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Bruce's Notes for the 4th Sunday of Easter
In this week’s gospel, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd.” Now we know that Jesus calls us to be his disciples, to follow his path, his way. (“I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.”) So, then, Jesus is calling us to be good shepherds, too, imitating him, following his example. We need to understand this calling, since it has great import for us and for how we live our lives as Christians.
First of all, who are my sheep? Jesus tells us that “there will be one flock,” by which he means, of course, everyone, all of humankind. That is his flock, and so, too, that is my flock, and yours. It is simply another way of saying "love your neighbor as yourself." Not some neighbors, but every neighbor, each and every member of humankind: the one flock.
And what do we need to do to be good shepherds? Jesus tells us: “I will lay down my life for the sheep.” He calls you, me, indeed each and every one of us, to lay down our lives for each and every other one. But what does that mean, to lay down my life?
This is easily misunderstood, and can be a source of unnecessary confusion, doubt, and guilt, until we discover that the Greek word for life (psuche) used in this particular gospel passage means soul-life, not physiological life. Jesus is not asking us to physically die for each other. (Though in rare, extreme situations that is what our loving each other with all our hearts, minds, and souls may actually lead us to.) What Jesus is asking is that we lay down (offer) our soul-lives to each other, that we set aside our preoccupation with ourselves and offer our interest, our concern, our compassion, our love, to other people, in fact, to every other person in our human flock. You meet an old friend; you offer your love. You meet a beggar in the street; you offer your love. You meet someone angry, you offer your love. Not just the good sheep, the easy sheep, but all the sheep.
And when we do lay down our life, as Jesus does, “in order to take it up again,” the life we take up again is enriched many times over. Offering love freely to others not only enriches others’ lives, it also greatly enriches our own. Each time, we have a little bit more love, a little richer soul-life, to offer, and take up again, and offer again, in an endless dance of love.
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Bruce's Notes for the 3rd Sunday of Easter
In this weekend’s gospel, Jesus tells the disciples (us included) that “repentance, for the forgiveness of sins” will be preached in his name to all the nations. Remember that “repentance” literally means "rethinking," so Jesus is telling us that rethinking, reordering our minds, is the straight gate, the narrow way, to forgiveness of sins.
So what are those sins to be forgiven? Well, what are Jesus’s commandments? There are two: love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, to sin is not loving God or loving your neighbor as yourself, in each and every particular moment in our lives. Yes, we have to ask the Holy Spirit to help us know just what loving our neighbor means in any given situation, but remember that “on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
However, also remember that when we do forget, when we do slip, when we do sin-- as each of us does so many times in the course of a single day -- we have, as John tells us, “Jesus Christ the righteous one,” who is expiation for our sins and the sins of the whole world. What does that mean?
When we repent (rethink) and open ourselves to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit, then our sins are expiated; they're just gone. We come back into Atonement (at-one-ment) with the love of God in the very moment (in every moment) that we do keep His Commandments, in thought, word, and deed. In that moment the love of God is perfected.
Can life really be this simple, that all we have to do is rethink, love God and love our neighbor (each and every one)? That's it?! Well, if you believe Jesus -- always a good idea, I would suggest! -- yes, that's it! So let us go forth, leading joyful and loving lives, knowing that since He has redeemed the world, we should do the same. Amen
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Bruce's Notes for the 2nd Sunday of Easter
Over the years, the story of “Doubting Thomas” has grown on me. It is really a lovely, instructive tale of how a person can grow in faith and discipleship.
Remember that when Jesus announces that he is going to return to Judea to wake Lazarus, the disciples urge him not to go, since the people there have already tried to stone him once. But Thomas says, “Let us also go and die with him.” What a brave and loyal thing to say! He may have trouble taking things on faith, but he is willing to give up his life in support of Jesus his Lord.
When the disciples tell Thomas, “We have seen the Lord,” Thomas expresses his doubt in those famous lines, “Until I see the marks of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Hence the nickname “Doubting Thomas.” But why is Thomas doubting? Why does he not believe?
