Podcast | Stop Saying Maybe Later (Episode 305)

Welcome to Heart of the Homile Podcast.

My name is Michelle Lopez, and I'm here with Father Rigova.

How's it going, Michelle?

Doing great.

Good to be back.

Another Monday.

Another Monday.

Another great day.

Another wonderful um gospel in Homley to unpack today.

So thank you for your preparation this weekend.

It's actually it's amazing.

It's a it's a parable I'm so familiar with, but there's elements that have always been like, what is he talking about?

Right.

What is that?

Well, it's such a great, great parable.

It's one of those uh classics of Jesus.

Yes.

And if you don't spend time going, you know, below the surface of it, then it it seems just kind of like, okay, that's a nice story and kind of weird.

Exactly.

So I'm excited to get into it.

Um okay, well, I'll read, I'm gonna read the shortened version from the Gospel of Matthew.

It's Matthew 22, verses 1 to 10.

Matthew 22:1–10

Jesus again, in reply, spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.

He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feasts, but they refused to come.

A second time he sent other servants, saying, Tell those invited, Behold, I have prepared my banquet.

My calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready, come to the feast.

Some ignored the invitation, went away, one to his farm, and another to his business.

The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.

The king was enraged, sent his troops, destroyed their murderers, and burned their city.

Then he said to the servants, The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come.

Go out therefore into the main roads, and invite to the feast whoever you find.

The servants went out to this to the streets, gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came in to meet the guest, he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.

The king said to him, My friend, how is it that you came into here without a wedding garment?

But he was reduced to silence.

Then the king said to his attendants, Bind his hands and feet and cast them into the darkness outside, where they'll be wailing and grinding of teeth.

Many are invited, but few are chosen.

So a very dramatic gospel, Father.

Very dramatic.

A lot of drama going on, um, a lot of different people, a lot of different replies.

Um think about people listening to it for the first time.

Oh no, well, actually, that's what I was thinking.

Like, if you just stay on the surface, it's like, what just happened?

What just happened with this parable, right?

Oh my goodness.

Yes.

Um, but you did a beautiful job of coming having some key ideas to really go into the heart of it.

Um, would love to just hear from you, like kind of what started the direction that you headed with really kind of looking at like how we're called to not say maybe later.

Right.

Like a key theme.

I I think what the way that I started it and the direction I wanted to go in was because uh this happens to me is um we're constantly saying, oh, we're very busy, right?

Um I'm just so busy.

I have I've got so much going on.

And if you don't schedule your prayer time, if you don't make it intentional, uh, if you don't make Jesus the priority, it'll slip away from you.

And I see this happening a lot.

I see it in spiritual direction, I see it in confession.

A lot of people will confess that they are not putting God first.

And I yeah, you know, the thing is, and it's something I mentioned in the homily, we don't reject God right out.

It's not, oh, I'm not gonna follow the Lord or I'm not.

No, it's it's something very subtle.

And I think it's it's one of those uh dangers that can be overlooked because we begin to organize our lives around things that are genuinely good, right?

Our families, careers, education, um, all the different responsibilities that we have.

But slowly without realizing, God moves from the center to the margins.

And I think that that's that's where this parable can kind of shake us back to, oh, wait a minute, I'm not that busy, or maybe I am that busy, but I cannot allow the busyness to take place of my relationship with the Lord, right?

Because Jesus doesn't say that the one guest went off to commit some terrible sin, right?

He went off to his farm, he goes off to take care of his business, and that that's important because these people were doing good work, they're taking care of their own lives and their own responsibilities.

Um but the problem was that they had made more important things than the king's invitation.

Right.

I like how you said that we don't necessarily reject God, we postpone him.

Right, and we constantly are postponing him.

Very real, which is very real, because we can kind of spend our entire lives um, you know, preparing to give the time tomorrow and never ever give it to him.

Um, and that's such a danger, I think, for all people in different seasons.

Um and you really mentioned that life doesn't settle down.

And I guess the question is kind of like why is waiting for the perfect time to take our faith seriously such a dangerous habit?

Because I feel like it's a habit that people get into of like Well, I think that it's it I think that if I can postpone then, or I can say I will, I'll try uh someday.

It's just postponing conversion, it's postponing the seriousness of what it takes to be a committed disciple.

