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 33 of Season 6 for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary time: Oct. 1, 2023. Our Gospel reading is from Matthew, Chapter 21, verses 28-32
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people:
"What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, 'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ He said in reply, 'I will not,’ but afterwards changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, 'Yes, sir, 'but did not go. Which of the two did his father's will?” They answered, "The first."
Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him."
The Gospel of the Lord.
“Called to Do God’s Will” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut
Whether we realize it, we are constantly making decisions. In fact, every step we take in our lives is influenced by a decision we made. Decisions are part of our everyday existence. Some of those decisions we're more aware of than others. Some of them are more challenging than others. But as we take the steps of our lives, as they play out each day, whose voice do we listen to? Who do we consult in making our decisions? And, what direction are our lives heading?
Having a firm understanding of the answers to those questions is going to make a difference about what steps we then take. You see, it's very easy for us as human beings to look at the course of our lives, the moments of our day, and simply act out of whim and passion, to do things because they satisfy us or entertain us, to simply go with the flow of the moment without any direction or any kind of guidance. In following our passions, our decisions then reflect basically our own needs, our wants, and our desires.
Do we hear within us another voice, a voice called conscience, in which God speaks to us in the depths of each of our hearts? And this voice must be nurtured, must be attended to so that we can hear it clearly and know how to then live our lives.
Are we aware that God offers us a very definitive direction to take and a mission to follow? With every moment of our lives, as they play out, God is saying to us, "Go into my vineyard." Go into my vineyard. And God's vineyard is not restricted to the confines of this sacred space. God's vineyard is found in the very lives that we lead and in the very world in which we live. It is there that we find God's vineyard, and there we are asked to go, equipped not with our own wants and desires, not with our own passions and concerns, but with the values of the Gospel, with the teachings of Jesus Christ, the teachings of the Ten Commandments, and the teachings of the Church.
It is into this world and into our lives that this conscience, this echoing voice of God within, informed by our immersion in all of those things and informed by our knowledge of all of those things, that we then go forth into the world and make the decisions that play out in our lives.
As we consider our faith and as we listen to God sending us into the vineyard of our lives, we very often respond with a yes, I will go. And we take the Gospel, and we take the teachings of the Church, and we take the teachings of Jesus Christ, and we put them forth into our lives, and we try to do the best we can to implement them and tend to the vineyard as God wills us to attend to it.
There are other times in our lives where we say, yes, I'm going to do these things, but then we go into the vineyard, and we find ourselves doing exactly the opposite. We find ourselves falling victim to our wants and our desires and our passions and our concerns, and we quickly forget about the kingdom of God and tending to God's vineyard.
Sometimes, we say, no, I am not going to attend to God's vineyard. I'm going to simply do what it is I feel I want to do. And then, after immersing ourselves in that philosophy for a while, we then realize that it's reaching a dead end, and we really should have listened to the voice of God all along, and we change course and come back, a moment of conversion for sure.
God is willing to accept us wherever we are along life's journey, and he's always willing to have us come home, and he patiently waits for us to do so. But we all know how complex our lives are., And we know how complex our world is and how not black and white many of the decisions we're asked to make really are. That some of them can be quite messy and uncertain. And as we confront those things that need attending to in our lives, they usually revolve around relationships and associations, and whether we should remain in a relationship or leave, whether we should keep on course or change, or whatever, whatever is beckoning us is calling forth. And we know that when we take our decisions seriously, they can become agonizing for us at times. They can become soul-wrenching, and we can wonder and find ourselves wondering whether the course we're pursuing is my own will or whether I'm actually doing the will of God.
Sometimes, our decisions require change, and that change that is initiated comes with a certain degree of hurt, a certain degree of sadness, and it's difficult to know whether what I've decided to do is where I really need to be or not, or where God desires me to be or not.
How do we know whether what we're doing reflects our own will or whether it's reflective of God's will? We pray in the Lord's Prayer: thy will be done. How do we know whether we're doing so? Well, if we look at our decisions, even those that are difficult and those that even may be difficult to implement at first, if the decision brings us to a greater place of freedom, if the decision allows me to more perfectly be the person God created me to be, then, in all likelihood, it reflects the will of God, because God does not will that we be held in bondage, but that we enjoy the freedom of God. If the decision that I am making makes me more a person of integrity and virtue and immerses me more in a life of faith, centered and focused, and more directed, then in all likelihood, it reflects the will of God. If the decision I am going to make allows me to love more deeply and more perfectly, more unconditionally and more freely, then in all likelihood, it reflects the will of God.
There is no doubt it's a difficult task to discern whether it is our own will or the will of God that we are doing. But we have to remember that even though God's will is what is best for us, it does stretch us a bit. It is often that which we don't really want to do but that which is best for us and what we know we must do. And so even during those times where we question what motivation is behind the decisions we make, we still can humbly place ourselves in God's presence and admit that we often do not do God's will, even though we may think that we are doing so.
However, in the face of any decision, we are asked to make, if our primary desire and our motivation is to please God, and to please God in all things is utmost in our mind, heart, and soul, then most likely, what follows will then be God's will itself. It is with that humility that we place ourselves before our God, humbly begging for His grace, humbly begging for the courage that only can come from Him, as we go out into the vineyard and do God's will as it needs to be done.
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.