When Thomas does finally see Jesus, he has not trouble saying, “My Lord and my God.” Pretty strong belief, I would say. And Jesus chides him,”Have you come to believe because you have seen me?” But the other disciples, too, believed only after they had seen Jesus. So what is Jesus chiding Thomas for? What is Jesus’ point?
Jesus is not childing Thomas for doubting the word of the others; he is chiding him for something else. Jesus told them at that last supper that after he was raised up, he would go before them to Galilee. For the other disciples, it was different: Jesus just appeared before them; they didn't have an opportunity to do anything but believe. But Thomas not only doubted their testimony. He didn’t give himself time to pray. He didn’t give himself time to remember what he did know about his Lord, which had led him to be willing to die at his Lord’s side. He didn’t give himself time to be open to the fearsome and wonderful news that his Lord had returned from death to be with them again, just as he had promised.
That is what Jesus means by “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” It is not just Thomas he is addressing but rather all of us. All of us who have not physically seen Jesus -- which is pretty much all of us! -- need to take the time, whenever we can, to pray, to consider, to be open to the Good News that the Holy Spirit is always ready to bring us. That is what strengthens our faith and helps us believe. This is what Jesus has called us to. And, he tells us that if we do that, we are blessed!
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Bruce's Notes for Easter Sunday
Last week, looking at Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, I said that I need to “confront, love, and forgive” my “inner Judas.” (That is the part of me that distrusts the efforts of my true, higher Self because it cannot believe that all we are asked to do is to trust God, love all our neighbors, and be joyfully open to God’s will.)
But because that Judas part does betray me, just when I need encouragement and reassurance the most, I am thrown into a prison of my own making, condemning and ridiculing myself for all my imagined failures and errors in judgment. The pain is excruciating, a kind of inner crucifixion. I struggle on my cross of anguish and self-doubt, getting weaker and weaker...until finally -- finally! -- I let go and give it all up to God, to the Holy Spirit. “It is finished,” I say. I can’t fight any more; it’s all in God’s hands now.
And what happens next? God’s Love comes and finds me, rolls away the stone, raises me from my tomb, makes me whole and new again. God lets me know that He never abandons me, no matter how many times I put myself through this cycle of self betrayal and self torment. And each time it gets just a tiny bit quicker and easier to confront, love, and forgive my inner Judas and return to a state of grace in the kingdom of God (which, of course, in God’s eyes I never left).
So, at this, the start of the Easter season, we see again how Love confronts and overcomes all, even death, transforming us and setting us free to love others and renew the face of the earth. Happy Easter!
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Bruce's Notes for Passion Sunday
As I read and re-read the Passion story in Mark’s gospel, I realize that Jesus’s journey from the supper table at Simon the leper’s through his arrest at the Mount of Olives really reflects my own inner spiritual journey (and struggle), one that I have taken many times in my life.
So, picture me (or yourself, if you prefer): in a moment of peace. I, my higher self, am loving God, loving my neighbor, and rejoicing at God’s goodness. And a part of me (a soft, tender, feeling part) wants to celebrate. But another part (a zealous, rigid, judgmental part) bitterly objects. My higher self understands that we will always have the poor whom we must try to help but that if we do not also tend to and anoint our inner Christ, God’s Love within us, something in us will dry up and be gone. ( “If I give all I have to feed the poor but have not Love, I gain nothing.”)
But my inner Judas loses trust and becomes bitter, finally even hating that higher self that lives to join this “world of woe” with the “kingdom of heaven.” That inner, judgmental zealot at last seeks to destroy the inner Jesus, even though in doing so it will destroy itself. I need to confront, love, and forgive that inner Judas, again and again, in order to become the kind of person, the kind of Christian, that God wants me to be.
Next week, on Easter, we see in John’s gospel how Love confronts and overcomes all, even death, transforming our world and setting us free.
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Bruce's Notes for the Fifth Sunday of Lent
So, this is how the raising of Lazarus plays itself out in my life. Perhaps it applies to yours as well.
I am ill. And the Mary and Martha parts of my nature (the practical-and-loving/head-and-heart parts) reach out to Jesus (my Master who loves me) and ask for help and healing. Jesus gives assurances that this illness will not end in death, and then waits for the right moment to act in the way that will most reveal (to me) the true glory of God. (Notice the similarities to Job, who winds up worshiping and praising the Lord out of the very depths of his suffering.)