Because um, and a lot and a lot of times people say, Well, I have to give up this, I have to give that, it's so hard, it's very strict, and so okay, I I can't do that right now, so I'm just gonna postpone it.

But it when you sit with people and you build a plan and you start to structure it, they kind of realize, oh, wait a minute.

I don't, I don't, it's not about giving up anything, it's about drawing closer and living a healthier, more beautiful life.

Right.

And I and it when you study St.

Augustine, our patron saying he taught that the moral life involves rightly ordered loves.

We've talked about this before.

Right.

Right?

Because we can love good things, but when we love them more than God, that's when our lives become disordered.

And I think that that's something worth examining.

And that was what I was thinking about when I decided to sit down and write this.

But because we say God is the most important.

Because if you ask people, is God important?

Oh, God's the most important thing in my life, the most important person in my life.

But if someone looked at our calendars, our spending, our habits, how we use our free time, would that be obvious?

And that's the question.

And that's where I and somebody said to me after mass, I don't I don't remember what mass it was, but wow, you hit us over the head with a bat today.

That's not what I meant to do because I don't I don't want to make people feel guilty, but it's meant to help us recognize how easily our priorities can shift.

Um, but here's another spiritual danger, which I think you alluded to it a little bit about, but but it's procrastination.

We tend to think of conversion as something we'll eventually get around to.

But conversion is not an appointment or that we we schedule in our calendar, um, especially when we we say to ourselves, oh, okay, I'll I'll do it when life is more convenient or I'm in a better place.

You're never gonna be in a better place.

Right.

Because we need to respond to God's invitation today, wherever you're at, whatever's going on.

Um and a question I'd love people to consider is what good thing in my life has quietly become more important than God?

I think that that's an important question.

It is an important question.

And I mean, and it can be it can be my kids, it can be fitness, it could be like good things, all good things.

Beautiful things, but not ordered rightly.

And, you know, and I think sometimes there's we we kind of have the weight, um, allow like the weight of responsibility to um kind of take over our life and forget that the ultimate one I'm responsible is God.

And so if we can kind of put that back in the right order, it's gonna free us to love and to be more faithful where we find ourselves, you know, um, more beautifully than having like this pressure of I'm doing it all my own or I have to take care of this in order to give time to God later, you know.

Yeah.

I think sometimes people put a lot of pressure on themselves of even what giving time to God has to look like.

Exactly.

Um, but because I think I think that that question is what good thing in my life has quietly become more important than God?

That that is a more difficult question than simply asking whether we've committed a serious sin.

Don't you think so?

It is, it's hard because it makes you really examine, um, like you said, if if God is at the center, will my life like actually match that?

You know, with what I do with my time, my money, my thoughts, even.

You know, like does it actually match that God is number one and the person I'm leaning into and spending um time with?

And I think that's the hard part too, is um, I don't know, especially as t life gets busy, we think like life is too busy for God.

And I remember this quote that someone said once that's like if you're too busy for prayer, then you're just you're too busy, period.

Yeah.

Which means like you have to reorder your life.

Right.

And I think that is a quote that, you know, kicks a lot of us in the butt because it's true.

We, you know, that's usually the thing is like, gosh, I don't have time to pray.

Like things are so chaotic.

But it's actually then um the community of Mother Teresa.

I remember that the sisters were so busy and overwhelmed by service to the poor, which is, you know, like an incredibly beautiful, important thing that they were doing, they were fulfilling their mission, that they were so busy that they asked Mother if they could shorten their holy hour.

And I remember reading this in one of her books that she came back the next day and added another hour of prayer.

Wow.

And basically was saying that, like, you know, if we're not serving Jesus first, like and being filled up by him, then you know, we're not pouring out like we're called to be.

Exactly.

And I'm that has stood stood stuck with me so much because that is a temptation of good things, like we're doing good things.

That's that's the thing there, because sometimes the greatest obstacle to holiness are not bad things.

Right.

They're good things, just like you're talking about, because serving the poor, wow, what what could be better than that?

Yeah, right.

It's Mother Teresa, so you know, but she had it rightly ordered.

We're knowing that there's always gonna be more good to do, but kind of like the Martha and Mary story, like the best is being at the feet of Jesus and receiving and being loved by him so that we what we give to others is, you know, full of him and not, you know, draining us.

Yeah.

Um, yeah.

