Homily: November, 13, 2023, Monday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time (hiding).

 “For the Spirit of the Lord fills the world, is all-embracing, and knows what man says.”

My youngest nephew, Joe, is now two-years old. At the moment, he is the only child of my youngest sister in New Jersey. At home, he keeps himself very busy. He will play with anything he finds at home.

Recently, he found a simple cardboard box and it has become his latest plaything. He can easily climb into it and sit inside, then close the flap and pretend he has disappeared. His mother would also pretend to be searching for him, asking, 'Where are you, Joe?'

At that point, he would lift the flap, giggle, and say, “I see you!”

Joe’s mommy, my sister, would record this on video and send it to me. I love watching it again and again. It is simply adorable.

I don't know how many times they have played this same game, over and over. It makes Joe very happy to hide and then to see his mother’s surprise when he appears from the box. She of course knows where he is, but she plays along. She allows him to hide and lets him surprise her for the fun of it. She is just grateful that he is healthy, happy and safe.

Like Joe, we too enjoy hiding from God, and often think that He can’t see us, and we can do anything we wish. But like Joe’s mommy, God too knows where we are and what we are doing, but He waits patiently for us to show ourselves when are finally sick of the dark, when we get tired of hiding, when we realize that we need to be out in the light.

The truth is, we cannot hide anything from God; He sees everything, He knows everything, His spirit ‘fills the world’ and ‘He knows what man says’, that means He knows what we are saying in our hearts, even when we lie in our words. 

In our responsorial psalm today, we heard, “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold O Lord, you know the whole of it… Where can I go from Your Spirit? From Your presence, where can I flee?”

Indeed, where can we hide, where can we flee? When we try to hide ourselves because of guilt, sin, or shame, God looks into our souls and sees the essence of His creation which is His image and likeness. And He says, “It is good.”

So, especially when we have sinned, let us take the courage to step out in the light, come back to God and surrender ourselves to Him, as we really are, make peace with ourselves and reconcile with God, because nothing can surprise Him.

But we will be pleasantly surprised by His great love and immense mercy. God knows us and loves us, let us know God and love Him too. Amen.