Hi everyone, and welcome to Weekly Homilies with Father Mark Suslenko, Pastor of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. We are part of the Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford. I'm Carol Vassar, parish director of communications, and this is Episode 14 of Season 6 for Fourth Sunday of Lent: March 19, 2023. Our Gospel reading is from John Chapter 9, verses 1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38.
As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth. He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, "Go wash in the Pool of Siloam" — which means Sent —. So he went and washed, and came back able to see.
His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, "Isn't this the one who used to sit and beg?" Some said, "It is, “ but others said, "No, he just looks like him.” He said, "I am."
They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees. Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath. So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see. He said to them, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.” So some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath." But others said, "How can a sinful man do such signs?"And there was a division among them. So they said to the blind man again, "What do you have to say about him, since he opened your eyes?” He said, "He is a prophet."They answered and said to him, "You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out.
When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered and said, "Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, "I do believe, Lord," and he worshiped him.
The Gospel of the Lord
“To Be lluminated By Christ,’” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut
In the early days of the church, as Christians, were beginning to understand themselves, especially the power of the sacrament of baptism, the word that was used to describe baptism, especially during the second and the third centuries, was the word illumination. Illumination. You see, as we've come down through the centuries, we think about baptism more in terms of the removal of original sin and incorporation into the body of Christ. But the early Christians saw it more in terms of illumination, going back to what St. Paul tells us when he instructs us to put on Christ; that the waters of baptism illuminate us. And they illuminate us by allowing us to put on Christ, whose light will help us see, whose light will help us here, whose light will help us feel. So, baptism calls us to this change, to this different way of being that is the result of the illumination that comes to us from Jesus Christ.
And so it begs us to then ask some questions about ourselves, all of us who are baptized, who have been illuminated by Christ. When you look out at the world, what do you see? When you look out at the world, what do you hear? When you look out at the world, what do you feel?
Now, these are very basic questions, but they're so important to understanding whether we've been truly illuminated by Christ, whether we have accepted that illumination. The better way to perhaps ask those same questions is how do you see? How do you hear? How do you feel?
You know, when God gives us with the wonders and beauties of the world, he gives us this amazing mind and the charge to then understand the world in which we live. And so to do that, we have this whole body of science, which is such an incredible, incredible adventure that can teach us how the human body is put together. (It) can teach us how blood flows through our veins. (It) can teach us about physiology, biology. (It) can repair us and heal us physically. The whole body of science that can help us understand ourselves psychologically so we can more deeply appreciate how we see and how we hear, and how we feel. And philosophy can orientate us and teach us how to think properly, how to position ourselves in the world.
We have all of this amazing science, but the illuminated mind wants to look at all of those tools that we have to understand ourselves and say this: all of that is imperfect unless it is used with faith. With faith.
You see, the illumination that comes from Christ is the essential part of who we are as a person. The corrective to all of our secular thinking is the corrective to how we see, how we hear, and how we feel.
You know, when we put on Christ, and we truly begin to understand ourselves as recreated and illumined by Christ, it all begins to look so different. Begin to see your soul, not just what you look like or how you're put together, or how you present yourself physically, emotionally, but begin to see your soul. And that's the essence of who you are.
That's deeper than anything you have done, anything you can do, anything you can create for yourself, anything that you can treasure, anything at all, your soul. And the mind and the heart that has been illumined by Christ can see and appreciate the soulness of all created things as its basic principle as what drives it. That's why when you approach life with faith, and you've been illumined by Christ, the very stuff of nature can be some such a blessing and powerful moment. Watching the water trickle down a river. Watching ants go about the business of their lives. A bird opening its voice in song and its wings to the flight giving praise to God by the very essence of its being. All of these things resonate and pulsate with the very heart and presence of God himself, the soulness of things. We begin to see ourselves differently. I'm not just the person that I have made myself to be. I'm not just the person that others have told me that I am, but there's something deeper going on in the essence of that heart that beats.
You know, Saint Theophilus, the bishop of the second century, Bishop of Antioch, has some profound words to say. And sometimes, it's really worth our time to listen to those folks who are closer to the moment of Christ. They have a clarity to them and a wisdom. And he says, you know, if someone's gonna come along, somebody who doesn't have faith, or somebody who may be teetering in their faith and they look at you, and they say, show me your God. Show me your God. How do we respond to that? We can point to the sky, but they can look at it with the eyes of science and call it simply what it is: the sky. We can point to a tree or a flower or an animal or a plant or the grandeur of a mountain or any other myriad things in creation and claim them to be our God. But the questioning doubtful person remains unconvinced. And so, what do you and I have as validation? As direction? As proof? If someone says, show me your God, we have one thing: ourselves.
You see, if the eyes of our mind can see and the ears of our hearts can hear, then we're going to be different, and we're going to have a reflection that is not of ourselves but of the divine one who lives within. A reflection that speaks of something brighter and bigger and deeper and holier. And by the very quality of our lives, we will give testimony to our faith.
You know, St. John of the Cross tells us that our soul is really like a window, and if you think about it's very true a window, if it's perfectly clean and a sunny day, perfectly sparkling clean, and the sun is coming through that window, the window becomes a reflection of that sun, almost to the extent that you no longer see the window, but you see the rays of light that are being illumined through that window. And so in some ways, the window and the rays of the sun almost becomes similar. But then if you put soil or mist or fog over that window, The rays of light that come through are more diminished. And if you dirty it up enough, those rays can no longer be seen. And that's our soul. That's our soul. We're blind many times; our prejudices, what we want to see, our pre, predispositions, our sinfulness, all of it clouds our ability to see. It affects how we hear. It affects how we feel so that we're bogged down in this mire of blindness. And so Saint Theophilus tells us, in this blindness, what do we do? He says, well if you will it, you can be healed. If you will it, you can be healed.
But to be healed, you have to go to the doctor. And who's the doctor? The doctor is God. He alone can open the eyes of our minds and the ears of our hearts to see as He sees, to feel as He feels, and to hear as God hears. And he does this through the gift of his word, Jesus Christ, and wisdom. And wisdom.
So two things: if we truly wanna be healed and we really wanna be open to the illumination that comes to us from God, and we wanna see with the eyes of faith, and we want the universe in the world to sparkle and glisten with the love of God's presence, then two things must take root in our hearts.
First and foremost, always in everywhere, the first is faith, and the second is a good fear of God. And a fear of God is not a frightening experience of God. It's not a terror. It's simply placing him where he belongs at the top of the list and appreciating and understanding his majesty and the magnitude of his presence. And then once faith and fear of God are rooted in a person's soul, then the light of understanding comes, and what we do not understand now will then be understood with perfect clarity.
Father Mark Suslenko is the pastor of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Learn more about our parish community at www.isidoreandmaria.org. And follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Our music comes free of charge from Blue Dot Sessions in Fall River, Massachusetts. I’m Carol Vassar. Thanks for joining us.