S1 Ep. 27: Free Falling Into Faith

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. 

When it comes to faith, trust is everything. And sometimes, trusting God feels a lot like stepping into the unknown, like jumping out of a plane without knowing exactly how it will turn out. In this episode of the podcast, Father Mark draws on that very image to help us understand what it really means to live in tandem with God, free-falling into life with courage, trust, and open hearts.

“Free Falling Into Faith,” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut

Father Mark Suslenko:

Over the years, a few of my friends have come to the realization that what they really wanted to do was skydive out of a plane. They tried to convince me of the same but to no avail. I couldn't get my head around the fact of how it could be good to be up in the sky, in a vessel with the door open. So I did not partake of that challenge. But they were determined to do so. 

In reflecting back on their experiences, it's very interesting to see what happens. In order to accomplish that goal, if you really want to skydive out of a plane, you really have to get yourself in the place where you're determined enough to do so and put yourself in check.

So if you are weak-kneed, anxious and nervous, you need to get over that quickly. If you're afraid of heights, you need to do something about that. If you find yourself fearful, you need to get over the fear. But the big thing that you have to do the common denominator because if you do this for the first time, there's a specific way you do it. They just don't put you up on the plane and throw you out. You work in tandem with an expert who knows what they're doing, supposedly, who's got your back, with whom you're connected as you free fall. But even to take that step, you have to have a radical trust in their ability to do their job well. You have to give yourself over to their expertise and trust that, from the moment you leave the plane to the time your feet are then back on the ground again, that that is going to somehow be a smooth transition. 

Now, if you jump out of the plane, even in tandem with this expert, but you're not there at that point of trust or acceptance, then you're not going to be free enough to really enjoy the experience, to really drink it all in, to get the sights and to feel all of the emotions that one feels when they're out in the open air like that. Jumping out of the plane, even in tandem with one's eyes closed, misses the point of why you're doing it.

In reflecting about those experiences, I begin to realize there's a deep connection with the spiritual life, with the Christian life, in that analogy.

You know, there is that point when you're up in the sky, getting ready to jump, where you are absolutely 100% out of control. When you venture forth out of that plane, you are no longer in control. The circumstances, the guide, all of those things are in charge, not you. 

The Christian is meant to free fall into life; to free fall into life because our life experiences, the good and the bad, the successful, the unsuccessful, the hurtful, the joyful, all of that is part of the human experience. But what we tend to do, sometimes, is we want to skirt around the challenges. We don't see the benefit in the trials. We don't see fruit all of the time coming from the suffering. We don't find any kind of consolation when things get difficult. And so the tendency of human nature is to try to separate ourselves from those things as quickly as possible. 

The second thing is, just as if somebody wants to skydive out of a plane, they have to check their fear, they have to straighten their knees, they have to get themselves in a place where they can really embark upon that experience. If a person truly wants to be a Christian, and believe in Jesus Christ, they have to do the same thing as well. We have to get ourselves in order, we have to strengthen our knees, we have to control our anxiety, we have to check our fear, we have to get ourselves into a place where we can be used as a vessel and free fall into the world of experience. And it's a world of our lives, and to begin to deal with whatever comes as a result of that.

But we do so, just as the person jumping out of the plane has a guide to bring them safely to where they need to be, so too we have, as Christians, God as our guide. We journey in tandem with God as we free fall into life. And either we believe that we're connected to that divine presence, or we don't. Because if we truly believe that we're connected to that divine presence, that as we free fall into life, we can let go of the control. We can let go of the fear. We can let go of the anxiety. We can let go of the unknown and simply invest ourselves in the experience to be used as a vessel because we realized that living our life in tandem with God, even those trials, can be used as a discipline from Him to teach us something about ourselves, to learn something that we wouldn't otherwise learn if we skipped around them. Or when we invest ourselves into something that we would normally be afraid of, that we would learn a lesson about ourselves that God can teach us. That even when we find ourselves in hardship or suffering, that living life in tandem with God, lessons can be learned, and we can be brought to a place of wholeness and reconciliation.

You see, when we truly understand that God has our backs, then there's never "nothing." There's always something. God always creates and recreates even when we see only darkness, even when we , see only devastation only when, even when we see want. 

And so in doing that and understanding that we're connected to this source, free falling into life, like the person coming out of a plane, if you leave all that control behind, if your leave the fear behind as you're falling, as you're moving through that experience, if you open your eyes, you're gonna see things you never saw before. If you're gonna open your ears, you're gonna hear things you never heard before. If you open your heart, you're going to feel things you never felt before because you've released the guards. You've released the control, and you can simply soak in what is. 

And that's what happens as a result of God's discipline of us through our trials, through our sufferings, through our hardships. Our ears are open to being more attentive to God's voice. Our eyes are opened to see the divine presence more clearly. Our hearts are opened to welcome the sacred and to love more purely. And then as we free fall through life, as we get to know the friend who has our back, our divine friend, then when Jesus comes again in his second coming, and we go out to meet him, it won't be for the first time, because we would have met him before and known him well.

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.