But, despite all that my head and heart try to do to pull me out of my soul illness, I grow worse, sicker in my soul, which is becoming darker and colder and empty of life. And slowly but surely I feel myself pulled into the depths of inner darkness, no ray of light able to shine into my dark, cold tomb of doubt and despair and desolation. Inwardly I have died, and the soul stench is palpable to all.
And then, Jesus comes. I hear him call me by name. He is calling me back to life. I stagger out, still tied with my inner burial bands, my soul’s death garments, that have been holding me in bondage: in fear and guilt and all my other dark feelings and thoughts.
When Jesus says, “Untie him and let him go,” in my life story Jesus is telling this to my inner demons (the same way he told the demon to leave the possessed man in the synagogue [in Mark 1:21-28]). And as I emerge from the darkness into the light, I see with new eyes! This is glorious! I see that this life, this real life, with Jesus, will never die, cannot die. I am born again in my belief, and my love and my joy. Jesus has set me free, again!
I know my inner demons will attack again, and yet again, and try to drag me down, but I also know that Jesus will always answer and will never let me die, if I only call out to him, “Master, the one you love is ill.”
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Bruce's Notes for the Fourth Sunday of Lent
“One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.” These words, spoken by the blind man in this week’s gospel, are full of meaning and import; they, and the whole story of the healing of the blind man, can be an ongoing source of inspiration.
This blind man is a wonderful model for us in terms of Christian behavior and spiritual growth. He is modest and honest, and he reacts and behaves appropriately. At first he answers simply, and solely when asked, and he doesn't give his opinion unless called on to do so. It is only after being provoked -- asked by the Pharisees to repeat exactly what he has told them already (as if they still don’t believe him or trust him after all their investigating) -- that he becomes impatient and indignant and begins to challenge and question his questioners (even though they are, remember, the authorities).
And as he engages with these powerful, learned men in the temple (most likely for the first time in his life), we watch him begin to grow into this new person: a man increasingly sure of what he has seen (in more ways than one!) and what he knows. By the end of the story, he has become a believer, a Christian, a disciple! He has truly "seen."
This man has gone from being blind to: 1.seeing physically 2.seeing with his mind 3.seeing with his heart. The Pharisees, by contrast, can see only physically and, to some degree, with their minds. (After all, they are good at learning and disputing points of Jewish law.) But they don’t have the sight that Jesus gives, that he gave the blind man: the ability to see on a deeper level, and so to believe. That is the sight Jesus offers each of us, now and always.
“I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” I love these words from “Amazing Grace” (for me one of the most beautiful and important songs of our Christian faith). As I stay open to Jesus’ teaching and healing, may I come to see on more and more levels.
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Bruce's Notes for the Third Sunday of Lent
In a recent homily, Father Mali reminded us that before we can change the world's evil, we must confront the evil in ourselves. So here is how I look at this week's gospel from that perspective.
Inspired by Jesus’s example, I scrutinize and confront everything I find in the Temple of the Spirit (my body) that gets in the way of the Holy Spirit. (What better time than Lent for a deep and thorough scrutiny?) I lash out, seeking to drive out my selfishness and greed, my carelessness, those corrupt areas in me where I cut corners and treat others, my neighbors -- even the earth itself -- with anything other than love, respect, appreciation, and kindness. It is hard work, but I persist with zeal.
And then, in alarmed and indignant reaction, that part of me that is not born again in the Spirit, the self-centered part that insists that I remain obedient to the “real world” and all its rigid, ”’practical” laws of self interest, demands that I provide a sign, a justification, for what I am doing.
And so I answer with what Jesus has taught me and the Holy Spirit confirms, day by day, moment by moment:
Amen!
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Bruce's Notes for the Second Sunday of Lent
This week’s Transfiguration gospel, while thrilling and inspiring, also raises some profound questions about our ability -- and inability -- to see.
When Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John, they become so agitated, so terrified that Jesus “hardly knew what to say.” God had to send a cloud to overshadow them and calm and subdue their inner turbulence (as Jesus calmed and subdued the turbulent sea for those same terrified fishermen).
