Is it a blessing or a curse for God to reveal His truth to us? It might seem like that is an easy question to answer, but it is much more complicated than it seems. There are people who absolutely refuse to listen to the truth of God, and He knows who they are. Since it is true that we are accountable for everything that we know, then if God reveals truth to someone who refuses to listen to Him, then would that not be viewed as something of an act of judgment? More knowledge equals more responsibility to live in accord with that knowledge. Thus, we can ask the question another way: is it a blessing or a curse for God to hide His truth from us? In like fashion, if someone is going to refuse to listen to what God says, then it would be a blessing for that truth to be hidden, because that means he is not accountable to follow that truth in the same way as he would be if it were made clearly known. Now, to be clear, there is a certain degree of truth that everyone knows and that comes from Natural Law. I am speaking here more about those specific truths that cannot come from Natural Law, like the Trinity, the Sacraments, etc. Another qualifier is important here. God knows the heart of every man, and thus only He has the right and authority to choose to withhold a doctrinal truth from someone; we are obligated to speak the truth in love, and seek always to do so at the right time and in the right context (lack of wisdom leads many to speak the truth in foolishness and end up driving people away from the faith!). Just in case some of you are still reading and having a problem with the idea of God hiding doctrines from people, today's gospel reading for Mass should dispel any doubt. We read there: Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says: ‘You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.' But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. People with dull hearts and no faith often have the truth hidden from them. It may have been spoken to them, or they may have read it, but they cannot understand it because in some manner God has made it that seeing they do not see. Those who will listen, submit, and follow the Lord, are thereby blessed with the grace of hearing the fulness of His truth. Some who will not listen still hear it, and that is God's choice (not ours) as to why He does that. Others who will not listen do not hear it at all. It may stretch our thinking a bit to hear this intense level of God's activity in our lives, but it is not new to this passage. All over the Scriptures we read stories like this and are given similar examples of the work of God. At the very least, when we come to grasp this truth, we can see more clearly what is often going on when someone hears the truth of God, but just does not accept it. Their own unwillingness has led to their blindness of heart. In this situation, God in His infinite wisdom has chosen to keep some of this truth (which they would have rejected anyway) from them and leave them in their error. He never forces anyone to believe the truth, but is always willing to help when they ask. It is not for us to spend all of our time trying to figure out how this works (as some who left the Church have done), but rather to be joyful that we can grasp the truth of it enough to know that it is right; and to submit ourselves unto the Lord fully so that we can grow in our understanding of the awesome work of our Creator and Redeemer.