Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
SEVENTH SUNDAY OF
EASTER (Cycle C)
Some dioceses move
the Solemnity of the Feast of the Ascension (a Holy Day of Obligation) to this Sunday.
See the liturgical readings for the Feast of the Ascension in the Menu for Cycle C.
Readings:
Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 97:1-2, 6, 9
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20
John 17:20-26
Abbreviations: NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, and that is why we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: Living in the Image of Christ Gives
Us Unity
Living in the image of Christ and celebrating the Sacraments
established by Him unites the faithful of the Church on earth. Our union gives
us hope for our future in the Communion of Saints in the Kingdom of Heaven. In
our First Reading, the soon-to-be martyred St. Stephen is blessed with a vision
of Christ waiting to receive him into the heavenly reality. When we reach the
end of this earthly life, we all have the hope of experiencing the vision of our
loving Christ welcoming us into His heavenly Kingdom.
The Psalm Reading proclaims the universal kingship of God. It gives us the joy and confidence to proclaim that God has sovereign authority over all the earth, and there is nothing this world can do to take away our gift of eternal salvation.
The words spoken by Jesus to us in the Second Reading are a promise of His Second Advent. When Christ returns, He will come in glory as the King of all Creation to render His divine judgment to the wicked and give His reward to the righteous of His universal family of the Church.
St. Stephen's vision of Christ as he was about to be martyred in the First Reading prepares us for the Gospel Reading. In Jesus's last discourse on the night of the Last Supper, His Apostles heard Him pray to God the Father that He would be reunited with all His faithful disciples when their earthly journey came to an end. The image of the Living Christ that St. Stephen saw gives us hope for our eternal future and keeps us together as a family. The gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church at Pentecost inspires us to continue establishing God's kingdom in ourselves and to share the image of Christ with the world. The visions of the glorified Christ in the First and Second Readings give us the confidence to cry out, "Maranatha; O Lord, Come!"
The First Reading Acts 7:55-60 ~ The Martyrdom of St.
Stephen
55 But he,
filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened and the
Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." 57 But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears,
and rushed upon him together. 58 They
threw him out of the city and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their
cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 Then
he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin
against them;" and when he said this, he fell asleep.
The vision of St. Stephen in his martyrdom gives all believers the hope of Heaven. Stephen was one of the seven men selected by the Jerusalem church and ordained by the Apostles to assist them in serving the community (Acts 6:1-6). Their mission was especially to the poor, many of whom were Greek culture widows who depended on the community for their food. The Church recognizes these seven men as the first ordained deacons.
The Jewish synagogue of Freedmen became hostile to Stephen because he was filled with grace and power and was working great wonders and signs among the people (Acts 6:8). They arrested him and brought him before the Sanhedrin, the same Jewish law court that condemned Jesus. As with Jesus, they used false witnesses to accuse him of the sin of blasphemy (Lev 24:16; Acts 6:9-14). When told to respond to the charges against him, Stephen gave one of the best summaries of salvation history in the Bible and fearlessly proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Acts 7:1-53).
After Stephen finished his discourse, God rewarded him with a vision of the resurrected Jesus coming in glory, a vision that fulfilled Daniel 7:13 and Psalms 110:1. In Jesus's trial before the Sanhedrin, He alluded to the same two Old Testament passages when He said: "But I tell you: From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven," after which Jesus was condemned to death by the High Priest, Joseph Caiaphas for blasphemy (Mt 26:64-66). Stephen affirmed that same prophecy Jesus made at His trial (verse 56). The difference was that Stephen saw Jesus "standing" instead of "seated." Perhaps Jesus was standing because He was coming for Stephen to carry his soul to Heaven. Quoting from these same two messianic passages had the same effect on the leaders of the Sanhedrin as it did when Jesus alluded to them; they were enraged.
57 But they
cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. 58 They threw him out of the city and
began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young
man named Saul.
