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 29 of Season 6 for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary time: August 20, 2023. Our Gospel reading is from Matthew, Chapter 15, verses 21-28.
At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, "Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her. Jesus' disciples came and asked him, "Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us."
He said in reply, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, "Lord, help me.” He said in reply, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters."
Then Jesus said to her in reply, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman's daughter was healed from that hour.
The Gospel of the Lord.
“Understanding God's Unconditional, Merciful Love” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut
May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.
Every time we gather to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries, we hear those words proclaimed. How we understand God's mercy is pivotal to our relationship with him, and it either opens or closes the door to a spiritual life.
Mercy and forgiveness, while intimately tied together, are two very different things. What is God's mercy to you?
A general, basic definition of God's mercy equates it with God's unconditional love. The outpouring of God's divine presence, freely, unconditionally, given in all places, in all times, and to all peoples, an unconditional outpouring of God's own divine love. Putting that understanding of mercy in the context of our world, it is that very divine outpouring of love that keeps all things that we see and know in place brings life where there was no life, and sustains the life that was given.
It is that divine mercy, that divine power of God's unconditional love, that keeps the blood flowing through our veins . And the breath that we breathe in our mouths. It is the divine outpouring of God's unconditional love that brings wholeness where there is division. It is the outpouring of God's divine, merciful love that is given freely to all. It knows no bounds and has no restrictions.
As human beings, we often have difficulty really pondering and understanding the vastness of God's mercy and just how extensive and wide it really is. And that's because our own feeble attempts at loving often come with conditions. I will love you if you do a certain thing for me. I will love you if you look a certain way. I will love you if you act a certain way. If you wrong me and say I'm sorry, then you're worthy of my love again. And the conditions that we place on love can sometimes be quite extensive. And those conditions that we place on love really also become the cause of division and separation. And so, to imagine and conceive of unconditional, merciful love can often be a stretch for us.
As we look at God's unconditional, merciful love, we can often find ourselves feeling at times unworthy of that love. Maybe we look at our lives and see there the presence of error and sin and infidelity. Maybe we see that side of ourselves that often resists God, that does things to block God's presence in our life, and we feel ourselves unworthy of that all-powerful, unconditional, merciful love.
Or maybe we're struggling with something that is habitual. A sin or a weakness that we simply just cannot get over and resolve, and we find ourselves at a loss because we're constantly seeking God's forgiveness, God's merciful love, even through the sacrament of penance. And we wonder, perhaps, how often can we go to the well before God gets tired of our foolishness and turns a blind ear and eye to what we're doing? Or maybe we live our life not really giving much notice to God's merciful, unconditional love because we feel we can live life without it. We convince ourselves that we've got things under control and I don't really need anything more than myself.
However, we understand God's mercy will then position us with whether we're going to have a relationship with him or not. Because spiritual awakening and the depth of spirituality happen when I begin to understand and see that all things can only be because of God's merciful, unconditional love. That when you take that out of the mix, all life ceases and can no longer be sustained. It is God's unconditional, merciful love that keeps the wheels turning and keeps me in being and sustains my life.
Once I begin to understand the power of that unconditional, merciful love, I then awaken this need to have it even more completely. I realize how important it is to persist in achieving it, to persevere at all costs so that I can more deeply drink of the well of that unconditional love and mercy. When I do, true healing and transformation take place. I truly understand the power of forgiveness. I know the value of acceptance. And I know how desperately I've been yearning and longing for God's approval.
Once we drink deeply of that well of God's unconditional love, it changes our lives, and we cannot go back.
At some point in our lives, this world as we know it, we must leave, and we do not know the day or the hour or the time or the place when that journey will occur. But we do know that it will. And we must, at that moment in time, leave everything we have behind, even those things we love so dearly. But if we truly understand and believe in the power of God's unconditional, merciful love and how God is in and through all things, then we realize just how close and intimate God's presence is to us and how necessary that presence is for us to conduct the daily business of our lives. And then, when we must leave what we love behind, we can with confidence entrust that to God's care, knowing that his unconditional, all-powerful, merciful love will continue to work in and through them as well.
And when we do one day meet God face-to-face in heaven, we will not be greeted with judgment. We will not meet disdain. We will not meet a checklist of what we failed to do and what we succeeded at. We will meet that presence of unconditional, merciful love and be able to enjoy the fullness of that presence. When that occurs, what we do with it is another question.
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.