More On the Veil....

As sort of a side note/rabbit trail/digression, I came upon something written by Eby, in his series on Revelation..part 83 that intrigued me....not only for the spiritual insights he came right out and declared...but also for the spiritual implications he piqued in me. He talks about a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne called The Minister's Black Veil....

In one of his Twice-Told Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne describes how a much beloved Puritan minister conceived the weird idea of concealing his face with a veil, and how his people were affected with a sense of painful mystery as he went in and out among them with covered countenance till the end of his days.  The girl to whom he was engaged to be married forsook him; the bride trembled before him when he performed a wedding; children cringed when he walked by them on the road; people whispered as he passed.  One realizes in an instant, as he imagines the scene, how much the confidence and joy of life depend on our beholding one another, literally with open face!  Imagine the change and horror, if one morning every man’s face was covered with a dark veil and impenetrable to his neighbor.  Laughter would cease on earth; who then would have the heart for joy and rejoicing under such a cloud?  None would be able to comfort his friend, for none could estimate his brother’s sorrow!  Neither tears, smiles, joy, pain, sadness, disappointment, appreciation, fear, hatred, or love would ever be discernible!  Conversation would languish, for it would have no visible response.  Love itself would die when every emotion was masked.  The very power of association and the instinct of trust would be destroyed when every man had withdrawn into darkness.  Were there no revelation of the face, personality, and character there would be neither faith nor fellowship possible on earth! 

I googled it....of course....and came upon a wikipedia article about it …..interesting article...interesting story. I followed one of the wikipedia links and read the story.  It occurs to me that the scenario Eby talks about above is not really all that far from what is happening right now as we all hide behind a veil...a mask...either on purpose or because we simply do not know we are "wearing a veil." Many of us (most of us) do not realize there is a treasure hidden behind the veil of our egoic minds...hidden in these earthen vessels. Those of us who have some understanding...at least in theory, have a hard time REALLY believing it. But as Eby says in his Kingdom of God series:

It is still there within you no matter how weak, sinful, or undone you may feel, or how miserably you may have failed. 

Just like Jesus told the Pharisees....the kingdom of God is within you. It's there. HE's there. Hard to believe, I know...for some of us...but that is where the kingdom dwells. Within.

Eby says that

The Kingdom of God is within you, it is within me, it is within each member of your family, it is within all your relatives, your friends, even within your enemies.  It is within the lowliest citizen of the most backward country, it is within the greatest of the ruling monarchs, presidents, or prime ministers. It is within mankind, it is within every man — even the scribes and Pharisees.  This is the true light “that lighteth every man that cometh into the world”

One of the quotes from the story....

“He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face”

Eby goes on to say that...

With these thoughts in mind we can better understand the vast importance of the revelation or unveiling of Jesus Christ!  It is abundantly clear to every spiritual mind that one of the great reasons the world has not found the living Christ is because He has been concealed behind the blinding veil of religion, beneath the restricting façade of tradition, static creeds, lifeless forms, powerless rituals, empty ceremonies, and the corruption of the flesh and the carnality of the natural mind.

But...as Nathaniel Hawthorne declares in his story about the minister and his black veil....

“There is an hour to come…when all of us shall cast aside our veils”

And so we shall....

The story can be found in it's entirety along with the other Twice Told Tales of Hawthorne at American Literature.