Ayeka? “Where are you?”

A Homily on the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lectionary 89 – 8 June 2024

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Homily delivered 7/8 June 2024

    I was not always my mom’s “golden” child. My mother could tell hours of “Mark stories” about my many misadventures. One of my mom’s favorites has to do with my senior year in high school. One Friday, my friends and I decided to, “skip” school. I won’t go into detail about the why’s or who enticed whom, we all collectively grasped at the forbidden fruit.

     That morning, I drove my little brother to school, and after waiting a bit, drove away to go pick up my buddies. Our plan was going perfectly. At the time, I drove a bright blue 1968, 327 Camaro. It was beautiful and loud; very distinctive. As I was driving down the road, to my horror, I saw our family station wagon approaching from the other direction, Mom at the wheel. My puny, hormone ravaged, teenaged brain went into overtime. There was no easy place to hide. So, I kept driving straight ahead but ducked my head behind the dashboard as I passed. She couldn’t see me, right?

    As my mom told me that evening, after grounding me for life, at first she was surprised to see my car coming down the road during school hours but was then instantly horrified when she was almost sideswiped by a driver whose hands on the wheel were the only thing visible. You just could not hide from my mom. As she would say, what’s the point in hiding? I have eyes and ears everywhere. Perhaps it was less that and more that I was, at times, not the brightest bulb in the socket.

     That is exactly what happens in the first reading. Adam has walked with God in the Garden of Eden. He knows that God is all powerful, He has made all created being. He knows that God is all-knowing. God created every aspect of heaven and earth. Adam knows that God is always present to His creation, surrounding it with loving care. Yet, after sinning, he attempts to hide from God. Dumb right? Maybe our forbearers were not that bright. It was as foolish as me ducking my head behind the dashboard of my car. Who hides from God? Yet, we do it all the time.

    It is then that God asks a seemingly silly, but very important question; “Where are you?” The phrase in Hebrew is “Ayeka (אַיֶּכָּה).” However, in the Hebrew, the question has little to do with physical location. God knows where Adam is physically. The question is; “Where are you spiritually?” God is asking in concern; “My beloved, from what condition of goodness and grace, have you fallen?” You have forsaken eternal life. You have entombed yourself in the ways of sin and death.” God asks not to scold but to remind Adam and Eve that there is nowhere that they could be, once God was not in them. They are not hidden but lost. Today, God is also calling to each of us, Ayeka, “Where are you?”

     Sin often entails grasping and hiding. We know sin is wrong, but we grasp at the power and control that we can never have. We know it! Then, guilt kicks in and you and I hide in any number of ways.

• Most often we attempt to minimize our sin. It is like saying to God; “it was just a piece of fruit!” Yet, one minimalized act of sin leads to another, and then another, until we are numb to it. Truth is lost in this numb and frankly, dumb, existence.

• We also distort the truth to fit our sin. Essentially, we deny that sin was ever sin. Truth is twisted to fit our imperfections; we lie to ourselves in order not to have to change, not to abandon these prized habits of evil. How often have horrible things been done when we redefine truth to fit our wants? Just look at our world today. When Truth disappears, we are lost in a moral muck of lie upon lie. It is not the spirit of faith St Paul describes today, but of the lie.

• Finally, and most common, we hide our sin amongst the “have-to’s’” in our day-to-day lives, forgetting our true selves. In hiding, we lose all sense of God in our lives. We let our lives cover our sin such that the “real” self becomes hidden. We try to forget Truth, God.

     To all this God asks; “Ayeka? My beloved, where are you?”

     The readings today implore us to stop the hiding and step out of the shadow of sin. A house divided against itself, cannot stand. Instead of hiding, seek God out! Seeking is a decision. It is action. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that, “We are not saints because we will not to be saints.” He does not say, mind you, that we do not want to be saints: many of us do. But mere wanting is the wish that something shall come to pass without our acting to bring it about. Willing means that we plan to pay the necessary cost in effort and in sacrifice.

     Don’t hide but seek God in all things, in all ways, and in every situation. That means that we practice love at every opportunity. Love drives us to unity. Evil and sin divide and, as the Lord tells us in the Gospel, division only leads to destruction. Divided, we cannot stand. Stop playing games with truth. Love is not a hide and seek game: in love, both lovers seek each other. If you find your words and actions lead to division, reconsider. In saying or doing these things do you stand with Christ? Where are you? Who are you? Jesus tells us today,

"Who are my mother and my brothers?" …. "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

     St Paul writes to the Romans, “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. (Rom 12:2)

     Stop the hiding! Seek the Lord! St Paul tells us today, “Look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:18)

Today, God implores; “Ayeka?” “Where are you?”