Weekly HOMILY for January 4, 2009: Epiphany: A Game of Hide-and-Seek

Feast of the Epiphany, Cycle B
Our Lady of Grace
January 4, 2009

Epiphany: A Game of Hide-and-Seek
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


A Hasidic Story

While in Israel this past fall, I heard a Hasidic story about a little boy playing hide-and-seek with his friends. For some unknown reason the other children stopped playing while he was hiding.

The little boy begins to cry. After a while his old grandfather comes out of the house to see what is troubling him and to comfort him.

After learning what has happened, the grandfather says, “My son, do not weep because the boys and girls did not come to find you.”

“Perhaps this disappointment has a lesson to teach us. All of life is like a game of hide-and-seek between God and us. Only it is God who is weeping for we are not playing the game well.”

“God is waiting to be found and many of us have left the game and gone in search of other things.”


Epiphany: Are We Seeking?

Epiphany is the feast about God-wanting-to-be-found and in fact being found, by shepherds and Wise Men.

Today I would like to look at aspects of ourselves that (1) Help us find God and aspects of ourselves that (2) Keep him veiled and hidden.

A way of doing this is to look at the three groups involved in this feast day and see the characteristics of each. My guess is that we can find aspects of each of them within ourselves.

First, there is King Herod, then the priests of the Temple, and finally the three Wise Men.


Herod: Closed to Seeking

First to King Herod. Here is someone who is threatened by the fact that Jesus could affect his own power and position. Consequently, he is completely closed to Jesus as a possible Savior.

In fact, his only objective is to have this child killed and takes steps in the slaughter of the Innocents to do just that.

Herod might represent us when we are closed to God who is making new expectations of us.

For example, perhaps we are closed to seeking out professional help in our marriage or with our drinking habits.

Perhaps we, like Herod, are threatened and closed to what the Lord may be calling us to face in our lives – the loss of power or control over children, workers, or others.

We may be unwilling to look inside at ourselves because it might require that we change something in our behavior or attitudes.


Temple Priests: Indifferent about Seeking

After Herod there are the Temple Priests. The Gospel simply says that they tell Herod where the newborn King of the Jews is to be born.

But notice that, even though they are good religious people, they don’t bother to go and seek Jesus for themselves.

They are just caught up in their own life and not looking for or even alert to anything new or different in their relationship with God.

I’d suggest that Temple Priests represent many of us, when we are indifferent to the ways God may be speaking to us today.

For example, perhaps we pass the pamphlet rack in the foyer of the church every week, but never consider picking up something to help our faith mature and keep pace with our maturing and learning about other things in life.

Or maybe we hear news reports about the environment but never even think about recycling.


Three Wise Men: Open to Seeking

Finally, there are the three Wise Men. The Gospel says that they travel from the East in search of the new Savior.

Apparently, they were quite spiritual people and are already respected for their wisdom.

They are open to this new revelation of God in Jesus. They are people who are still searching for more in their lives.

I would suggest that these Wise Men represent us when we are open to the Lord calling us to search out new ways in relating to God or to others.

For example, maybe we are willing to talk things through with a teenage son or daughter and look at our part when the relationship just seems to be going down the tubes.

Or maybe we are open to changing our way or manner of praying by making it less of a time for asking for things and more of a time for listening to what God is trying to tell us in the Scripture.


Conclusion

So this simple story of the three Wise Men may not be so simple after all.

It is really a story of how you and I are responding to the ways that the Lord may be speaking to us today and in these times of economic stress.

Am I closed and threatened like Herod? Or am I indifferent like the Temple Priests?

We pray that our style of relating to this Infant Savior is that of the openness of the Wise Men.