 Is this weird for you? It's weird for me. Easter, all right? It's our last day of Easter, so we've really got a, you know, bask in it. And what's beautiful, you know, both of the readings that we have today are conclusions. So in the first reading, we hear the end of the book of Acts. And in the Gospel, we hear the end of the Gospel of John. And the church is giving this to us as a sense of something is coming to a close and something new is about to begin. But before we get to that beginning, let's reflect on what the church has been teaching us during this Easter season. For those of you that have had the ability to go to daily masses, you've probably noticed that through the Easter season, we read the book of Acts. And I love the book of Acts. The book of Acts is my fifth favorite book in Scripture, all right? The first four are the Gospels, all right? And then there's the book of Acts. And I won't go through the rest of the list. I do have a list. But, you know, as part of your homework, I also teach here at Franciscan, I'm a professor of catechetics, so I feel good about giving you homework. If you ever, if you haven't yet, read the Gospel of Luke and then read the book of Acts, both written by Luke. You know, Acts is really a sequel to Luke. It's a continuation of the story. You know, it's like Top Gun and Top Gun Maverick, okay? But it's even better than that. Because I think many times we get to the end of the Gospel and we think, well, Jesus, you know, rose from the dead, alleluia, what more could we want? And what's beautiful about the Lord is even when we're satisfied, he's not. He wants to keep giving us an abundance. And that's what the book of Acts is about. It's what happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon very regular and ordinary people from all sorts of walks of life. Though the book of Acts begins looking at Peter and then moves to Paul, the real hero of the story of the book of Acts is the Holy Spirit. In fact, some people have referred to the book of Acts as the gospel of the Holy Spirit. And it starts with eleven guys who are a bit confused as to what's going on. And Jesus is telling them that through the Holy Spirit they will prophecy to the ends of the earth. And then we get to this last chapter. That's what we heard in the first reading. You know, it ends with this image of Paul in Rome preaching freely and people hearing the gospel and coming to know him. I mean, from Jerusalem to Rome. Remember, Rome is the authority that killed Jesus, right? And now we have at the book of Acts the gospel being proclaimed in Rome in the heart of the empire. Paul, as you know, was about as far away from what you would imagine somebody being a disciple of Jesus Christ could be, but the Lord had a powerful effect in his life. And then in the Gospels today we see both Peter and John, two different people with different callings. Heather was sharing yesterday how much she loved Peter. I do too. You know, I feel like in my own life when we talk about this idea of testimony, I relate a bit more to Peter than I do to Paul. I mean, Paul had this very dramatic conversion. You know, he was persecuting people. You know, he was there when they killed Stephen, right? Peter was a bit more on the gentle side. You know, the first image that we get of Peter in the Gospel of John is he's a disciple of John the Baptist. So Peter probably had a pretty good, holy, devout religious life his whole time. And that's my own testimony. I'm really grateful that I was raised Catholic, you know, with parents who prayed, especially my Nana who prayed for me all the time. And I don't really have much of a dramatic story in regards of coming to the faith. I feel like I always loved God and then I loved him more. And sometimes I've always felt a little bit weird about that. You know, I get to travel around the country speaking. And even a few years ago, I remember I was at a conference and there was a guy, you might know him. He's kind of famous. He was a British guy who was like, you know, in a gang. He sold drugs. He killed a guy, went to prison, had a conversion, gave his life to Jesus and now, you know, preaches the Gospel. And I hear a story like that and I go, wow, I wish I killed somebody before I came to Jesus. Sounds so cool, you know. But we all have different walks of life. We all have different ways of where we came from and where we're going. And I think sometimes we can get caught in a comparison trap. I think even maybe Peter was falling into that a little bit. You know, Peter was just told right before the Gospel was read in the Gospel of John, Peter was just told the way he was going to die. And so we pick up in the story with the next line where he looks at John and he says, what about John? And John's there like, ah. And Jesus says, don't worry about him. You know, don't worry about him. And don't worry about others. I think it was Chesterson that said comparison is the thief of joy when we look at others and we say, well, what about that person? What about that person? What about that person? You know, sometimes we see people going through a trial in their life and we think, I could never survive that. Well, maybe you're not being given the grace to survive that, but that person is. What about that person? It doesn't matter. You, you follow me. And that's the words that Jesus has for us this morning. You, follow me. It doesn't matter what else is going on because in all of us as disciples of Jesus Christ, that journey, that holiness is going to be manifest in so many different ways. That's, that's the beautiful thing about holiness. I mean, if you just look at it according to scripture, there's only 10 ways to sin, but there's a thousand ways to be holy. That's the beauty of holiness. It's the fullness. It's the yes. It's the various different ways. You know, just like light. I mean, I'm, I'm being, you know, I'm enlightened in lightens. There's light. There's light here. Okay. And white light, I don't know if you know this about it, but white light is the presence of all color. Actually, that's how light is different from pigment in pigment. Black is the presence of all color and white is the absence of all color. But in light, black darkness is the absence of all color, but white is the presence of all color. And that's what holiness is. It's light. It's not ground. It's light. And I say that because sometimes I think we want to define holiness by what it isn't. We might say that holiness is an absence of sin. Well, yeah, but no, because you can't define something by what it's not. Holiness is the presence of grace in your life. That's the invitation. We're invited to this altar today. And before we come before the altar, the church will remind us that we're not worthy. We will all say, Lord, I am not worthy to receive you. And if holiness was just about the absence of sin in our life, then nobody would come forward. But it's the presence of grace. It's the love of the Father. It's the grace of Jesus Christ. It's the power of the Holy Spirit that we are made worthy through His love and we're made worthy through His invitation because whom the Lord calls, the Lord also equips. When He says to us today, you follow me. It's not because we're worthy of it. It's not because we have the skill set for it. If anything, the Lord seems to call the most broken and messed up people just so that He can manifest His glory. So that when they see you doing something awesome and amazing, they go, well, I know it definitely wasn't them. It must be another power. And my life is an absolute testimony to that, that what the Lord is doing in me and through me and for me is so much greater than anything I could possibly imagine. And that's the invitation He has for you as well. And so as we come before the Lord in the altar today, as we reflect on His word, as we receive His Eucharist, let us say yes to that invitation. Let us cast down our idols. Let us rely in the goodness of God, not our own goodness, and allow God to purify us, allow God to transform us, allow God to call us, that we might, like these vessels that we're about to put on the altar, be open for the work of the Holy Spirit so that when that Holy Spirit comes, we may have a new beginning, a new life in Christ, in the Spirit, in love as His disciples.