But what is this story really saying about God and us? When we see the real Jesus, the true Self, not just in our inner vision but also in another person -- every other person! -- and in ourselves, it is startling, transfiguring, and terrifying, too. We are so used to walking through life with our eyes clouded over, not by God but by anxiety, worry, fear, prejudice, that to see others as they really are in God’s eyes can be shocking, blinding. If we really let ourselves see the glory that is God and the glory that is the Beloved Son (the true Self), we would be dazzled, and we would be terrified, and maybe, just maybe, we would let ourselves listen to the Beloved Son and see ourselves as transfigured, as the beautiful butterflies God sees in each of us all the time.
And here is a sign of some small progress revealed in the story: when Jesus charges the three disciples not to relate what they have seen, they do obey him -- a big step up from the cured leper who, not heeding Jesus’s command, spread the news all over town. So the disciples’ obedience to Jesus’s charge demonstrates the slow, hardwon progress we all can make through diligence and perseverance: to move, step by step, away from being willful and disobedient to the Holy Spirit to heeding that transfiguring advice a bit more all the time. Small progress but good progress...a pilgrim’s progress.
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Bruce's Notes for the First Sunday of Lent
So, applying a personalized approach to this Sunday’s short but profound gospel story, I come to this:
The Holy Spirit drives me into the desert. But this is a desert in my soul, an inner desert of my own making. Trapped in my inner desert, I am tempted by my lower self, with all its hunger and cleverness. There I am, among all the wild beasts of my lower nature, and the “better angels” of my higher nature minister to me.
Which of us has not been there? Caught in our personal desert, dry and lifeless, where our personal Satan, our personal master of lies, tempts us, tricks us, mocks us, tries to pull us down and make us feel weak and vulnerable, guilty and despondent.
What can we do? Here’s something that works for me. The next time you find yourself trapped in your inner desert, start creating, in your imagination, your own private place: a safe space, a sacred space. Carefully construct it, with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. Take your time! Picture building the walls and windows exactly the way you want them to be. Inside your sacred space, arrange everything just the way you need it, for your own comfort, and the comfort of a very honored guest. And then, when your space is all ready, invite that very honored guest in: the Holy Spirit Himself*. Sit together with Him* and talk with Him*. (Even better, maybe let Him* talk and you listen!)
Every time you feel trapped, you can return to that safe space, relax, breathe, and ask the Holy Spirit for help. I notice that as I practice doing that, I can -- a little bit more easily every time -- walk out of my desert and re-enter the world refreshed and renewed. And every time I do that, it feels just the way Jesus proclaims it to be: a time of fulfillment, with the kingdom of God at hand! And when I follow Jesus's call to repent (rethink) and believe in the gospel, that good news becomes my good news, which is that God loves me and wants me to see myself as God sees me: whole and joyful and loving.
*Please note: One language challenge when talking about God is gender. As we know from the Catechism, God has no gender. If it works better for you to invite in the Holy Spirit and talk with and listen to “Her,” no problem!
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Bruce's Notes for the 6th. Sunday of Ordinary Time
In this week’s personalized version of the gospel story, I, Bruce, a “leper” (someone who hates but cannot cure my own unclean condition), beg Jesus to make me clean. Jesus, moved with pity, touches me and says, “I will do it. Be made clean.” And immediately I am made clean. Then Jesus gives me clear instructions about what to do AND not to do. He says, “See that you tell no one anything.” A clear, explicit instruction. And what do I do? I willfully ignore -- disobey -- Jesus’s warning and begin to publicize the whole matter, so broadly, in fact, that it is now impossible for Jesus to go places openly without being mobbed. I have, in effect, made it more difficult for Jesus to carry out His mission.
And what is Jesus’s mission? To set us free from our lower nature, our “sinfulness,” so that our true, higher Self can be freed to love God and others and thereby dwell in peace, harmony, and joy with Jesus in the kingdom. That is a wonderful mission! So why in the world would I do what I (the leper) did?! Why would I disregard Jesus and thereby cause that kind of trouble for everyone, including myself? Because in happily, thoughtlessly going around and telling people about my good fortune (my freedom from the condition that was upsetting me) I have somehow temporarily forgotten my belief in the One and His mission: to really free me, to free everyone. I may have gained the lesser prize but lost the much greater one.
