Only One Veil Matters

I received a color fund-raising brochure in the mail today from a group of sedevacantist nuns. Sedevacantist means "empty chair" - that since Pius XII there is no pope: John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis are imposters. And  there will be no pope into the future until that pope returns the Church to about 1958. 

The brochure wittingly or unwittingly presented this religious community as the real deal - featuring the nuns in dozens of pious poses all dressed alike in long veils. Catholics love veils:

First Communion veils
chapel veils,
brides veils
nuns veils
  white
  black
  short 
  long
bring back the Passiontide-purple
  cover-the-cross
  cover-the-statues - veils
tabernacle veils
chalice veils
ciborium veils
humeral veils
veil and unveil the monstrance.

It makes for fussy religion.

But there is only one veil that matters and that is the veil over my eyes. The veil over my heart. The veil over the eyes of my heart. St Paul writes: 

With a hope like this, we can speak with complete fearlessness; not like Moses who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites should not watch the end of what was transitory. But their minds were closed; indeed, until this very day, the same veil remains over the reading of the Old Testament: it is not lifted, for only in Christ is it done away with. As it is, to this day, whenever Moses is read, their hearts are covered with a veil, and this veil will not be taken away till they turn to the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:12-16

Saint Paul is no doubt talking about the Jewish people, or maybe unbelievers in general. There are Christians who like to use verses like this as a weapon against them.  

Truth be told, we all have a veil over the eyes of our hearts in one way or another, at one time or another. We might pray a prayer of self-knowledge for the veil to be lifted:

Take the veil from my eyes, Lord,
  that I may see beyond my nose.

Take the veil from my eyes, Lord,
  that I might see through the fog of lies.

Take the veil from my eyes, Lord,
  that I might see your presence -
  so close.

Take the veil from my eyes, Lord,
  that I might see myself rightly;
  others too.

Take the veil from my eyes, Lord,
  that I might see the stranger rightly,
  and be done with otherism.

Take the veil from my eyes, Lord,
  that I might see my way to 
  mercy,
  compassion and 
  love.