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“Whatever Is Sacred Calls for Veiling”

“Whatever Is Sacred Calls for Veiling”

Last updated on: September 3, 2024 at 7:47 am by Gene Veith

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“Whatever Is Sacred Calls for Veiling” 2024-09-03T07:47:56-04:00 Gene Veith

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Many young Catholic women have returned to the tradition of wearing veils in church. I’ve seen this too among Lutheran women who are bringing back the head covering called for in 1 Corinthians 11.

The Free Press has an article on this phenomenon by Madeleine Kearns entitled The Young Catholic Women Bringing Back Veils. This post, though, is not about that topic. Rather, it is about a quotation in the article from the Catholic philosopher Alice Von Hildebrand:

“Whatever is sacred calls for veiling.”

Von Hildebrand says the female body is sacred because of its unique capacity to conceive, bear, and bring forth life. In an interview with Kimberly Cook, entitled True Femininity, she says this:

God. . . touches the fecundated egg, and in this moment, there is a new human person. Therefore, the dignity of the female is that God, so to speak, has a direct contact with her body. This is why the woman should be veiled. Why is it that women are called upon to be veiled, which is not truly the same way of males? Why? Because whatever is sacred calls for veiling.

I am intrigued by that principle, that whatever is sacred is veiled. After Moses had a direct encounter with God, his face shone, whereupon he wore a veil (Exodus 34:29-35). In the Tabernacle and in the Temple, the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies was hidden by a veil (Exodus 26:31-35; 2 Chronicles 3:14).

Holiness unveiled would destroy us unholy human beings. “For this great fire will consume us,” said the people standing around Mt. Sinai. “If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die” (Deuteronomy 5:25). Uzzah simply touched the Ark of the Covenant in a well-intended effort to keep it from falling and he was blasted (2 Samuel 6:3-8).

But with the death of Christ, the veil of the Temple was torn in two (Matthew 27:51;KJV), and “when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (2 Corinthians 3:16). The point is that now, because of Christ, we all have direct access to God and to His sacred gifts.

But still, even though God’s Word is “unveiled” to us, the figure of the veil continues. It is used to speak of the Incarnation. The author of the book of Hebrews shows that the Tabernacle and the Temple point to Christ. We now have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Hebrews 10:19-20). As Charles Wesley puts it in “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,”

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail th’ incarnate Deity!

Luther speaks a great deal about how God hides Himself, how He wears masks, or, we might say, veils.

Christ’s body and blood are veiled in the bread and wine of Holy Communion. And on the Lutheran altar, the Communion elements are covered with a “veil.”

The figure of something sacred covered by a veil speaks to us also of vocation. Luther describes vocation as a mask of God. God is present as he works through ordinary human beings to give His gifts. Thus, vocations–whether in the family, the workplace, the state, or the church–are sacred because of His presence, but we are His veils.

UPDATE: The great Australian theologian John Kleinig read this post and added some profound reflections. Veiling, he said, also speaks to us of justification. And when we hear a pastor preaching God’s Word. I add his comments here with his permission:

Your latest Patheos blog aroused my interest. Here is why and how. Both God’s glory and holiness is veiled and needs to be veiled from us unclean, sinful mortals. The story of Moses in Exodus 34:29-35 adds something essential to what is said elsewhere and what is elaborated by Paul in 2 Cor 3:7-4:6. Since the face of Moses reflected God’s fearful glory to his people, he covered it at all times except when he spoke with God and when he spoke God’s word to the Israelites. Like his holiness, God’s glory, his radiant face, is not disclosed perilously in condemnation to our eyes but safely in justification to our ears through his embodied, spoken word, the proclamation of the gospel by the ministers of Christ. There the Holy Spirit lifts the veil from the human face of Jesus as well as the veil in our hearts and minds. So every sermon is a theophany, a disclosure of God’s glory and holiness verbally in the face of Jesus.

Photo: Sodality of the Blessed Sacrament Requiem Mass with Benediction in Corpus Christi Church by Mazur/cbcew.org.uk via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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