The members of the Sanhedrin covered their ears as a sign that
they were scandalized by what they considered Stephen's blasphemy. But they
also fulfilled what God told Isaiah concerning those so filled with corruption
that they were incapable of hearing or seeing the message and the acts of God's
holy prophets (Is 6:9-10). Even though they used false witnesses to accuse
Stephen of blasphemy and were willing to risk defying Roman law that denied
provincial governments the authority to condemn someone to death, the Sanhedrin
condemned Stephen to death by stoning. Death was the punishment for blasphemy according
to the Law of Moses (Lev 24:14; Num 15:36) but giving false testimony in a
death penalty case was also a crime punishable by death under the Law of Moses
(Ex 20:16; Dt 19:16-21). The Sanhedrin did not have the authority to condemn
someone to death since only Roman officials had the power over life and death
in the provinces they ruled (see Jn 18:31).
That they dared to take the authority to carry out an execution provides the probable date this event took place. Pontius Pilate was the Roman-appointed governor of Judea (AD 26-36), but when he was suddenly dismissed from his office and recalled to Rome in AD 36, his replacement, a man named Marcellus, did not immediately arrive in Judea. Stephen's martyrdom probably occurred between Pilate's departure and the next governor's arrival. See the chart on Rulers of Judea.
The Jews removed St. Stephen outside the holy city of Jerusalem to an unclean place beyond the city gates (Dt 17:5). Present at the execution was an officer of the court named Saul, a young man who would soon experience his vision of the resurrected Christ that would transform him into the great evangelist St. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:1-19).
59 As they
were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 Then he fell to his knees and cried
out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them"; and when he
said this, he fell asleep.
Stephen entrusted his spirit to his Lord and Savior and then
cried out words of mercy for his murderers, just as Jesus did from the Cross
when He said: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do
(Lk 23:34). Then "he fell asleep." Christians understood that death was not permanent;
"falling asleep" was the term that was used for the time between physical death
and entrance into eternal life or the period between physical death and the
bodily resurrection at the Second Advent of Christ
(1 Cor 15:6, 18, 51-53;
1 Thess 4:13-15; 2 Pt 3:4).
Responsorial Psalm 97:1, 2b, 6, 9 ~ God is King over all
the Earth
Response: "The Lord is king, the Most High over all the
earth" or "Alleluia."
(Note: LORD all in capital letters is the substitute word
for the Divine Name YHWH [Yahweh].
1 The LORD is
king; let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad. 2 ...justice and judgment are the foundation
of his throne.
Response:
6 The heavens
proclaim his justice, and all peoples see his glory. All gods are prostrate before
him.
Response:
9 You,
O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth, exalted far above all gods.
Response:
The theme of this psalm is the proclamation of the universal kingship of Yahweh. In verse 1, we are invited to rejoice because God is the King of the entire earth. Then the psalmist acknowledges Yahweh's sovereignty as the God of justice and judgment (verses 2b) in Heaven and on earth, and all (false) gods are meaningless before Him (verse 6). In Verse 9, the people are again invited to rejoice, proclaiming Yahweh's greatness over all other (false) gods and proclaim His sovereign authority as the ruler over the world and everything on it.
The Second Reading Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20 ~ The
Resurrected Christ's Last Promise to St. John and His Last Message from the Epilogue
of the Book of Revelation
12 "Behold,
I am coming soon. I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according
to his deeds. 13 I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." 14 Blessed are they who wash their robes
so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its
gates [...] 16 "I, Jesus, sent
my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the root and
offspring of David, the bright morning star." 17 The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." Let the hearer
say, "Come." Let the one who thirsts come forward and the one who wants it
receive the gift of life-giving water [...] 20
The one who gives this testimony says, "Yes, I am coming soon: Amen!
Come, Lord Jesus! [Marana tha!]!
Marana tha is the literal Aramaic word in the passage,
IBGE, vol. IV, pages 701-02.
After a greeting by the Resurrected Christ (Rev 1:4-5) and many visions foretelling future events, at the end of his revelations, St. John heard the voice of Jesus saying to him: "Behold, I am coming soon. I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according to his deeds. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Jesus's words are a promise of His Second Advent when He will come in glory to render His divine judgment to the wicked and give His eternal reward to the righteous. This "coming" is what Jesus spoke of in Matthew 16:27-28 when He said: "For the Son of man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each one according to his behavior. In truth, I tell you there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming with his kingdom." As He has done before in establishing covenants with individuals and their families and with the children of Israel in the Sinai Covenant, God swore an oath Himself as the Lord of history and the sovereign keeper of the Covenant: I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. See a list of Yahweh's Eight Covenants.
| Alpha and Omega | Revelation 1:8; 21:6; 22:13 |
| First and the Last | Revelation 1:8; 1:17; 2:8; 22:13 |
| Beginning and the End | Revelation 21:6; 22:13 |
Also, see the Old Testament passages where these titles refer to Yahweh (Is 41:4; 44:6), but now they apply to the resurrected Jesus Christ.
