Weekly Homilies

Three Simple Questions (Mark 14:12-16, 22-26)

June 06, 2021 Fr. Mark Suslenko Season 4 Episode 21
Transcript Chapter Markers

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 you're listening to Season 4, Episode 21 for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ: June 6, 2021.  Our Gospel reading is from Mark, Chapter 14, verses 12-16 and  22-26 .

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He sent two of his disciples and said to them,

"Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water. Follow him. Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room

where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”' Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there."

The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.

While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

The Gospel of the Lord

“Three Simple Questions,” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut

The homiletic reflection can accomplish a couple of things. First, it can bring some enlightenment to a person's spiritual life; orientate them and caused him to think about things a bit differently. But they also have the power to give the hearer tools to use when they leave this place so that the Gospel can be brought where it is most needed; to those who need to hear it most. It's hoped today that both of those get accomplished.

As human beings we have to, at some point or other in our lives ask some very fundamental questions about who we are and why we're here. Now we can go about the business of our lives and ignore those questions. Pretend they don't exist and just carry on with business as it happens. Or we can create some space and create some time to really ponder them. And there are several of them, but there are three today that I think really deserve our attention more than some of the others. 

The first question that every human being has to ask and then answer is this: who is God? Who is God? The second question is, who am I? Who am I? And the third one. Is where am I going? Where am I going? 

So who is God? Who am I? And where am I going? 

Now, a person can ask the first question, "Who is God?," and come back with an answer that unfortunately many do by explaining that God is not. So when the question is asked, the response comes back in the negative. There is no God, and then they move along.

The person of faith looks to that same question, "Who is God?," and then seeks to answer it with a response that mirrors their understanding of God. Now, sometimes when we go to answer that question for ourselves, we come with some baggage and some misconceptions of who God is. Maybe we think of Him as this judge somewhere in the heavens kind of scrutinizing all of our behaviors and checking things off in some eternal book somewhere. Or as in  other phases of history God has been like the clockmaker God, who just said things in motion, let it be, and now we're on our own to fend for ourselves. So there's many notions of God, including God is just some eternal spirit, some entity, some being. 

The answer to who is God, we just celebrated last week the most perfect answer: that God is one being in three persons in the very beautiful essence of the Holy Trinity. And it is such a perfect teaching because it really opens up the door, to the extent that our human minds can grasp, the totality of God's existence, at least pointing us in the right directions.

So as one being with three persons, we get a view of God's majesty, God's power, the creative essence of God that makes all things, the eternal essence of God who opens up the gates of eternity for us. We get a window into the spirit of God. That creative, recreative, all encompassing guiding force in our lives. The God who advances the course of time in regards to seasons, and allows one day to flow into the next. 

We also get this very beautiful sense of God's intimacy. The God who comes as friend, as brother, as sister, into our hearts, and wants to be a part of our journey; to walk with us. And so this very essence of the Trinity opens up the most perfect answer to that question of "Who is God," so as believers, as we attempt to answer that question, we can use that teaching to correct some of our misconceptions and some of our notions that may not be exactly true; give us a better sense of who God is in our life. 

So having answered that question, we moved to the second one, "Who am I?" Well, the person who says, who is God and answers with God is not then looks at themselves and say, well, who am I? Well, I'm just a random occurrence that happened just because. That's there's really no order to any of this stuff. I'm here because, and my job in life is to do the best I can with this existence that I've been given, find as much happiness and success as I can, and at the end of the day call it quits. So the person who answers no to God has that as a choice.

The person who says yes to God's presence and opens up the door to a proper understanding of God, can then look to themselves with a new set of eyes and a new lens. And as they ask themselves that question, "Who am I?," rather than trying to describe their personality or their characteristics, whether they're short or tall; whether they're heavy or slim; before any of that stuff, even all of that which has brought us to this point in our lives here today, our histories, even before we even were able to breathe a breath of air, we have an identity.

And if we believe in God is the Trinitarian God who is actively involved in our life, then I understand myself and only one way isasGod's child. I am a daughter; I am a son of God. And that identity frames the answer to the question of who I am, because it all starts from that point of axis. So having affirmed God's  presence and saying who I am, we then look to have a relationship with this God. 

You know,  our own human relationships mirror that relationship, too. Think, for example, of the image of a perfect parent- mother, father - and all that goes into the task of parenting. You know, if a parent needs to be the guiding force in their children's lives, they need the structure. They need to know right from wrong. They need to have a sense of order and the rules. They need to learn from the parent what this thing called being a human being is all about, and to get their clues from that parent figure.

So in every way, shape and form a parent and their task mimics God as the creator; God as the father. And  that same parent also has to, as their child begins to grow and develop and mature and encounters life's difficulties and makes choices and all of those things that goes into becoming a full adult, that same parent has to offer guidance and wisdom to help their children find their way through the complexities of life, to be able to navigate as well as possible all that is around them and all that is a part of them. And so as the Holy Spirit guides and directs all things, a parent must also do the same. And then that same parent who has those very difficult and challenging jobs also has to be the one who shows intimacy and love. The one who is able to affirm and to share and show their child that they are truly loved, that they are special and that they are unique. And then, as every parent knows, there are those times in our children's lives where you cannot fix the problem. As much as you want to try to take the pain away, you simply cannot. You're powerless to do so. And so that parent has to simply hold their child and be with them in love, showing them that gentle touch and caress. 

And so as we take our cues from our human relationships and look to God with that same dynamic, we can, as a person seeking to have a relationship with this God who has created me, go to a mountain and in the vastness of that grandeur and that beauty stand in awe of creation. We can go to the seashore and in the vastness of the sea before us just marvel at the beauty of it all. We can participate in this creative function of God and have a sense of that eternal, majesty and glory.

