THE HIDDEN CHRIST

Monday after the First Sunday in Lent

Most people who don’t know anything about Christianity know something about Jesus’ parables. The Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan are stories almost everybody knows and loves. The Dalai Lama has said the Lord’s parables are “the insights of one enlightened.” I’ve heard more than one clergyman preach about the “moral” of the Good Samaritan, turning the parable into a Christian “Aesop’s Fable,” a story told to make a moral point. It’s understandable. Many of Jesus’ parables speak directly to us, without explanation, delighting heart and mind.

But when Jesus Himself “explained” to His disciples why He spoke in parables, He said, (quoting Isaiah) “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.” A dark sort of thing to say for One so enlightened. What does He mean?

St Augustine gives us a clue. He insists that while Jesus’ parables have an obvious meaning, there is a “hidden” one as well. If the old African bishop is right, the Lord was speaking on two levels. There is the obvious meaning: the Prodigal Son returns to his Loving Father, the sinner returns to a welcoming God. But Augustine says there is a deeper meaning. God is not Santa. Sin comes at a price. Christ Himself, Augustine says, is “hidden” in the parable. His death heals the breach. And where is the death in the story? It seems an aside, an afterthought. When the Prodigal returns, the jubilant Father calls out “bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry…” The slaughtered Lamb, the fatted calf, Augustine says, is the Feast of Forgiveness.

We needn’t accept St Augustine’s interpretation. The Lord Himself tells us He hides, not only in the Gospel parables, but in the encounters of our daily lives. “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ ” Jesus is present with us in our lives, but we don’t see Him. In the Eucharistic Bread, in the innocent face of a child, in the furtive glance of the hungry and homeless: He is hidden, but Present. Where there is suffering—deserved or not—He is always there.

If you use your Lenten exercises—Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving—you can uncover Him, if you want to. There's the rub! Do I really want to discover the Lord Jesus hiding in the unexplored corners of my life? Just in the past day, an opportunity presented itself to me to see Jesus where I didn’t expect and, in helping one of His own, help Him. I’m so blind to Him it took me a while to see and such a sinner that when I saw my first reaction was to be irritated. Lucky for me, Lent’s just starting.

To us, His people, “it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” Through this Lent pray, that when you encounter the Hidden Christ, you will have eyes to see, and ears to hear-and a heart to follow.