In today’s first reading St. Paul makes reference to a veil. Here is how St. Paul develops his thought:

To this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over the hearts of the children of Israel, but whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Therefore, since we have this ministry through the mercy shown us, we are not discouraged. And even though our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled for those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they may not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 3:15—4:1, 3-6)

In our modern Catholic experience, the mention of a veil reminds us of the head covering worn by some women while in Church. It is called a “chapel veil” or “mantilla.” The custom of women covering their heads during worship was influenced by biblical references, particularly the writings of Saint Paul in the New Testament. In his First Epistle to the Corinthians, Saint Paul advises women to cover their heads while praying or prophesying as a sign of respect and submission to the will of God. Today the veil is seen as a visual expression of modesty, piety, and devotion. But that is not the veil to which St. Paul refers in this reading.

Here is the Biblical reference St. Paul has in mind:

As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the LORD. … the children of Israel … were afraid to come near him. … he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses entered the presence of the LORD to converse with him, he removed the veil until he came out again. On coming out, he would tell the children of Israel all that had been commanded. Then the children of Israel would see that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant; so he would again put the veil over his face until he went in to converse with the LORD (Exodus 34).

But even this account has a context through which to understand the Pauline reference.

After the escape from Egypt, the Israelites set up camp at the foot of Mt. Sinai. The presence of the Lord descended upon the top of the mountain:

Now as all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blast of the shofar and the mountain smoking, they became afraid and trembled.o So they took up a position farther away and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we shall die.” (Ex 20:18-19)

I offer that as but one of several examples showing the Israelites did not want God drawing too close to them. Another example: after the people constructed the Tent of the Meeting they made sure it was placed outside the camp. It was there that Moses went to encounter God and the divine cloud descended on the text. They not only did not want the happening in the camp, afterwards they were quite satisfied for Moses to remain there.

As the story unfolded, Moses returned to the mountain top and remained there entering the cloud of the divine presence for 40 days (Ex 24). The people’s response was the famous golden calf incident:

“When the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for that man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.” (Ex 32:1)

Moses deals with the events of the golden calf and then returned to Sinai to again spend 40 days in the presence of the Lord:

“As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant* while he spoke with the LORD. 30When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him.” (Ex 34:29-30)

This is the point at which Moses covers his face with the veil – another symbol of the people wanting distance between themselves and the presence of God.

Just outside the bounds of our first reading, we read:

“…and not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites could not look intently at the cessation of what was fading. Rather, their thoughts were rendered dull, for to this present day the same veil remains unlifted when they read the old covenant, because through Christ it is taken away.” (2 Cor 3:13-14)

In Exodus Moses veiled his face to protect the Israelites from God’s reflected glory. Man, in his sinful state, is incapable of withstanding even the afterglow of God’s holiness. Without impugning Moses’ sincerity, Paul attributes another effect to the veil. Since it lies between God’s glory and the Israelites, it explains how they could fail to notice the glory disappearing. Their thoughts were rendered dull: the problem lay with their understanding. This will be expressed in our reading by a shift in the place of the veil: it is no longer over Moses’ face but over their perception.

The ancients knew that God was utterly holy, and they were not. Many and varied were the rituals they carried out that recalled God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness. An often repeated (but disputed) tradition is that the High Priest who went into the Holy of Holies, behind the veil, once a year on the feast of Yom Kippur entered with much incense lest he catch a glimpse of the Holy One and be struck dead on account of his sins. It is also said that he wore bells sewn into his garment so that when he prayed, bowing and moving as he did so, those outside the veil knew that he was still alive. It is further said that he had a rope tied around his ankle so that if he were to be struck dead, he could be dragged out without others having to enter the inner sanctum and risk their own death in order to retrieve the body. Whether this is true or not, it is clear that the ancient Jews understood that it was an awesome thing to be in the presence of the living and holy God, for who can look on the face of God and live? (Exodus 33:20)

What about us? We need to aware of reverence when in the nave of the Church, but we also need to remember that Jesus came to grant us access to the Father through the forgiveness of our sins. Scripture reminds that as He died on the cross, “… Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.” (Matt 27:50-51). The Jewish historian noted that after an earthquake the large brass doors of the temple swung open and stayed that way. In the shadow of the crucifixion, the words of Isaiah 25:7 likely came to mind, “On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the shroud that covers all nations.” (Is 25:7). This prophecy is fulfilled at the moment that Jesus dies on the cross on Mount Moriah (Golgotha) and the veil of the Temple is torn asunder.

St. Paul references this dual quality of the veil to make the point about the importance of evangelization.

…the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they may not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ.