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 26 of Season 7 for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time  - August 11, 2024. Our Gospel reading is from John Chapter 6: verses 41-51.

The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'?"

Jesus answered and said to them, "Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven

so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

The Gospel of the Lord 

“Faith, Hope, Love and the Incarnation,” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut

One of the most awesome teachings in the treasury of our faith is found in the mystery of the Incarnation, the mystery of the Incarnation.  The basic tenet of that teaching directs us to the person of Jesus and reminds us that God became man in Jesus Christ,  that Jesus is both human and divine,  and God has wedded himself to humanity in this event of the mystery of the Incarnation.  And it helps us to understand who Jesus is because we've struggled with that generation upon generation. Even those closest to Jesus struggled with who this person is. They came right out and said, we know his parents.  He's the son of a carpenter, and over here, he is telling us that he's also giving us the bread of life. How can that be?  

The mystery of the Incarnation is not limited just to the person of Jesus, but it speaks of the greater picture of how God acts in our world and also in our very lives.  It shows us where to look in order to find God's presence.  Because at its core,  the mystery of the Incarnation says this:  "That which is common and ordinary  is  actually profound and extraordinary."  That which is common and ordinary is actually profound and extraordinary.  So the mystery of the Incarnation gives us the proper lenses to put on so that as we look out on the world, as we look at ourselves, as we look at one another, we see correctly.  And when in faith, we put on the lens of the Incarnation and look at the world in that fashion,  then the world begins to sparkle with God's presence. The divine nature isn't all things. The divine spark is in all things.  So, as we're passing by and we look at a budding flower,  we don't just see the biological,  physical aspects of that flower.  We had the power to stop and contemplate its author and creator and see the divine life intricately woven in every fabric of that plant. 

So, when we open our eyes to the mystery of the Incarnation, what we see out there begins to take on greater meaning. What we see and hear takes on greater meaning.  Not limiting the Incarnation to simply something that happened to Christ broadens our understanding of it and reminds us that the Incarnation also applies to us.  That somehow, in our own way, we have to create a living space for God so that God's image can be born and reborn again in us.  So that we also reflect that divine spark to others. 

As we look out on our world, as we live in our world,  I think all of us can pretty much conclude with certainty that our world today is an extremely complicated, a very uncertain, a very conflicted, a very confused place.  Our world is not only hurting,  but our world can also hurt us.  Even conducting the simple business of our lives can sometimes come as such a great chore.  Things that were once simple somehow became extremely complicated.  Even finding our way in relationships to one another is much more difficult and challenging today than it ever was before.  

As the world unfolds before us and in us, and through us, all of us have to find our way through this confusion, this hurt, this anxiety, this uncertainty.  We all have to find our way through what life brings to us.  Parents of children have this gift of social media at their fingertips,  but that comes with a huge price.  It comes with exposure to things at a young age that we've never been exposed to before.  It comes with challenges to its users. Challenges to be and act a certain way.  Children are constantly bombarded with expectations of who they're supposed to be, how they're supposed to be, how many likes they need to have,  and what their level of popularity is.  They are consistently bombarded with needing to be successful.  And, if they slip up in one moment and it's caught on tape or in video, suddenly the world all knows about it, and it's there for all to see.  There's a tremendous pressure there, our young people. There's a tremendous pressure on everyone to conform and to also give into these illusions that we've created for ourselves.  

So here we are as people who believe in the mystery of the Incarnation.  As we look outside these doors, we discover a world that more and more simply just wants to erase the face of God from all things.  It's harder and harder to find the presence of God because what we're exposed to and what's coming into our lives seems to be so totally polar opposite to what the tenets of our faith are calling us to do and to become.  And so it's indeed a great struggle for the person of faith to take that faith out into this world that resists it at all costs.  But yet, we're reminded that the mystery of the Incarnation is ours to embody. It's ours to do. It's not just to be left in some body of teaching.  So where do we go?  

Well, the answer is here at God's altar because here at God's Altar, we have a meeting with the perfect embodiment of the Incarnation.  Here, as we gather week after week, we see simple ordinary things, common bread, and common ordinary wine that is then transformed into something powerfully magnificent. Something that is profound and quite extraordinary in the presence in the body and blood of Jesus Christ himself.  It is only here in the Eucharist that we can truly discover truth in its purest form.  

We cannot find truth outside these doors because outside these doors is simply a bunch of confusion and a lot of illusion.  Only here can we find the true essence of ourselves and bring that humble self here to be nourished and to be enriched.  We come with our humble lies because we know full well that life gets the best of us.  It's very easy to get caught up in this whirlwind of life: its stresses, its struggles. Trying to negotiate all that needs to be negotiated to be all that we need to be and to attend to all of those things that are pulling constantly at us, asking us to do more, asking us to be more.  It seems even in the workplace, things are being stretched and stretched. I'm being asked to do more in my work,  and there are fewer around to do those jobs.  And we're tired.  We're tired.  And so we come here with our tired, humble lives, and we place them before God,  and we ask him to do what he will with our brokenness.  

Last week I spoke a bit about Edith Stein, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross,  and she has a powerful, powerful message to communicate about precisely this.  She says, for when you do what God demands of you if you can do what God demands of you with the total surrender of your innermost being, a total surrender of your innermost being,  you cause the divine life to then become your own very life.  You cause the divine life to become your own very life.  

So when we open ourselves in humility to God with our brokenness and with our desire to serve him with our whole heart, mind, and soul, not just with our lip service, but with our whole heart, mind, and soul, God will then enter our soul with his very divine life so that when we look inside of ourselves, we're not going to just see ourselves, but we're also going to be able to recognize God.  And in this very confused and conflicted world, that's all we have to bring, but that's all we need to bring because not one of us has an answer to what's happening in our world. We can feel quite powerless, actually, over what's happening around us and where things seem to be headed.  But we have our faith, and we have the gift of the Eucharist, and we have the power to be transformed by Jesus Christ, his image, his presence,  entering our souls at a very deep level.  So that when we leave this place,  we leave with the three gifts that we've been given in the Eucharist. Three powerful gifts. The first is faith.  Faith.  Faith gives us determination.  Faith allows us to continue to put one foot in front of the other and to continue to persevere through the challenges that are before us. Faith allows us to keep moving and focuses us where we need to be.  

The second is hope.  Hope gives us perseverance, reminds us that God's not done with this picture of life yet, but that there's much more to come in the eternal one that awaits us.  So we can persevere and we can go forth because we know the truth of who we are and where we're ultimately headed. 

And then love.  The gift of love, St. Paul reminds us, allows us to endure all things.  The world can hurt us. So what?  Love will allow us to endure.  Many throughout history have been hurt by the world, people of great faith, especially our Lord and Savior, who hangs upon the cross.  Why would we expect anything different from ourselves? 

And so armed with the very presence of God within, we come into this church week after week, very common and very ordinary, but having received the gift of the precious Eucharist into the very essence of our soul, we leave profoundly and with an extraordinary, joyful presence.  That's what we can bring into this confused and conflicted world. That's what parents can give to their children who are confused about who to listen to.  You can guide them and direct them here,  which is where they can find the truth,  the way, and the life. 

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.