GOD  LIKES  TO  HIDE

Did you know, God likes to hide?

Yeah, God likes to hide.

A guy in a state prison in Tennessee just found God in his cell two months ago at 4:33 on a Tuesday afternoon. You should have heard this guy’s language and his ugly angry attitude towards everyone else before that moment. Now he’s becoming a different person - not too many people noticed it yet - but some are starting to. God brought him back to his growing up years and some of the angry things that happened back then and on that Tuesday afternoon at 4:33 he woke up and met God - a much different God than the God of his constant, “God damn it.”

And there is a lady in Cincinnati - who has a great 2^nd floor apartment window seat on a busy street - with lots of people going up and down that street - morning, noon  and evening.  Well, it’s going to get darker early now….  Well,  she likes to sit there and spot people -  walking on the other side of the street….  And she says to God - picking out a specific someone, “God give that young lady there with the blue backpack  and white sneakers and yellow jacket - give her a nice surprise faith moment today. God come out of her shadows and do that to her today. Please.”

God likes to hide.

But sometimes God likes to come out of hiding.

He sometimes sneaks into a baby’s smile - I don’t know how God does that - but God sneaks and slides into a baby’s smile. I think God likes doing that more than a lot of other things God does. We’re in the supermarket. We come up on  a baby on her mother’s shoulder  - soap aisle. And God smiles at us - well a baby smiles at us. And we’re grabbed by God at that moment.  It’s just a moment of grace and peace and smile in the soap aisle. And we stop and look at that baby with the smile. And we smile and go, “Wow, God, wow!”

A philosophy professor in a major college - has been an atheist - for a good 33 years now and his sister dies - brain cancer. Well,  he’s sitting there at the funeral - oops he was sitting there at the wake the day before for two long sessions - afternoon and evening. He’s down - sitting down - off to the side -  without wanting to get  up and greet - too many folks - a few yes - but still not too many. And at the funeral Mass the next day - which he dreaded - he started crying - which surprised him. Three days later he went to a Catholic church - after calling ahead of time if he could talk to a priest - and he went and told the priest, “God came to my door. God asked, sought - thought -  and knocked on my door the other day at my sister’s funeral and I want God back again. He closed his eyes - tears coming - nose running - and he blurted out a prayer, “God I want back with you. Back with you.”  And this man found himself - back with God.

God liked that one.

And someone heard someone on talk radio - while driving - talking about God. It was a panel. And one person said, “Well, that’s your idea about God. It’s not everyone’s idea about God.”  Then this somebody added, “How you see your mom and dad at 7 or 17 or  47 or 77 - is different each time. So too God.”  And God slipped into that someone’s brain that day - in that way - without that person knowing it.  And God laughed  because that someone - said that same thing to his college son - ten years later - without knowing where that thought came from - a thought that got hidden in his brain 10 years ago.

God hides in corners of memories and one’s brain.

Sometimes God likes to slide like one of those paper bugs onto a piece of page in an old book - that has been sitting on a windowsill for years.  And God loves it when the tiny paper bug sits on a dot above the small letter i - and then moves in the light of day - when a person opens to that page.  And the opener goes, “Wow!” and begins wondering, “What does that bug eat?  Does that bug mate?” and then the big question, “Why in the world did God create tiny - size of a dot - paper bugs in the first place?”  And that question about a hidden God - and God’s ways of being creative - and imaginative - and what have you - gets one more person thinking about our God. And God laughs - thinking, “The Grand Canyon and Hawaii and Niagara Falls and their great spouse  didn’t get that person - but a tiny paper bug did. Who would have thunk.”

And God thinks even more…. Why did we ever wait till billions and billions of years before humans evolved - and why did we wait till even later till you my son arrived - as a baby - then a carpenter - then a story teller and a preacher - then a criminal - then a crucified - then a Savior - hiding in bibles and bread and wine and in Tennessee and Cincinnati and in supermarkets and on the radios of people driving to and from work - and sometimes found in churches and funerals and talking with priests and dead sisters.

God hides. I guess you know that by now.

I read today’s readings last night a few times to come up with a homily and for the life of me, I don’t know where  this homily came from. It doesn’t sound like anything from these readings  - yet maybe someone did or said something years ago that today’s readings triggered…..

P.S. Or maybe today - Nov. 5 - is the 4^th anniversary of my sister Peggy’s death. She was a nun and she taught me some things about God. Thanks Peg.