There is a universal game that is played in every language across the world, and in every culture. This game is played with little babies, and it goes like this (Father covers his face with his hands). Peekaboo. Doesn’t matter how old the person is, they will be absolutely ecstatic to do this with a little child. Peekaboo. Our Father plays peekaboo with us. We hear in the Psalm, “hide not your face from me O Lord.” We long to see God’s face, and yet sometimes he hides his face.
There was a Swiss psychologist named Jean Piaget. He developed this term that came out of peekaboo and the term is object permanence. Object permanence. What he meant by this is that a little child, when they’re between the ages of 0 and 2, they come more and more to realize that there is object permanence. What this means is that when their parent first begins to play peekaboo with them and covers their face, the child thinks for that moment their parent is gone. And then peekaboo, the surprise comes, and they see the parent’s face again and they begin to be giddy with joy. And they laugh because all of a sudden, their parent reappears to them. When the child is very young and you play peekaboo, you don’t wait too long behind your hands. You gotta open your hands pretty quick. But the older the child gets, the more you can hide your face. And the longer you hide your face, the more surprised the child gets. Until they can develop the sense of object permanence. Until they realize that their parents are always going to be there.
God plays peekaboo with us. Saint Augustine says that God is hidden, yet he’s always present. He conceals himself, and yet he always reveals himself. There are times in our lives where it seems like God is hiding himself, like he’s concealing himself, but he only does it to reveal himself. In the Eucharist today, as the bread and wine are transformed into the very body and blood of Jesus in a very real way, he is revealed. But he’s also concealed in the symbols of bread and wine.
Saint John of the Cross talks about the dark night of the soul. He says that God’s wisdom and love are always at work, hiding himself that he may be found. Revealing himself, that he may be more deeply desired. Those moments in life where it seems like God is hiding himself, something happens to us. Like the child, we have this deeper desire to see his face. Saint Faustina says that, “The Lord gave me to understand that He hides himself from us out of love. To teach us dependence on Him.” When it seems like God is hidden, we are more dependent on him.”
The second Sunday of Lent, which we celebrate today, the Transfiguration is always the Gospel that’s proclaimed. And it’s in this Gospel that Jesus reveals himself to the disciples. Over the last two years, the disciples have been formed by Jesus. They’re coming to understand and realize that he is God. And then we have this moment with Peter, James and John where he brings them up on the high mountain and a cloud surrounds them. And he reveals himself in dazzling white, and his face shining like light. He reveals himself to the disciples. And he does this to show them who he is, so that as he conceals himself in the passion, they may know that Jesus is still God. In this moment of revealing, He will be filled with light and shining with glory. But in the passion, he’ll be concealed by blood and thorns and suffering. And then he will conceal himself in death.
But that is the moment of the divine peekaboo, when he is in death, God seems totally lost. Jesus himself from the cross will cry out, “My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?” And then after the death, we all know what happens: Peekaboo, He’s risen. And he reveals himself to his disciples once more in his glory.
Perhaps right now God has hidden himself from you. Perhaps as you look back on your life, there may be times where it seemed like for a long stretch of time as though God had hidden Himself from you. Maybe there’s been suffering in your life. Maybe there’s been times where God has seemed distant. Well, trust that he is the divine peekaboo player. Just because he hides himself, it’s because there’s times where we can’t see him or feel and feel him, He is still present. As Piaget said object permanence. God the Father is permanent. He doesn’t disappear from us; He only hides himself. And in that hiding himself from us, he prepares us with a desire, that when He appears, we will once more be joyful. As we celebrate the second Sunday of Lent, and we prepare ourselves for the passion, we look upon our lives and the times of suffering and the times of distance, knowing that God is always present to us and it’s just a little while before we get to the next Peekaboo.