So, Father, I think, you know, we can spend so much time thinking about like what we have to do that we forget God is actually what God is actually offering to us.

And I love this whole banquet thing that you kind of just broke open to us of like the banquet, you know, the the wedding feast.

Yeah, I've always loved that image.

Yes, and you it's funny because in the beginning of your homily you talked about how some sometimes you get overwhelmed by too many weddings, and you're like, oh my gosh, how do I not go to this wedding?

But it's very relatable.

Um, but then also I think it's so important that God uses a banquet because if it's your wedding or like your children's wedding, like it becomes this thing that is like the best event of your life, like ever.

Right, you know?

And so it's it's funny how it has two parts to it.

If it's your own, it's something different than if you're invited sometimes.

Um, but what a it's it's so beautiful.

It says so much about God.

Um so maybe you can open up a little bit more of kind of this idea of the banquet being Yeah, I I think that people imagine heaven as a location, right?

The beautiful clouds, angels, peace.

Um, perhaps being reunited with the people that you love that have gone before us.

Um and certainly Christian hope includes the resurrection of the body and the communion of saints, but the essence of heaven I think is much greater because heaven is the fulfillment of our relationship with God.

That's why the image of wedding banquet is so appropriate.

Think about what a wedding celebrates.

Two people enter into a covenant of love, their lives become united, and the celebration brings together the whole family, the whole community.

And if we look at scripture, God describes his relationship with his people as covenantal.

So it's it's even this marital language.

Um, when we study the prophets, they speak of God as the bridegroom of Israel.

If you go to um the New Testament, Christ is the bridegroom and the church is the bride.

So all through scripture we see this beautiful marital language.

And then if the book of Revelation, the fulfillment of salvation history, is described as the wedding feast of the Lamb.

So the image is not accidental.

Jesus is teaching us that um eternal life is not simply received as a reward for good behavior, it's it is entering into the fullness of communion with God.

I think that that's extraordinary.

Um because he doesn't create us to be because he doesn't create us because all of a sudden God felt lonely.

That was something I was telling trying to tell people.

Well, God doesn't need us, created us out of love so that we could participate in his divine love.

And and that changes the way we should understand salvation because heaven isn't simply something God gives us, heaven is the gift of God Himself.

And if you were um and that first reading from Isaiah kind of puts it all together, what what what are these people giving up?

We see it right then and there.

Um, but every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we participate sacramentally in the mystery of Christ's sacrifice, and and we're receiving that foretaste of that heavenly banquet.

Um that's why I mentioned when I hold up the host there, uh behold the Lamb of God.

Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

And it it's just so beautiful, and and that's the language of Revelation.

That's that's the invitation of uh uh at the altar belongs to this same great mystery of the invitation of the gospel and the invitation of the altar.

But it's it's uh it's so beautiful how it just all comes together, right?

And and so we're not when we come to Mass on Sunday, we're not hopefully not just seeing it as fulfilling an obligation, but it's it's that Sunday it it's uh attending Mass on Sunday, it's renewing and responding to the invitation of the bridegroom.

Which is so beautiful.

And they were saying receiving communion is like our like renewing our covenant with the Lord, um, which is very like wedding-like because you're walking down an altar to the front and saying, Amen, I do.

You know, it's like Scream's wedding, you know, it screams wedding by the way that we even receive communion going up and you know, receiving communion and saying I do.

Um Do you think people see it that way?

I think most people don't unless it's kind of brought to their attention.

But I remember realizing this in my own journey of faith, learning more about the Eucharist.

And then I went to a first communion and I was like, oh my gosh, like everyone's dressed for a wedding.

Like, what the heck?

Like, this is crazy.

Um, and it was beautiful because it opened my eyes of like, when I go forward, like that is that is it.

The Lord is giving himself to me, and I'm saying, you know, yes, I'm saying amen.

I do, I do believe in receiving the gift of him and it being a promise for what is and you know, waiting for me in eternity.

Um, and I love this idea because I think about too, you know, when we when we die, we enter into the wedding feast.

Um, and it's us being, you know, fully immersed and and our relation with God is becomes alive in a way that it never has before.

But I remember thinking about like, if I don't get to know Christ or if I don't get to know God on this side of heaven, it's gonna be a really awkward wedding.

Like, you know, I'm gonna show up and then be like, who like who is this for?