This gospel story is not, then, really a story about healing; it is a story about willfulness, disobedience, loss, and LISTENING. I need, we need, to stop and LISTEN to Jesus, not just to charge ahead with what seems like a good idea to us at the time. We really don’t want to win the small “victories” but in the process lose the greater Victory. We need to keep our eyes, and ears, on the Prize, the real Gift God has prepared for us. Let’s try to be careful and help Jesus fulfill His mission for the world, not carelessly hinder Him.
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Bruce's Notes for the 5th. Sunday of Ordinary Time
In this week’s gospel story, Jesus presents us with a question, a challenge, and a solution.
On leaving the synagogue, Jesus is almost immediately called upon to heal. He heals and heals, hour after hour after hour. Then early the next morning, he goes off by himself to pray. When the others come to find him, he tells them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.”
First, a wonderful, challenging question for each of us: for what purpose have I come? Second, the challenge: how do we go about answering such a question? Third, Jesus’s solution: First, he does a hard day's work (in this case, healing), trying to fulfill his true purpose. Then, he gives himself time to pray, by himself, opening himself to God. As a result, his connection to his true purpose is reviewed, renewed, and strengthened. And he continues to do that, day by day, all the way to his death (and beyond).
I think we would do well to follow Jesus’ example. First, work hard and apply yourself to whatever you currently feel called to do. Then, stop to pray and ask the Holy Spirit for His wisdom, listening very carefully, being open to any changes in the call. And then, gird your loins -- yes, women can do that, too! (see Proverbs 31:17) -- and continue to fulfill whatever purpose you are called to. And we would do well to do this day by day, step by step, all the way to our deaths (and beyond!)
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Bruce's Notes for the 4th. Sunday of Ordinary Time
Looking at this week’s gospel, I find it valuable once again to see the story as my own personal experience, as follows:
There is a man with an unclean spirit. (That’s me.) When Jesus comes to me, my unclean spirit (my ego, my fear, my anger, jealousy, envy, pride…) cries out: “What do you have to do with us, Jesus? Have you come to destroy us?” And Jesus commands all of them to be quiet and come out of me, and I cry out...and in that moment I am free!
And in that moment I am free! When I let the Holy Spirit work in me to drive out that unclean spirit, those demons, those areas of “stuckness” that bind me (and all around me); in that holy instant of true freedom I am born again, I am re-baptized and made clean again. I am as God made me and always intended me to be. (And even the people around me notice the difference.)
Same old question: but how do I do that? Same old answer: practice. As often as I can, I call on the Holy Spirit, who helps me see myself, and every other person, through His eyes. His eyes see, not this odd mixture of bad and good that I so often see in myself and others, but see each of us as we really are: whole, innocent, and loved by God.
I work hard at this practice, of calling on the Holy Spirit as many times a day as I can, and it is almost always a boost, a jolt of strength and joy and security, which in turn lets me love my neighbor as I feel loved. My goal: through prayer and grace to learn to command my own unclean spirits so they obey me, the real me, the me God intended me to be, my true Self.
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Bruce's Notes for the 3rd. Sunday of Ordinary Time
So often, we think about Jesus in the past, what he did or said. Or we think about him in the future, about his coming again. But in this week's gospel, Jesus makes it clear that his listeners need to focus on the present.
In Mark 1:15, Jesus says straight out, “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel!” Pretty unequivocal: Jesus is telling all who are able to hear that the kingdom is NOW, that NOW is when God’s word is fulfilled, that NOW is the time to repent (rethink, change your mind, start anew). But if he said that then, is he still saying it today?
We forget sometimes that as Christians, we are a people of NOW. Our liturgy is primarily of the moment. From the very beginning of the Mass, we give glory in the present. We ask for (and receive) forgiveness in the present. We praise God in the present. The priest consecrates in the present. Communion happens in the moment. The Mass is not a recreation of an historical event; it is new each and every time, in the present.
