God is Watching

Seeing how confession makes us pleasing to God

2/28/2021

Mark 9:2-10 Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.

Is it a good thing that God is always watching over us, or is it a bad thing? Well, generally that is a good thing, but it all depends on how we behave. If we are doing good and what we are supposed to do, we want God to see us. We are like a small child trying to ride a bike without training wheels, who yells: “Dad, watch me!” If, however, we are getting into trouble, we hope God will look the other way and does not notice us. A little humor may help illustrate this point.

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large basket of apples. The school nun had made a note and posted in near the apples. It read: “Take only one. God is watching.” Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note in front of the cookies: “Take all you want. God is watching the apples.”

It may sound silly to think we can hide from God and dodge his detection, but that is exactly what our first parents tried to do. After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and disobeyed God, we read in Gn. 3:8, “The man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Adam and Eve hoped God was watching the apples and looking away instead of noticing them nabbing the cookies, and committing the original sin. Adam and Eve did not want to be seen by God because their deeds were sinful. So they tried to hide from his holy eyes, impossible as that was.

How different is today’s gospel of the Transfiguration in Mk. 9 from the scene in the Garden of Eden in Gn. 3. Jesus stands transfigured before the astonished eyes of Peter, James and John, while the eyes of God the Father are beaming with pride. Mark recounts: “Then a cloud came casting a shadow over them, from the cloud came a voice, ‘This is my beloved Son. Listen to him’.” In other words, because Jesus always behaved in a way that was blameless, he did not hide from the eyes of his Father. Jesus was like the little child who says excitedly: “Dad, watch me!” Indeed, in Jn. 8:29, we find one of the most endearing passages in the whole Bible about the closeness of God the Father and God the Son. Jesus says: “And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.”

My friends, we, too, should try to live like Jesus and desire to feel God’s loving gaze on us. How differently we might conduct our lives if we remember how God always watched over us, and we always tried to please him like Jesus did. But our behavior is not always so blameless. Therefore, the hardest time to be noticed by God is when we sin and have to go to confession. We try to hide like Adam and Eve from God’s holy eyes, and wish he could not see us. Sometimes, small children cover their eyes with their hands, and think if they cannot see us, we cannot see them. That is what it is like when we try to “hide” from God.

But I would suggest to you that when we kneel in confession, God is exceedingly proud of us. Yes, he is, as hard as that may be to believe. In fact, I am convinced God is even more proud of us at that moment than if we had never sinned. Jesus declared surprisingly (even shockingly) in Lk. 15:7, “I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

People often think the priest who hears their confession will look down on them because they know what they have done wrong. But exactly the opposite is true. You may not believe this, but I am in awe of people’s confessions. I often tell them: “I am very proud of you for that confession because I can tell it took a lot of courage and humility.” That is very close to what God the Father said at the Transfiguration in Matthew’s gospel: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” In confession we may see only the sins and the criminal, but God only sees the sincerity and the courage.

This Lent look for an opportunity to go to confession. If you do nothing else this Lent, at least make a good confession. Why? Because we have all reached for the cookies when we thought God might be busy watching the apples. We have all sinned. There is no use trying to hide ourselves from God’s loving gaze like Adam and Eve did. He sees all. Every confession will be our own personal Transfiguration, where God will look upon us, his eyes beaming with pride, and say, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!