Is this wait me?

You know, like I don't know.

I remember that being like a funny moment in my own life of prayer, being like, Lord, I wanna arrive and and be known, like I know you, yeah, and you know me, you know, and beautiful.

And that is the the hope and and like what life is to reorder life in a way that allows for that.

So that so that even like death becomes something of like it's it's not an end, it's it's a it's an arrival, you know.

Well, it's even that if you see again, if we go back to the first reading from Isaiah, all that God wants to give us, all that He wants to be for us, this promise of I want to live with you for all eternity, I want you to be part of this, where every tear will be wiped from your face, or there will be no more death, no more illness.

Um and so this great promise of the Lord to be with him for all eternity should shape our lives, our behaviors, the way we think, the way that we behave, the way we respond.

Um, because salvation is real, and what are you doing to save your soul?

If you think it's just gonna happen automatically, well, think again.

And so I I like to tell people, well, what are you doing?

Yeah, yeah.

How do we respond on on this side of eternity to prepare for the next?

Right.

And yeah, it's it's just so marvelous what you're saying too, father of just that the god of the universe like doesn't just want to invite you, but like wants you there for eternity.

I feel like we don't really get that, you know, like it sounds so nice that it's like we don't believe because if we believed it, it would shape our life.

Because this is the greatest wedding of all time.

I agree with you, but there's also this sense that, well, that's so far down the road.

Right.

That I got all the time in the world.

I I I I I don't need to think about that right now.

And and in that slides in the whole procrastination, the well, I'll get to it, I'll go to confession when I'm ready or when I'm more uh ready to to be committed.

Um and so it's a dangerous place to be where it's well, I don't have to worry about that now.

Well, I think this gospel is a great reflection on like what do we think heaven is?

Because if we don't believe it's our ultimate fulfillment of all desire, then we're our life is never gonna be never gonna be rightly ordered towards wanting to get there.

Yeah.

You know, because I think about the wedding thing too.

If you're invited to a wedding that you know is gonna be incredible, like and you're honored to be invited, like nothing's getting the way of that.

You know, it's like job or like how like you'll we'll be there, you know.

And I think I love this image because it really says, like, do we know what we're being offered?

And if we do, we're gonna do all that we can to make sure that we respond to this invitation and show up.

And that's the whole thing.

It's how how do I respond?

How do I do everything that I can to respond and to live according to uh to live up to that invitation?

Right.

Yeah, and Father in your humble, you really talked like the powerful image of the church where, you know, at the at the end of the gospels talking about that all people were invited, the good, the bad, alike, um, not just respectable people you talked about, not just for religious people, but um, you know, not the people that had all their lives together, but you know, that God invited the broken, the wounded, all people.

Can you share a little bit more about kind of what that means?

Yeah, and I think that this is an important um point in the sense that there's a lot of people who are broken, right?

And who don't feel that God loves them or that the people who are at mass will accept it, or whatever it is, you know, people um we have to understand that people are in all people, and I love that line from the gospel, the good and bad alike.

That people are invited to the banquet.

We're not selected because we have perfect lives.

And Jesus explicitly is saying that the servants gathered these people and invited them and come in.

The king is in had has this beautiful wedding feast for his son.

I'd love for you to come.

He would love for you to come.

Um, but it's extraordinary because it tells us that God's invitation is not a reward for people who have already achieved holiness, it's an invitation to the life where holiness becomes possible.

And that's why I love the church's teaching on grace.

Because God doesn't stand at a distance and then tell us to become perfect before approaching him.

No, he comes in, he comes to us in our weakness and offers the grace we need to change.

Think about the sacrament of reconciliation.

Why did Christ give the church the sacrament?

Well, because he knew that even after baptism we would struggle with sin.

He knew we're gonna fall, he knew we would need mercy again and again and again, but he never stops calling us to conversion.

And a lot of people struggle with the same sins.

A lot of people struggle with the um some of these habits and um addictions and things, but hopefully they can from God's grace that that's being poured into them, which I was one of the things I was mentioning is we have to cooperate with it.

It's not automatic, it's just like it doesn't wash over you, and it's like, oh, okay.

No, we have to cooperate and make the intentional decision to break away from poor judgments, bad decisions, uh, to say, no, I'm not gonna do that.

I'm going to stay faithful.

I want to stay in the state of grace.

And God gives us the tool, He gives us the grace and He wants to walk with us, but we have to do our part.

We can't just sit back and say, Oh, just it's automatic.

It's uh and then the other side of this that's dangerous is cheap grace, where we approach the sacrament so much, just oh, I'm gonna do whatever I want, then I'm gonna go to confession.

No, be careful.

Yeah, right.

But the Lord doesn't stop calling us to conversion.

And I think this is um where I feel like in the gospel you you opened up the last portion of it in a way I haven't heard before that was so helpful about the wedding garment.

Yeah.

Um, because you know, everyone is invited, yet one guest is is thrown out for not wedding wearing a wedding garment.

Um, and so you know, if the invitation is free, like what does that garment mean?

Um well, you know, I I'm sorry, go ahead.

No, that's it.

Uh the thing is that a I I when I was writing the homily, I said, Well, you gotta explain this whole thing about the wedding garment because people are will be confused.

Because the king comes in and then automatically says, Oh, my friend, what happened?

Why aren't you wearing a wedding garment?

And someone who's reading this would say, Well, wait a minute, this guy's not walking around town in a tuxedo.

You just invited anybody off the street, right?

Like, maybe they can't afford it.

What the heck?

You know, like you start offending the guy.

But I think, I really think after going through and and reading this and studying a little bit, but and even doing Alexio Davina on it is um this guy must have made a scene.

Think about an ungrateful person or someone who has no manners or someone who's not considerate to someone and just comes to the table, doesn't wait for the opening prayer, just starts eating, sits down, uh, is joking, is crude, is uh mean to someone.

I mean, we've seen maybe some some uh maybe something like this before in our lives.

We've seen someone act like this, but I could see something like this, and the king coming over and say, wait a minute, my friend, come over here.

Why are you acting like this?

I've just given you a really beautiful invitation to a really nice uh banquet, and you're acting like this.

Why are you treating them like that?

Right, and that and and so that kind of makes sense that he would say, Well, your wedding garment that you should that you're wearing should be stainless.

It should be a beautiful wedding garment, it should be something that prepares you to take part in this wonderful celebration.

Um, and so that's where you see it, and that's where I wanted to to flesh it out so people can understand, oh, okay, I I see what you're talking about because um the way I live my Christianity, the way I live my discipleship is wearing that wedding garment.

Because people should be able to tell that I am a Christian, that I love the Lord, and that I'm trying to follow his ways.

They should be able to.

Yeah, it's true.

Not with a billboard, right?

Or not by even just what I'm talking about with my mouth, uh, with my words, but my disposition, the way I act, the way I respond, the way I'm considerate, the way that whatever it is, but I'm wearing the wedding garment and people can tell.

Right.

Yeah, absolutely.

And what you're kind of bringing up too is a great challenge that sometimes we want like the benefits of the faith without allowing it to change anything about us.

And like we can show up and do all the things but not allowing like the conversion to take place in our heart that um like makes us new, that makes us live differently.

Um Yeah, I think um one thing that comes to mind too, Father, is um you know, you mentioned I think Pope Gregory the Great talking about connected with charity.

Yeah.

Um could you explain a little bit more of um kind of that wedding garment?

I mean, I guess that's what you're sharing, is like it's not just the external, it's like the internal conversion and charity that's alive in someone.

Exactly right.

It's it's that charity, it's it's being charitable, it's loving, it's mercy, it's those things that like um someone will say, Oh, well, don't wear that on your sleeve.

Yeah, absolutely wear it on your sleeve.

I want to be able to know that you're following Christ and his commandments, and that you could be nasty, because I think that every single person has the capacity of a lot of good and a lot of bad.

You could be the sweetest person, but you could also be a nasty person.

Um, and I think that that's in all of us.

Um but what do we choose?

Well, if I choose Christ, it's what uh Gregory was talking about is well, what's that disposition?

Is it mercy?

Is it charity?

Is it love?

Is it because that's the wedding garment?

Yeah, I think it's clear clearly see it on us.

Um and you kind of gave a distinguishing point in your helmet too that um not because we're trying to earn God's love, but because his love changes us.

Um and that he loves us enough not to leave us where we are.

Yeah.

And I I found that really encouraging because like you were saying, this the dichotomy is all within it's it's within all of us.

