S2 E2: Seeing Beyond Time

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. 

As we enter more deeply into this season of Advent, we hear a powerful reminder from Father Mark that so much of how we understand ourselves is shaped by the “time dimension” of our lives: childhood and adolescence, parenthood and work, aging and retirement. We measure, we plan, we hope, and we worry. We try to keep life’s pieces intact. 

And yet, Advent gently urges us to lift our eyes beyond that mirror image we know so well, toward the far bigger horizon of who we are becoming in Christ. He reminds us that God’s vision isn’t bound by time. It’s expansive, eternal, rooted in a coming oneness in Christ that places our struggles, our questions, and even our suffering into a larger, grace-filled story and the discovery that - as St. Julian of Norwich noted— no matter what happens to us that “all will be well.”

Here’s Father Mark.

“Seeing Beyond Time,” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut

Father Mark Suslenko:

Because our lives are governed by time, we tend to see ourselves and judge ourselves within the context of time, depending on where we are along life's journey, if we find ourselves at the age of 10 or 11 or 12. 13, 14, 15, we tend to start thinking a bit more about the future, especially as we move through the adolescent years of where we want to go to college, what do we want to become, how we want life to unfold for us. As we get a bit older, we want to begin to determine the components of that life. Do I want to be married, single priest, nun? How do I want to live out my vocation as a Catholic? And as we progress through and become parents, we're now very concerned about raising our families, about caring for them and providing for them within the context of the time dimension of our lives. And then as we age and become older, the prospect of being grandparents becomes a reality, and we begin to ponder how we want to live out that particular dimension of our lives. And then as life begins to progress further, we think about retirement in our senior years, and how we want that to look.

And as we journey through the various dimensions of our lives, we're concerned about how they're put together. Am I going to be asked to suffer? Is life going to be a challenge and difficult for me? Can I think of life as a smooth sailing ship where illness does not invade, and course and course simply flows one to the next. Within this time dimension of our lives, that image we see looking back at us in the mirror is how we know ourselves and we wanna keep this package whole. We want this to be in its entirety, to preserve it as long as possible, because this time dimension of our lives is really all that we know.

And then we find ourselves in this season of Advent, a season which directs us and tells us to take that smaller image in which we live, that timed image of our lives, and stretch it a bit and see beyond it, to see above it to something greater and bigger. The season of Advent reminds us that that image that looks back at us in the mirror is just the beginning of who we are meant to become, because that birth of Christ, which we will soon celebrate, is not just a moment in time, but a piece of salvation history set in motion by God to end, not here in our earthly existence, but when the fullness of Christ comes again, and all things are made one in Christ.

Consider that for just a moment. Allow yourselves to be lifted up from that smaller vision of your lives. How do you see yourself participating in that oneness that will happen in Christ? How do you see yourself being transformed into the very image of Christ himself? You see, God's vision for our world is not limited by the time dimension of our lives. God's vision is bigger. God's vision is brighter. It's a vision that will end in harmony and peace. Where all will be one together, not concerned about our individual selves, but part of a greater whole.

How do you see yourself in that dimension of existence? How do you see yourself as one in Christ?

If we ponder this in deep prayer, it brings us to a very centered place, a place where the reality of suffering and the reality of hardship don't seem as important or as difficult anymore. We begin to see that God is a part of all seasons of our lives, and even though individual pieces may not be fitting together at a particular moment in time, in the future, all will be made whole.

We're reminded today that God is not the God who fixes everything for us in our timed lives. The God is the God of endurance and encouragement, so that when we focus on this greater vision of God, when we allow ourselves to trust that God's plan is in motion and active, that God's plan is going to end in a brighter and better place, then it gives us the wherewithal to put one foot in front of the other and deal with however life unfolds for us and whatever life brings to us, because God gives us the encouragement to endure through the stories of sacred scripture, through his presence in our lives in the Eucharist, and through many other varied ways that he shows himself to us. He gives us that encouragement to move on and to continue as we all around that road to oneness in Christ, and he gives us the grace to endure, to deal with those moments of suffering, because we realize they are just blips and just little hurdles in the bigger picture of what is yet to come. Just as a mother who gives birth to a child can endure those labor pains because she knows that what will occur is worth any amount of effort.

When we come upon this realization in our spiritual eyes, God truly becomes a companion. We begin to understand what it is to have Emmanuel, God with us, to give us the grace to endure and the encouragement to move on. I am sure that that same insight is what allowed Julian of Norwich. To proclaim loudly and clearly. All will be well. All will be 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.