FOUND!

A Homily for the 12th Week of Ordinary Time 2026

At some point along the journey of faith we all must undergo the Great Reversal. At some point along our spiritual pilgrimage we all must let go the energy invested in seeking and finding and, instead, allow ourselves to be sought and FOUND.

As we officially cross the summer solstice once again this Sunday, the longest day of the year, I remember childhood summer days that felt like they would never end. One of my own favorite childhood memories was playing hide and seek, after dinner, in the side yard, as the heat of the day subsided and the cool of the evening shadows advanced. Of my 6 siblings, we could always find at least 4 or 5 of us willing to play. Our yard provided ample opportunities to hide and I remember the pride I took in seeking to be the one who could most cleverly hide.

It was a victory, of sorts, when I could so cleverly hide myself that the seeker would be forced to utter those childhood words of liberation: Olly, Olly Oxen Free! Which meant you could come out of hiding without fear of loss or threat of penalty. But as much as I reveled in my clever hiding skills, even then, something in my child’s heart seemed to say: But I really just want to be FOUND!

Jesus tells us in our gospel today: “Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” Somewhere in each of our own hearts is the desire to have what has been concealed about us revealed, the beautiful secret of who we are longs to be known. What’s dark in us we desire to have spoken into light, the truth whispered in us wants to be shouted from the housetops! At some point we have to let go of being seekers and let ourselves be FOUND. At some point we need to let go the pride we have in cleverly hiding ourselves and let the truth of who we are in God’s eyes be revealed.

St. Paul tells us: The Gift is not like the transgression. We have all transgressed. We have all been transgressed against. And as we learn from our first parents in the Garden of Eden: Transgression leads to hiding and the more we transgress and are transgressed against the more clever we become at concealing ourselves. And we may take pride in how well we hide, but something in our own hearts keeps saying: I just want to be FOUND!

This is where the Gift comes in. For if by the transgression we hide (as something in us dies) then by the Gift of God’s grace in Jesus Christ we are FOUND (and we become more truly alive). And we learn in the finding that transgression loses its power. We may still transgress. We may be transgressed against. But we no longer need to hide. Once FOUND we can never be lost again.

Jesus makes this clear over and over: We are the pearl of great price. We are the treasure hidden in the field. It is for us that God runs off with inexpressible joy, in order to buy not just the pearl or the treasure but the entire field.

If our own hearts long to be FOUND then just imagine how ardently the Great Seeker wishes to find us. Perhaps our own transgressions have allowed shame to cover our faces. Perhaps being transgressed against has made us strangers to ourselves. But the Gift is always greater than the transgression and no matter how cleverly we’ve hidden ourselves God is the greatest seeker of all. But he won’t force us out of our hiding places. We need to learn to trust the impulse in us, that longing, to be FOUND and step out from behind our cleverly constructed concealment. We need to LET ourselves be FOUND!

God, every day, is roaming the summer side yards of our own lives. He cries untiringly that same childhood call of ultimate liberation: Olly, Olly Oxen Free. He says: You can come out now without fear of loss, without threat of penalty. But will we let ourselves be FOUND?