We can also look to our lives and how they unfold one day to the next, one season to the next, how in faith and prayer we develop this wisdom that we bring to life, that God inspires us with through the gift of the Holy Spirit. And we can see that our days are led. That we're not alone. But the intimacy of God, the intimacy of God; where in our world do we find and touch that ?

Right here at this table in the very beautiful gift of the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ. Yes, that intimacy comes through the caring touch of a friend. It comes when we offer compassion and love. When we're able to suffer with another who is in pain. But most perfectly it happens here.

St. John Vianney tells us that if God had a more perfect way to communicate with us, he would have done it. But he already: did in the gift of the Eucharist. It is here that we meet the essence of Jesus Christ himself. And in doing so we touch the very core of who we are. God touches that core. 

When we receive the Eucharist, God enters us in a most intimate way that no human being has the ability to do and touches us at a level of our being that no one else can. And as we do receive that sacred presence, He looks at us and He says, "You are my child. I love you. I am with you. You are mine." And we find our identity as His daughter, as His son in the essence of the Eucharist. And now  here's where it gets beautiful. We've all been at places in our life where we lose control, where there's something before us that we simply cannot overcome. Maybe it's darkness, maybe it's depression, maybe it's despair, maybe we're bumping up against our limitations of health, maybe we're facing the loss of a loved one, whatever it may be. Something that we can't fix and something that no other human being can fix. And we come here to this sacred and holy place to this holy table and God holds us, he holds us, in his presence. Think of the very beautiful image of the piata: Mary holding her son after he suffered and died on the cross. It's a very beautiful, very powerful piece of work. Well, change it up a bit and in place of the mother of God, Mary, see Jesus. And then in those moments, when we are up against a brick wall, when we're hurting and in pain and nowhere else to turn, place yourself in His presence, in His arms, and allow Him to hold you, because He will. And He does. And He sees us through because of the gift of the Eucharist. We can't touch this anywhere else. Only here. Only here.

And then that wonderful gift, after it's received by us personally, it now infuses our community. And so that very presence that we receive from the altar, we now can receive from one another in this community of faith. And the early Christians knew that. That's why they needed to come together in person to gather and celebrate and remember, become enriched, but also infused with God's presence so that they could go out and preach the Gospel as the body of Christ; as you and I go out and preach as the body of Christ. So our faith is never a personal thing only: it's always about us, always about the community and our relationship with one another.

Who am I? A son, a daughter, a child of God. 

And so then the third question: where am I going? Where am I going? Well, based on the answers to the first two questions, the third one finds its answer as well. And for the person who answers no to God, and I'm just a random occurrence to life, well, then life becomes whatever I want to make of it, whatever makes me happy, whatever makes me successful, and there's really no direction to any of it.

But the person who answers in faith, the answer to the third question becomes quite intentional, because the " Where am I going?," has not an end in this world but in the eternal one, with my eyes fixed on where my life will one day end up, in Christ. I can then conduct the business and the concerns of this life with proper focus and with proper perspective.

To say yes to this, and no to that, because my choices now must serve the essence of who I am and where I am going. Did you ever stop and think that perhaps that's the wisdom that God has placed into one of his primary commandments? To keep holding the Sabbath day, keep holy the Sabbath day. 

Let's face it: life is complicated. We can get distracted. It's so easy to lose our focus from God. It's even easier to lose our focus from who we really are. That is why it is so necessary to come here, as all of you do regularly, to be enriched and nourish, to be focused, rejuvenated and set back on course so that as you leave here, whether you're conscious of it or not, you reaffirm God as God is, yourself as you are, and you reaffirm your direction and your purpose in life as a herald of the Good News. And equipped with that, you go out into a world that doesn't understand that message very well. 

And so where am I going? You know, it's so easy today, which is what happens in many households unfortunately, the demands of life become so intense. 

You know, in talking with younger families, both work, commitments on the weekend, the children have this to do, that to do, and life is very busy. But that busy-ness cannot become an excuse to get off of the hook from pondering how one keeps the Sabbath holy. 

You know, years ago, those of us who are older, remember that we had the blue laws and Sundays was nothing. Most businesses were closed. People did not work. And you stayed home. You didn't even shop, you did that on Saturday or sometime during the week. And so you're kind of forced into this sacredness of Sunday, whether you realize it or not. Today, we have to think about it. It has to become a conscious thought and a conscious decision. And those who say yes to God As their reality in their life, and yes to themselves as a child of God, have to also say, how do I keep Sunday holy? And wrestle with an answer to that question, even if it's difficult to do so, because it's so easy to allow other things to replace it. And once we do, then everything else gets out of whack. Everything else goes by the wayside. So once Sunday stops being sacred, we lose touch with the essence of who we are. We lose touch with the essence of who God is and though we're  saying yes to God, and yes to the fact that I'm a child of God, those things are only coming from our lips, so they have no claim on our heart because we're not being nourished.

And it is so important. And so what is the shareable part of this message today to go out and tell others this good news, help them understand who God is, help them understand who they are, help them understand that they have a community of support here, a community of love, where they can be nourished and enriched and strengthened, to be who they are and who God has made them to be.

Three simple questions, but the answers are a bit more complicated. Who is God? Who am I? And where am I going? The proper answers to those questions will truly set us on the road to real happiness. .

Father Mark Suslenko  is the pastor of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Learn more about our parish community 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. 


Introduction
Gospel: Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26
Homily: Three Simple Questions
Conclusion/Credits