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 7 for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time  - October 20, 2024. Our Gospel reading is from Mark Chapter 10, verses 35-45. 

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."  He replied, "What do you wish me to do for you?"  They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."  

Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. 

Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"  

They said to him, "We can." 

Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink,

and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared." 

When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.  Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.  But it shall not be so among you.

Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.  For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."  

The Gospel of the Lord 

“God is the Glue,” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut

Jesus wants all of us to be servants; to be servants. Now an interesting question that we can ask is, what does that mean when we leave this church today and go out into the world? What does it mean to be a servant?  

I had a real wonderful opportunity yesterday of being able to take 60 of our parishioners down to Enders Island in Mystic, Connecticut for a day of recollection, a day of prayer. And as you know, yesterday was indeed quite beautiful, and Ender's Island, being an island surrounded by water, you can imagine how wonderful and spectacular the setting was. And one of the things I talked about during the day of recollection was God's love; God's unconditional love.  

When we stop and ponder God's love, it is one thing to say that God loves you, but we really need to put more flesh on that and understand the immensity of God's love a little bit more: God's unconditional love. It really is, when you step back and reflect upon it, the glue that holds all things together. 

You know, for love to be authentic and real, it needs to be shared. And so, in God's essence, in the very essence of God himself, is this desire, this need to share himself with others, and hence, God is all about creating and recreating. And so Genesis tells us very clearly that God created the heavens and the earth. And so as we look out at all of creation, it's all in place and stays in place because of God's love, because of the glue of God's love that holds all of that in place. And so a tree can become a tree and continue to grow and flourish because of God's love. And when that tree dies, it falls to the ground and God allows that to then become something else. God is always holding creation together: the glue of creation.  

Now, I love this analogy of God's love being like glue because I'm sure all of us, at one point or another in our lives, have crafted something. We've put something together, even if it's been one of those model airplanes type things. And the one thing we know about glue is that when you have several pieces that need to be put together, gluing them is extremely important to accomplishing the goal that you desire. Without the glue, the pieces don't stay together. But here's what is great about the analogy. What happens when we glue something? You can see the glue when you're applying it, but then when it dries, what happens? It becomes invisible. It recedes and becomes invisible. And hence the same thing is true with God. God's love is the glue that holds all things together. But we know that anyone who loves well and loves with pure intent always rescinds to the back, always dissolves themselves, always becomes less so that what they have loved can become more; so that what they have loved can become more. And this is what God does. He creates and recreates, and then he rescinds and seems to disappear, but he has not because he's still holding that all together.  

In homilies before, I've referenced a woman called Julian of Norwich, and she has a great insight into this unconditional love, this charity that invades all things, that holds all things together. And she says there's basically three kinds of charity. The first is Charity unmade; charity unmade. And Charity unmade is basically God himself, right? Because God always was and always will be. God didn't create himself. He just was. And so the first level of charity is charity unmade, love unmade, and that is the pure essence of God. And as I mentioned, for love to be pure and for love to be real, it needs to be expressed. It needs to be shared. 

And then she says, we have the second type of charity, which is charity made, and that's when God takes his own divine essence and puts it into what he creates, puts it into the human soul, into each one of our souls, our inner essence, our uniqueness. So, each one of us shares in God's love. We all have that in us. And so if God's love is keeping creation going and keeping creation moving, then most certainly, God's love is keeping me going and keeping you going, and allowing you to be the person that you are, maintaining and sustaining you in existence in the form you are now and then by God's grace eternally in heaven one day.  

But as you look in the mirror each morning, you would not be who you are if it weren't for the glue of God's love keeping you as you are. Loving you as you are. Can you necessarily always perceive that glue of God's love? No. Because God rescinds and wants you to flourish and thrive and be the wonderful child he has created you to be.  

And then the third type of charity. The third type of charity is charity given; charity given. So as God has to express himself and does so by creating all things and creating his sons and daughters, so too love that exists within us, that same gift of divine life has to then be shared with others. We have to give that away, too. Otherwise, it's not really love. And we do that through what is called virtue. Virtue. So when we do virtuous acts, we really then become a servant of God. We become a person who then loves as God loves through acts of virtue, by doing things that then build up and help others. It's a very simple concept, but one that we can easily lose as we go about the business of our day.  And sometimes it's helpful if we can have an image to hang so that we can ponder this in prayer and get a sense of just how profound this can be in our everyday activities. 

St. Theresa of Calcutta, an amazing woman who went into the streets of Calcutta and served the poorest of the poor, has this wonderful, practical quote that gets at the very heart of what this means. She says, "Wash the plate, not because it's dirty, or because someone told you to. Wash the plate because you love the person who will use it next.” Think about that for just a moment. "Wash the plate not because it is dirty or because someone told you to. Wash the plate because you love the person who will use it next." 

When love is brought to the motivation for our actions, even the simple gestures of everyday living, of holding the door for someone,  an act of kindness or greeting, our behavior as we're driving on the highway, our work in the workplace, how we conduct ourselves in public. All of it can be totally different if this twist of love is brought to the action. And we know this to be true. If we simply hold out a gesture of a handshake and greet someone without any significant meaning behind it, that insignificant meaning is communicated. But if we're sitting with a loved one who is facing their final hours, and we take that same hand and reach out in a gesture of loving kindness and compassion, that gentle touch can speak volumes of love because it comes from a place of love.  

And so we become servants of Jesus Christ when we then connect the dots ourselves and see our part in this greater plan of God, this greater plan of love, where the eternal, all compassionate, all merciful, eternal love of God has given to us as a gift and the very life we share, is then given as a gift to others as servants of that divine plan. So the next time you have an opportunity to do even the simplest of things, stop, pause, and reflect on why you are doing it and whether that same simple action can be done out of love. It'll change not only how you feel about yourself but the impression you then make on others as well. 

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.