So what is “the time of fulfillment,” here and now? What is fulfilled? WE are fulfilled! We are completed. We come to fruition, to ripeness, to fullness, every moment -- every holy instant -- we accept Jesus into our hearts. In that moment there is no past to regret. There is no future to fear. There is only Jesus, with us, in the Kingdom of God. And all we have to do to be there is repent; that is, to change our thinking, to accept God’s great gift to us, the children that He loves. Now. And now. And now.
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Bruce's Notes for the 2nd. Sunday of Ordinary Time
In this week’s gospel, John, describing Peter’s first encounter with Jesus, tells us, “Then they brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said ‘You are Simon son of John; you will be called Cephas.’ “ Wow! With loving authority, Jesus sees -- I mean really sees -- the inner person he is speaking to and gives him a new life.
As I think about Jesus speaking to me like that, a couple of questions come to mind. First, what do I have to do so I can hear Jesus speak to me the way he spoke to Peter? Second, what happens when I do hear him speak?
First, then: what do I have to do to encounter Jesus? Do what Peter did! Peter went to Jesus. (It’s true that he was led there, but he did agree to go.) And so I need to go to Jesus, with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. That means making space in my day, in my life, whatever it takes, for these encounters. We all have different ways of making that space, but we need to do it, regularly. We need to go to Jesus and let him in.
And second, what happens when I do let him in, and Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, does speak with me? When I am really, really listening, then I feel no guilt, no shame, no regret, no “should do this or should do that.” When I am really listening and paying attention, I feel only loved and newly empowered. Deep joy and strength and praise well up in me, and at that moment I do feel ready to take on this new life that Jesus has for me, this new life of devotion: to loving God and all my fellow human beings/neighbors as much as I can, every time I can.
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Bruce's Notes for the Feast of Baptism of the Lord
Since we have heard it so many times, we think we know the story of Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan (as recorded in Mark’s gospel this week). We think the story tells us that as Jesus came up out of the Jordan, a dove descended on him and a voice from heaven proclaimed him the Son of God. And that’s close… but not quite accurate. And the difference, the part we don’t remember accurately, is importance for us and our faith life.
What the gospel actually says is: “On coming out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on him. And a voice came from the heavens, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’ ” That day at the Jordan only Jesus saw the Holy Spirit (dove) descend and heard the voice from heaven. This was an individual revelation and communication with the Father.
Why is that distinction important? Because Jesus, in the course of his ministry, opens the eyes of one individual person after another (Peter, the Samaritan woman at the well, the blind man, the woman crippled by a spirit...the list goes on and on). He opens the eyes of each: to God’s love, to God’s mercy, to the simple (though often very challenging) commandment to love God and one another.
All this applies to each of us just as much as it did to each individual person in Jesus’ time. Each time we strive to open up and really hear and accept that we are loved, we are forgiven, we are held and cared for by God, something truly remarkable happens: the Holy Spirit descends on us. And each time we strive to love each other, to forgive each other, to hold and care for each other, something else remarkable happens: a voice from God -- one that only each of us can hear -- says, “With you I am well pleased.”
And more good news: this amazing God-given cycle, of baptism with the Holy Spirit, of receiving and giving, giving and receiving, happens over and over and over and over. Now and forever.
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Bruce's Notes for the Epiphany of the Lord
This week, in the third chapter of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul explains that the Spirit has revealed “that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” What does that mean? And why is it important?
First of all, we need to understand that the phrase “the Gentiles'' refers to all people who are not Jewish. So if the Jews and the Gentiles are coheirs and copartners, that means that everybody is a coheir and a copartner, because Jews and Gentiles are all the people there are; there is no one else!
Next, if the Holy Spirit has revealed that we are all members of the same body and all coheirs and copartners in the same promise, then we all are truly brothers and sisters, truly “neighbors.” And if we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, that means we are to love everyone as ourselves: no exceptions, everyone.
But what is this “promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel”? It’s this: that Jesus came to set us free Free from doubt, free from fear, free from anger, and shame...and death. Free to rejoice, knowing that God loves us, always and unconditionally. And free to love everyone in our hearts and to share that love with them, with all our fellow coheirs and copartners, with anyone we meet, with the whole world. Pretty good promise, I’d say.