on the lord. Whereas Proverbs 28:11 says, A rich man is wise in his own eyes, he doesn't have to trust in the Lord, he can trust in his own designs and plans. That's foolish, but that tends to be the temptation. In the New Testament we have similar teachings. Jesus will go on in the Sermon on the Mount to talk about being wary of storing up treasure on earth, where moss, where rust can consume, where thieves can break in and steal. Earthly treasures are fleeting. And so in First Timothy 6:17 we read, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. Notice the rich tend to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches. Riches will let you down, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. So the wealthy have a tendency to rely on their wealth. Now, in and of itself, it's not enough just to be poor, right? It's not like, well, if you have no material means, you are automatically a virtuous person and you are going to heaven. I don't think so. Right? And so Jesus is very clear about this. We need to be poor and in spirit, we need to be detached from worldly goods. It's not just enough to lack earthly possessions. We also have to embody that spirit of poverty that depends on the Lord. St. John Chrysostom wrote, The rich man stands in more uncertainty than the poor man, experiencing, as he does, frequent and diversified changes. He also said, often the poor man goes away in the enjoyment of more. Whatever can be the reason. In fact, they've studied this even today. This is true when they do polls to look at people's satisfaction and quality of life. Usually the wealthier you are, the more stress you have. Whatever can the reason be? He says, whatever can be the reason. It is because the rich man, possessed beforehand by many thoughts, having the pride and puffed up temper belonging to wealthiness. See, if you're a rich man, you're used to being in the front of the line. If you're a rich man, you're used to things going your way. If you're a rich man, you don't have patience because you're used to having things go according to plan. Living with carelessness and lazy ease as companions. If you're wealthy, then you're not so concerned to make up the provisions that you need for that day by hard work. You can take a day. I'll take a vacation. It's a good day for a vacation. Take a day off. That person receives the medicine of the hearing of the Scriptures, not with much attention. A wealthy man hears the Scriptures read, and oftentimes without paying attention, not with much earnestness. But the poor man, far removed from delicate living and gluttony and indolence, spending all his time in handicraft and honest labors and gathering hence much love of wisdom. For the soul becomes thereby more attentive and free from slackness, and is wont to give his mind with more accurate care to all that is said. So blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This is the first step is being detached from worldly goods and learning to depend not on yourself and on your position, but on the Lord. Now, from here we can see that the next Beatitude actually builds on the one that we just read. In fact, the fathers and doctors understood that the Beatitudes were like steps. It's kind of like a staircase or a ladder. Every Beatitude is like one rung that leads you higher and higher in the spiritual life. St. Gregory of Nyssa, who died in the fourth century, says, it seems to me that the Beatitudes are arranged in order, like so many steps, so as to facilitate the ascent from. From one to the next one. Once a man's mind has ascended to the first Beatitude, Blessed are the poor in spirit. We will accept what follows as a necessary result of the first, even though the next clause may say something new. Likewise Chromatius, who died in 407, another great early Christian writer. And yet, how can a mind set upon wealth, on worldly cares and worries, from which arise business dealings and lawsuits, provocations and anger and unending complications? See, if you have worldly cares, if you're not poor in spirit, then what's going to happen? You're going to be consumed with business dealings and lawsuits and all kinds of strife. Anger become attached to such matters as being meek and gentle, unless it first cuts itself off and renounces every cause of anger and occasion for strife. Notice why do people become angry? Because they're not poor in spirit. They're proud, right? So if you're not poor in spirit, you're not detached from worldly goods. You're used to things going your way. You're to used you're going to be prone to anger and strife. First learn what it means. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Happy are the poor in spirit. It is appropriate then, that one step is connected to the next, because those who are poor in spirit are already beginning to be meek. All right, one more thing. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So much could be said about the kingdom of Heaven. But right within the Sermon on the Mount, we have a really important saying that helps shed light on what Jesus is talking about when he refers to the kingdom. In Lord's Prayer, the Our Father Jesus says that we should pray like this. