S1 E16: The Universal Spirit of Pentecost

Transcript

Carol Vassar:

From SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut, I'm Carol Vassar, and this is Living in Faith, Hope, and Love. Each week, our Pastor, Father Mark Suslenko, delves into Scripture, shares insights from the saints, prophets, and theologians, and discusses practical ways to cultivate faith, strengthen hope, and embody love in the world around us. Through his reflections and spiritual encouragement, this podcast aims to inspire you to live your Catholic faith with joy and purpose. Welcome. 

In our human experience, we often think of God as “up there” or “over here” or “over there.” But Pentecost reminds us that through the Spirit, God is within us, speaking to each of us in our own language, our own hearts, our own lives.

In this episode, Father Mark reflects on how God’s presence has revealed itself to humans over time and how the gift of the Holy Spirit specifically calls upon us to live as images of God, inspired by the virtues of faith, hope, and love. Here’s Father Mark: 

“The Universal Spirit of Pentecost,” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut

Father Mark Suslenko:

The more I contemplate sacred scripture and the way God has revealed himself to human beings century upon century upon century, I stand in awe of the wonder and the beauty and the simplicity and the glory of God's presence. It truly is a tapestry to behold, and it is wonderful in its simplicity, but also very profound.

God understands our human condition, and he would never reveal himself in a way that would be unintelligible or unapproachable by us. He does it gently and patiently. As human beings, we are very devoted to the spatial orientation of our lives. In order to conduct the business of our day, we have to have a sense of up and down, right and left, above and beyond, below. Without this spatial orientation, we could find ourselves very lost, confused, and even wandering. It's important to be anchored and have a reference point for how I then proceed. And we use these spatial orientations in terms of how we understand the reality around us and indeed God himself.

And so if you look at the beginning of Creation, Book of Genesis, Exodus. If you look at how God reveals himself to the Hebrew people. God is very much perceived by them as existing up there, up in the heavens. And from the heavens, god gives his people gifts. And he gives them the gift of the Ten Commandments as a rule of law to live by. He gives them the gift of manna in the desert when they were in need of food. He gave them the gift of departing of the Red Sea on their journey from slavery to freedom.

So, from the heavens, God bestows these gifts upon humanity. And over time, patiently, day by day, these people begin to realize that God is on their side, that they have an allegiance to God, and that he is the author of their lives. And it is by following that law that life needs to be conducted.

And then as time goes on, this God who existed in the skies, in the heavens above, now comes down to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. And here walking among us, looking like one of us is a person who is both human and divine. And so God comes into the very essence of humanity and he travels with us as Emmanuel. He knows what it is to love. He knows what it is to be disappointed. He knows what it is to work. He knows what it is to suffer. He knows what it is to die, and he knows what it is to be human in all its forms, with its positives and with its negatives.

He teaches us about the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of this world. He reminds us that God is a God of justice and mercy, of love and compassion, that all people count, and all people matter in that kingdom of God, that no one is lost and no one can be cast aside that healing is possible. And when he rose from the dead, rebirth as well. And this God who journeyed with us, gave himself to us in the wonderful gift of the Eucharist, his own body and blood, remaining with us as a source of that presence. And then that God rose from the dead and then ascended to the Father, seated at the right hand of the Father, eternally in heaven. And so now in our spatial orientation of things, God is in the heavens, but he's also over here. He's in the heavens, but over here. And we can understand those terms and those dimensions of reality.

But now comes the gift of the Holy Spirit. God, bringing life into the very stuff of humanity, the fire of his love being set forth on human beings, a fire that brings peace and life and energy, a fire that unites and ignites the very essence of faith. So much so that this uniting fire of love can bring people of different cultures together so that everyone gathered around can witness the saving power of God and understand what is happening in their own terms and in their own ways. It shows us that God's love is not divisive, as if someone has it over here, and another has it over here; that God's love is universal to be open and given to all who are willing to receive it, and each in their own way can hear and perceive that love. In this unity of spirit, God dwells. And this gift of the Holy Spirit reminds us that God is not only up in the heavens, and God is not only over here, but that God's spirit in God's life is infused in everything, in the very depth of our souls, that it's not enough just to obey the laws, but now we are asked to become the very image of God himself. And that Holy Spirit, that power, that fire of love, brings to us virtues, the very virtues of faith, of hope, and of love itself. Not things we conjure up on our own, but gifts given to us by the very presence of God through the Holy Spirit, that God gives us the ability to be prudent, to act justly, to discover wisdom, to have proper understanding, and to know the order of all things around us, not on our own, but through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And it's difficult for us who live in the spatial world of our lives, the up and down, the right and the left, be over there and over here, to imagine a God who is all encompassing through all reality in all things, and through all things and for all things. It's hard for us to have this universal view now of God's presence, but that's precisely what the Holy Spirit brings to us.

And it gives us the ability to continue the work of the Church, to advance the work of the Gospel, not only just for ourselves, but in all corners of the world. You know, but we have to watch a trap that humanity can easily fall into, and it's the trap of us versus them. And it's a dynamic that starts when we're very young playing in a school yard or first gathering our group of friends. I have my group of friends over here. You have your group of friends over there. Yours look differently than mine, so you can't come and be a part of my group, and I'm not welcome to be a part of your group. And then there's another group over here that looks a little bit differently than those other two groups, and we can't play in the same playground. We have to compete and fight for space because we're defending our differences all the time and refuse to see the commonalities that exist among us while the Holy Spirit, with that fire of love, smashes through all of those boundaries and reminds us that those divisions that we place in life are self-imposed, that they really do not exist in the kingdom of God, because when God's voice is proclaimed, all peoples, regardless of how they look, regardless of what group they define themselves in, regardless of how they've been excluded or included from the reality of life, all people can hear the message of salvation and of Good News. It's not meant just for one exclusive possession. And now reminded of the universality of the Spirit, we can go forth, but we have to lose the protective group mentality that we cling to so often. We have to be willing to be open. We have to be willing to listen, and we have to be willing to be led, not by ourselves, but by that Spirit that dwells within us now, by that Holy Spirit, that gives us life, that gives us hope, and that leads us to truth.

Carol Vassar:

Father Mark Suslenko is the pastor of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. If you like what you've heard today, please subscribe to Living in Faith, Hope, and Love on your favorite podcast app, and take a moment to leave a review.

SS. Isidore and Maria is an active parish community, so whether you’re a long-time parishioner or are just getting to know us through this podcast, we welcome you to join us at Masses or any of our other community events and services. Visit our parish website - isidoreandmaria.org - for a full schedule of Masses, services and other happenings. That's isidoreandmaria.org. We're also active on Facebook and Instagram.

On behalf of Father Mark, I'm Carol Vassar, and we thank you for listening to this episode of Living in Faith, Hope, and Love.