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 21 of Season 6 for The Feast of Pentecost: May 28, 2023. Our Gospel reading from John, Chapter 20, verses 19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
“The Divine Spark Within” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut
When you consider the images that are used to describe the Holy Spirit, things such as wind and fire, you would imagine that the coming of the Holy Spirit would be a little bit more dramatic or spectacular, that there'd be more shaking and trembling and rumbling to make God's powerful, spiritual presence felt.
But yet, the exact opposite is true. Jesus stands in front of the apostles and simply breathes on them. The natural breath that came forth from his mouth carried the power of the Holy Spirit. God revealed another part of himself to us through ordinary breath.
And it brings us to a deeper reflection, and one that can certainly be of benefit is that we often miss the presence of God because it really is all so ordinary. We tend to think of the dramatic and the spectacular, and when we don't see God revealed in that way. We wonder if God even exists at all, and we forget that God is actually asking us to look at the ordinary stuff of life to find the beating of the divine presence.
One of the tremendous gifts that faith brings us is the ability to see the ordinary in an extraordinary way; that when one opens their eyes upon the world with the eyes of faith, then what was simply one thing before now glistens with a wonderful spiritual presence. We begin to see things that may have been taken for granted yesterday as the guidance and opportunity that God is placing before us today.
The eyes of faith expand the human horizon and open the human mind. When a human person accepts the gift of faith and understands that the spirit does, in fact, dwell within, then everything takes on a greater dimension, and everything has greater power. Our understanding of the world is enlightened by the presence of God. We see things in a different context. Life is not just life but is the divine spark within. We don't just see the ordinary stuff of creation, but all is a revelation of God's very presence itself. Virtue, our ability to persevere, the strength that we need to take up and proclaim the Gospel is given new life and vitality when we understand that the spirit is truly dwelling within us, giving us that power and that conviction and bringing us to hope.
And so, today is a day to renew our faith again in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit as the gift that God gives us to truly understand who he is, not only as Holy Spirit but as Father and Son as well. The Holy Spirit makes these connections, these necessary connections, which keep us grounded, which keep us focused, and which bring us, as Jesus directed, deep and lasting peace.
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.