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What does it mean to pray your kingdom come? It means to subject yourself to the reign of God. You see, the poor in spirit learn they're not in control. The poor in spirit are willing to pray. Thy will be done, not my will be done. They're detached from their will and depend on God, so they wish his will. All right. So blessed are the poor in spirit. The next beatitude is blessed are those who mourn, for they, Jesus says, shall be comforted. Now, again, this doesn't make a lot of sense. Happy are those who mourn. What's going on here? All right, here we want to drill down into what Jesus is talking about. St. Augustine writes this. Sorrow is sadness at the loss of what we hold dear. So why do we experience sadness or sorrow? Because we lost something that we were attached to, lost something that we loved. Augustine goes on, those who have turned to God let go of the things which they held dear in this world. They no longer find pleasure in them as they once did. So if you're poor in spirit, then you're going to mourn because once you become poor in spirit, you've now recognized that worldly goods are passing away. You now have a eternal perspective, if you will, on life, a heavenly perspective on life. And you recognize that as much as you want to cling to these things, they're passing away. And so we mourn those things we've renounced. Blessed are those who mourn from. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit. We mourn. And so those are the people who are happy, the people who aren't mourning, the people who are reveling in worldly goods and all their success. They're not truly happy. They're not truly blessed. They will be disappointed. Blessed are the meek. Jesus says, what is going on here? I think a lot of people misunderstand this word meek. A lot of people equate meekness with weakness. That's not what's going on here. Blessed are the meek. The Greek word there is prowess, for they shall inherit the earth. And we might translate this again. As with the others, blessed are the meek because they shall inherit the earth. Why are the meek going to inherit the earth? What does it mean to be meek? Psalm 37 helps us maybe understand this beatitude a bit. In Psalm 37 we read, refrain from anger and forsake wrath, for the wicked shall be cut off. But those who wait for the Lord shall possess the land. You see, when the wicked have taken away what is yours, when the wicked have persecuted you, when you see injustice, a natural human response is, I want vengeance, I want recompense, I want to set things right. And we see this all over our culture. We see lots of righteous indignation, which is a natural response to evil. But the Lord goes on yet a little while and the wicked will be no more. In other words, what the Lord is saying is, don't take vengeance into your own hands. God is going to be your strength. God is going to be your consolation. But the meek shall possess the land. What does it mean to be meek? It doesn't mean to lack strength. It means to rely on the Lord's strength. In fact, we see a great example of meekness in Jesus story. In the story in the Gospels, you'll remember the great story of Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem. How does Jesus enter into Jerusalem? On a donkey. Remember that? And we read that this was as Matthew says. Now go back to the Gospel of Matthew. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Jesus rode on a donkey for a specific reason. Now we have a quotation from a prophecy in the book of Zechariah. That prophecy says, behold, your king is coming to you meek. The Greek word there is prowess. Same word. And mounted on a donkey. See, the king is coming. Not on a stallion, not on a war horse. You'd expect the king to come flexing his muscles, so to speak, and displaying his majesty. But the king is meek. In other words, he restrains his strength. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness comes from relying on the strength of the Lord. Not long ago, this was brought home to me. My kids were involved. One of my sons was involved in a baseball game and things got out of hand. The parents on the other side were yelling at their kids to trip our players. And they were losing and they were frustrated. And so they thought this would be a sure fire way to beat us. Thankfully, the umpires got involved, but some of the parents on our side were a bit upset and they started talking with how they should deal with bullies. One of them said, the best way to deal with a bully is punch him in the nose. And so a conversation started about how do we teach our kids to respond to bullying? And some of them were advocating violence. Take them out back and teach them a lesson. And I said, I tell you what, I would rather my son get physically hurt than that he then learnt to become a bully like them. I said, this is what Jesus has tried to teach us in the Gospels. Turn the other cheek. Blessed are the meek. Right? Now I have my kids enrolled in things like karate. I think they need to learn to be able to defend themselves. Right. But at the end of the day, if you respond in violence, you're no better than the violent oppressor. Right. And the best example we have is, now I can't turn my children's cheeks for them, but the best example we have is Jesus who witnessed strength in meekness. Right? So it doesn't mean anything if your kids are, you know, oppressed or bullied and they can't respond. No. But if your kids can respond and they don't in kind, that is meekness. And that's what Jesus is trying to teach us. He is the meek one, the king. Jesus goes on to talk about those who hunger for righteousness and the merciful. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive Mercy. Again, St. Augustine explains why these two follow on one another. He says it is appropriate that the same blessed are the merciful follows on. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice. You are hungry and thirsty for justice. And if you are hungry and thirsty, you are a beggar to God. So you are really standing as a beggar at God's doors while there is another beggar standing at your door. So if we learn to hunger and thirst for righteousness, it will teach us to be merciful. Because as we learn to rely only on the Lord, we learn to be merciful to others who seek to rely on us, seek help from us. Blessed are the pure of heart, Jesus says, for they shall see God. This idea of pure of heart comes from the Scriptures, from the Psalms. The psalmist tells us, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. What does it mean to have purity of heart? It means not to have deceit in your heart. A pure heart, Augustine says, is an undivided heart, a heart that's wholly devoted to the Lord. And then Jesus ends the Beatitudes. This Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Happy are you when you're persecuted? Not happy are you when you defeat your enemies? No. Happy are you when you enter into the mystery of suffering that is Christ. This is an election year, and this is a time when a lot of people are focused on winning. They want to win votes, they want to. They want to win office. They want to stay in power or win power. Remember, Jesus lost the only election he was ever in. It was him and Barabbas, and the crowd chose Barabbas. Jesus is the one who's persecuted, and yet he redeems the world. Happy are you when you have learned purity of heart. Happy are you when you've learned to be poor in spirit, to rely only on the Lord, because then you're like the prophets who were persecuted before you. Now, the last point to make here is the one that I just alluded to. The Beatitudes are ultimately realized in Christ. The Beatitudes aren't just, you know, disconnected sayings. They're not just descriptions of how you might want to be. Ultimately, the catechism says the Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity. Jesus is the poor one, he says, the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Blessed are the meek. Jesus says, come to me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God. Jesus is the Son of God. Blessed are the merciful. Jesus is merciful throughout the Gospels. For example, in the story we have in Matthew's gospel, Matthew 20, we read, behold, there were two blind men sitting by the side of the road. And when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, lord, have mercy on us, Son of David. And the crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, Lord, have mercy on Us, Son of David. And stopping Jesus called to them and said, what do you want me to do for you? And they said, lord, let our eyes be opened. And Jesus in pity, touched their eyes and immediately they recovered their sight and and followed him. Jesus is the merciful one. He's the one who suffers for righteousness sake. If we want to be happy, if we want to find fulfillment, we can only find it in becoming like the world. No. Becoming like the rich and powerful. No. Like those who are successful in the eyes of the world. No. Like the one who's persecuted, like the one who heals the blind Jesus, the Son of God, who suffers for righteousness sake. Now, we can't do this apart from him. This is not like we do this on our own power. Jesus is very clear in the gospel that he is united to those who are his disciples. He says, he who receives you, receives me. So let us never forget that we can't be saved apart from grace. And by the way, I talk about this in a book that I wrote, Salvation what Every Catholic Should Know. And here I explain this in greater detail. Just about out of time here. But the point that I want to leave us with is if we want to find happiness, if we want to find fulfillment, if we want to be all that we can be in this life, we will only find it in becoming like Christ. He shows us the way to happiness. And it's not in the way that the world tells us. It's not in the way of asserting your will over others. It's in learning to pray. Thy will be done. Thy kingdom come. Let's end with a prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you so much for tuning in. You can find me online. All my information's on my handout. Hope you'll come back for another Augustine Institute conference. God bless. It.