Jesus today (Mk 4: 21-25) talks about the fact that things do not stay hidden, that "nothing is secret except to come to light." We should recognize this, He says-- "anyone who has ears ought to hear." Sadly, the Church did not hear Jesus' message. As we now know to our anger and frustration, for years the Church seemed to think that it could hide things, and they would remain hidden. The whole sex abuse scandal is largely about hiding things-- hiding abusive priests (and even bishops) who did things they should not have done. If we don't tell anyone, no one will know, seemed to be the prevailing thinking. Boy was that wrong, as Jesus tells us today. The damage done to the people of God because those in power did not listen to what jesus says is beyond measure. But, of course, when we talk about this, we're largely talking about other folks. It is easy to point fingers at someone else. We quickly fall into the sin, the habit, of judgmentalism. What about our own lives? What do we hide, hoping it will remain hidden? What should we disclose, but are afraid to do so? On Tuesday I was up at Stillwater Prison doing the annual requalification required for volunteers there and the prison chaplain, Marty Shanahan, was part of the conversation. He told a story about the need to bring problems immediately to the knowledge of the administration, rather than hiding them. A few months ago, he said, he had gone out to the parking lot to "vape" (I have known Marty for 20 years, and he always smoked like a chimney-- this is his effort to cut back, I think) and in the process lost his keys. He had keys to lots of places in the prison. What to do? Knowing that what was secret would not remain so, he went immediately to the captain in the prison and told him what had happened. They looked for the keys, without success. The next day, someone found Marty's keys and turned them in. Had Marty not reported the loss, he would have been fired when the keys turned up. It was tempting, he said, to think that the loss would remain hidden, and it was hard to go to the captain and admit his mistake, but doing so saved his job. Do you have places in your life where you need to come clean, where you're counting on things staying hidden? In light of Jesus' words, should you reconsider that strategy? After all, what Jesus teaches doesn't just lead us to eternal life. It also leads us to living the best life we can live here and now.