Um, but continuing to choose Christ and continuing to get up when we fall down and continue to really put him as as the first person in our life.

And that we're not asking um, Jesus is not asking you to save yourself, he's asking you to let him save you.

I that's a quote from your homily that I loved because I feel like that's some of the tension is we want to clean ourselves up, we want to kind of save ourselves and then appear like, you know, sparkly, clean to Jesus and be like, I'm ready to be serious, where it's like it's backwards, you know.

Exactly right.

And I and I think that that goes back to this understanding that I have to cooperate with God's grace.

We receive a sacrament in in reconciliation, and we're in this state of grace, and God gives us those tools or resources, but it's not automatic.

It's gotta we have to cooperate with it.

And God's grace is given freely to us, but it's never meant to leave us unchanged.

Sometimes people misunderstand the relationship between faith and works.

Um, they imagine that Catholics believe we can earn heaven by doing good things, and that that's that's the confusion sometimes because that's not what the church teaches.

Salvation begins with God's grace, we cannot save ourselves, but grace transforms us, and we're called to cooperate with it.

Um yeah, and Saint Paul says that through baptism we have clothed ourselves with Christ, and it's very evident because that white garment symbolizes our new birth, uh it's uh new life in Christ, but that new life has to be lived in a certain way.

Um yeah.

And so, Father, as we kind of have a few minutes here, I know um your homily kind of closed with a sense of urgency, you know.

One day our earthly responsibilities will end, and what will matter is whether we have loved God and allowed his love to transform us.

Um, so I I do think, you know, that urgency is is a good thing to kind of look at all the things that we have in our life that are good.

And if there's things that are not allowing us to really put God as the priority, yeah.

Um, to be able to know that everything else is gonna end, but God is not gonna end.

That relationship is the one that goes into eternity in a particular way that we are allowed to like build here.

Um, what advice would you give to someone that um I don't know, how to live with that urgency without being anxious or fearful about it?

Well, what I I would say is, yeah, they're living with urgency is important because we have to get to a place where we're living the faith, where we're comfortable in a pace that is suitable for us to achieve holiness.

It's not something that's automatic, it's not something that's gonna happen today or tomorrow, but it you're on the road.

And that's the most important part is that the urgency is about, okay, I need to get on the road.

And I need to do these little things that I build upon to stay on the road.

Um and what I would recommend is that we help each other grow in holiness.

We're accountable to each other in a very good and positive, beautiful way.

And that's what the parish is supposed to be.

It's not a museum for perfect Catholic.

No, it's a hospital.

It's a field hospital where we come to support each other, to love each other.

But a community of people who have accepted God's invitation are learning together and learning also how to live as disciples.

Um, because the greatest tragedy would not be discovering that we're unworthy of the invitation.

None of us could ever earn it.

The tragedy would be receiving that invitation and never allowing our lives to change or even be transformed.

God's prepared the banquet, he's invited us into communion with him.

And the beauty of all that is that he gives us the grace to be able to respond and to continue to live with it.

Now the question becomes, what are we gonna do with that invitation?

Right.

And that that was what I how I wanted to send everyone on.

Is like, and there's the urgency again.

It's what are you gonna do?

Because we can't live in same old, same old either we're listening to these words of God and we're allowing them to transform us, or it's just a wonderful Sunday afternoon where you come here, somebody talk nice things, and you read a nice scripture passage, and that's great.

And then you go off and you go do all of these really important things and all these really nice good things.

But what are you doing to save your soul?

What are you doing concretely to change your life so you don't fall into all these different um traps that are harming your soul?

What are you doing?

Got to safeguard, gotta put these barriers up so that you structure your life, your living discipline so that you're on the road.

Maybe you're not there yet.

Maybe you don't you don't know how to get there, but get on the road.

What does that road mean?

All right, I'm gonna do what I need to do, and I'm gonna go to confession, I'm gonna clean my soul and and strike, try to stay in the straight and narrow.

So good.

Well, thank you, Father, for this great conversation and um yeah, this invitation to really stop postponing things, but be able to look at our life and and take that one next step that's gonna help us.

So thank you for this.

And thanks, Michelle.

See you next week.

Your wedding garment looks beautiful today, by the way.

Oh, thank you.

Praise Jesus.

Confession does it.

All right, we'll see you next week.

God bless you.

Thank you.

Bye bye.