14 Blessed
are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and
enter the city through its gates
Verse 14 is the 7th Beatitude in the Book of
Revelation. The use of the present participle in Greek emphasizes the ongoing and
continual duty of the obedience of faith. We wash the spiritual robes of our
souls clean in the Blood of Christ. His blood washes away our sins and cleanses
us unto righteousness. The same reference to the blood of Christ appears earlier
in Revelation when a saintly elder questions St. John in the heavenly Sanctuary:
Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, "Who are these wearing in
white robes, and where did they come from?" I said to him, "My lord, you are
the one who knows." He said to me, "These are the ones who have survived the time
of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb" (Rev 7:13-14). In Revelation 12:14, to wash in
the blood of the Lamb gives privileges to the faithful:
The promises are also in Revelation 2:7 and 3:13 for those who persevere in faith. The "city" is the new Jerusalem that came down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev 21:2). It will be the new Temple where God will dwell with the human race for eternity (Rev 21:3).
In Revelation 22:14b, to enter the city through its gates is reminiscent of the old Jerusalem Temple, where there were restrictions on the Gentiles who were forbidden entrance into the gates of the inner courts of the Temple, the penalty for which was death (Acts 21:27-29). However, with the revelation of the "Mystery of Christ" (see Eph 3:1-9), Gentiles have access to the covenant and the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that "all nations will be blessed" (Gen 22:18; also see Gal 3:14; Rev 21:24-26). This acceptance was not based on a one-time profession of faith. The use of the present participial in Revelation 22:14 and John's teaching in 1 John 2:3-6 indicates that God requires a continuing life of repentance and obedience of faith. Evidence of faith in action comes through acts of mercy and love that will ensure the entrance of the faithful into the heavenly city of the New Jerusalem (see Mt 25:31-46 and Rev 21:9).
16 "I, Jesus,
sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the root and
offspring of David, the bright morning star." 17 The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." Let the hearer
say, "Come." Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it
receive the gift of life-giving water
The word "you" in verse 16 is plural in the Greek text. This
message is for the entire Church as symbolized by the seven churches in Asia
Minor (Rev Chapters 2-3). Other translations render, I am the root and the offspring
of David, as I am the sprig from the root of David (NJB). Jesus
is a direct descendant of the great King David, to whom God promised "his
dynasty will rule forever" (2 Sam 7:13; 23:5;
Mt 1:1, 6; Lk 3:32). He is both
the source (the root) and the culmination of the Davidic line (see Rev 5:5; Is 11:10, Rom 15:12).
The reference to the "the bright morning star" in verse 16 helps us understand Jesus's statement to those who "prove victorious" in the church of Thyatira when He promised them: "And to him I will give the morning star" (Rev 2:28b). The Morning Star symbolizes the power and glorification of Jesus Christ (Num 24:17; Is 14:12). It is a gift He shares with Christians, meaning in verse 16 (also see 2 Pt 1:19).
17 The Spirit
and the Bride say, "Come." Let the hearer say, "Come." Let the one who thirsts
come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water
Notice the symbolism in this
verse: The Holy Spirit and the Church call for Christ to come in salvation and
judgment! We are reminded that St. John's entire prophecy in the Book of
Revelation is set in the heavenly Sanctuary during the divine liturgy. In
response to the Spirit and the Bride, the heavenly assembly calls out, "Come."
Christ then graciously responds by offering His invitation to come to Him
and drink of the salvation for eternity that only He can give. It is the precious
gift He promised to the Samaritan woman in John 4:13-14 and the Jewish crowd at
the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7:37-39. We receive a foretaste of this
precious gift of the life of Christ in the Eucharist during our earthly liturgy.
The word translated as "gift" is the Greek word dorean [do-reh-an'],
meaning "gratuitously, without cost, freely, or a gift."
Salvation is free; it is a gift because Christ paid the cost on the altar of the Cross. We are justified to receive this gift by His grace: For there is no distinction; all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his blood, to prove his righteousness because of the forgiveness of sins previously committed (Rom 3:23-25).
Revelation 22:20 ~ The
one who gives this testimony says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen! Come [Marana
tha], Lord Jesus!
The imminence of Christ's coming has been emphasized three times
in this Chapter in verses 7, 12, and 20. The cry "Come" is not Greek; it
is Aramaic, the common language of the people in Jesus's time and the language
in which Jesus preached. Literally, in the Greek text of Revelation, the word is
marana tha, meaning "O Lord, Come!" (rendered "come, Lord" in the NABRE).
This passage recalls the cry of the saints and prophets under the altar of God in
the heavenly Sanctuary in Revelation 6:9-10; and, indeed, in the plea of the saints
down through salvation history. It represents our yearning for the Second
Advent of Christ. But it is also a cry for the justice Christ brings as He
continually "comes" in judgment throughout history, just as He came in judgment
on Old Covenant Israel and held His generation accountable for shedding the
blood of God's holy prophets (Mt 23:34-36).
There is only one other place in the New Testament where this Aramaic phrase appears, and that is in 1Corinthians 16:22, where the cry reflects the Church's specific request for the Lord to come in judgment: Marana tha anathema! We also have evidence from the Didache, the first catechism of the Church written circa 50-120 AD, that this cry was part of the Liturgy of the Eucharist in the early Church when the faithful would cry out "Marana tha" during the Consecration of the Host. This Aramaic phrase has two translations depending on the division of the letters: maran atha means "the Lord is coming" while marana tha means "O, Lord, Come!" Marana tha continues to be the cry of the faithful who await the Second Advent of the Christ! "Marana tha, Jesus my Savior! Your servants are waiting!"
The Gospel of John 17:20-26 ~ Jesus's High Priestly Prayer:
He prays for the Church; He prays for us!
Jesus prayed to God the Father for His disciples at the Last
Supper: 17:1a Lifting up his eyes to
heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: "Holy Father ... 20 I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe
in me through their word, 21 so
that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also
may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one, 23
I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one,
that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you
loved me. 24 Father, they are your
gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see
my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the
world. 25 Righteous Father, the
world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. 26 I made known to them your name and I will
make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in
them."
This passage is from Jesus's prayer to the Father at the conclusion of His Last Supper Discourse, often referred to as Jesus's High Priestly Prayer. In John 17:20-21, Jesus prayed aloud so the disciples could hear Him, "I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me."
The Apostles and the disciples, who Jesus consecrated for "the priestly service of the Gospel" (Rom 15:16 and CCC#611), would witness for Christ both orally and in writing as the Age of the Messiah began the gathering of the great harvest of souls into Heaven (Mt 28:19-20; 1 Cor 11:2; 15:1-3; 1 Thess 2:16; 2 Thess 2:15-17; 2 Tim 2:2; 3:14-15; 1 Pt 1:25). Jesus called these men to priestly service in much the same way God called the Old Covenant hereditary priesthood of Aaron and his descendants to priestly service (Ex 29:1; 40:12-13, Mt 23:1-2). However, in the New Covenant, the priesthood is no longer hereditary as it was in the Old Covenant but spiritually filled by a divine call.
In the New Covenant, Christ our High Priest and King calls forth a priesthood of believers (1 Pt 2:9-10; CCC 1141, 1143, 1268, 1273, 1546-47), and from within that priesthood, He also calls a spiritual priesthood of men set apart for ministerial service to His Bride, the New Covenant Church (Mt 19:12; CCC 1142, 1557, 1562-68) as an icon of Christ Himself. Yahweh promised the priestly order of a New Covenant, not based on heredity and service to Israel but on a spiritual call that extends worship to all nations, fulfilling what God told the 8th century BC prophet, Isaiah. Yahweh told Isaiah: I am coming to gather every nation and every language. They will come to witness my glory. I shall give them a sign and send some of their survivors to the nations: to Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coasts and islands that have never heard of me or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory to the nations, [...]. And some of them I shall make into priests and Levites, Yahweh says (Is 66:18-21; bold added for emphasis). The Levites were the lesser order ministers who served the chief priests (Num 3:11-13; 18:1-7; 25:7-13), assisting them in the liturgy and service to the Sanctuary but forbidden to offer the sacrifice. The Levites roughly equate to deacons in the New Covenant order of ministerial service.
Jesus's priestly order established in the Apostles and Himself as the New Covenant High Priest is superior to the priestly order of the Sinai Covenant based on heredity. Instead, it is like the priesthood of Melchizedek, the priest-king of Genesis 14:18. Melchizedek was a priest not by earthly descent but who was, like Christ, a priest-king by virtue of God's call, serving an earthly ministry ordained by God as a spiritual priesthood (Letter to the Hebrews Chapters 7-8). It is for the New Covenant priesthood and the future generations of believers who would become children in the family of God in the "Catholic" (meaning = "universal") Church for whom Jesus prayed.
Jesus's petition to the Father for the future children of the New Covenant family in John 17:20-21 was for their unification as One: one Church that is One Body in Christ, just as He is One with the Father (Rom 8:10; 2 Cor 13:5; Gal 2:20; 4:19). In His discourse, Jesus used the Greek word for "one" (hen) to express unity with God the Father and the unity of the Church seven times in verses 11, 21 (twice), 22 (twice), 23, and 26 (IBGE vol. IV, page 306). Jesus also prayed for the spiritual perfection of the Church through the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.
22 And I have given
them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may be
brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and
that you loved them even as you loved me.
The Navarre Commentary on the Gospel of John lists three
dimensions to Jesus's glorification (see page 206):
The final consequence of giving His glory to the disciples is that they and all who believe in Him will become partakers of the divine nature in unity with Him through the gift of God's grace. And through witnessing the works of their transformed lives, the world will recognize and be assured of Jesus's divine mission from the Father (see 2 Pt 1:4).
24 "Father, they are
your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they
may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation
of the world. 25 Righteous Father,
the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent
me. 26 I made known to them your
name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in
them and I in them."
Jesus's statement that God loved Him "before the foundation
of the world" declares His existence before the Incarnation (also see 1 Pt 1:20).
In verse 24, Jesus's petition to the Father is for all those who belong to Him
and have been justified by grace and "perfected as One" with Christ on earth, that
they will be united with Him in heaven!
Glory and justification by grace are two sides of the same coin, as St. Paul taught in Romans 8:30 when he wrote: it was those so destined that he called; those that he called, he justified, and those that he has justified he has brought into glory. The change that grace works in our lives is that living in God's grace conforms us to the image of Christ, who is Himself the image and likeness of God the Father. Sacred Scripture teaches us (emphasis added in bold):
When Jesus communicated His glory to us, He joined us to God the Father by giving us a share in the supernatural life of the Godhead. This divine life is the source of the holiness of Christians united in Christ's Body, the Church. It is what St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians: There is one Body, one Spirit, just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, over all, through all, and within all (Eph 4:4-6 NJB). And it is also St. Peter's teaching in his letter to the universal Church: His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power. Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire (2 Pt 1:3-4).
As we conclude Jesus's powerful priestly prayer, our prayer for each other should be the same as St. Paul's prayer for the Christians of Thessalonica. He wrote: To this end, we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess 1:11-12). Amen!
Catechism references for the readings for the
Seventh Sunday of Easter (* indicated Scripture quoted or paraphrases in
the citation):
Acts 7:56 (CCC 659*),
7:60 (CCC 2635*)
Revelation 22:16 (CCC 437*, 528*), 22:17 (CCC 524*, 671, 694*, 757*, 796*, 1130, 2550*, 2853), 22:20 (CCC 451, 671, 673*, 1130, 1403, 2853).
John 17:21-23 (CCC 260*, 877*), 17:21 (CCC 820), 17:22 (CCC 690*), 17:23-26 (CCC 2750*), 17:24 (CCC 2749*, 2750*), 17:25 (CCC 2751*), 17:26 (CCC 589*, 729*, 2750*)
Through Christ we live in communion with the Father (CCC 521)
The Church is communion with and in Christ (CCC 787*, 788*, 789, 790*, 795, 1044*, 1045*, 1046*, 1047)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2013; revised 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.