A Thin Veil

One of the most beautiful and dramatic scenes in the gospels is when God spoke His favor over Jesus at His baptism. John the Baptist had been preparing the crowd like an opening act, knowing full well that the audience came for the main event and he wasn’t it. His life was given purpose the moment the heavens opened up and the voice of God declared, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) This is the very scene that Jesus refers to in today’s gospel, “But I have testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.” The moment the heavens open is not just a one time event, but they open every single time the Word of God is spoken, every single moment Jesus is consumed, every single time we acknowledge God’s favor and grace upon our lives and in the lives of our loved ones, and with every single surge of our hearts in prayer. Heaven is just a very thin veil away from us. All we need to do is adjust our eyes and we will be able to see through that veil into eternity. I call these moments my “thin veil” moments. A thin veil moment is when the heavens open up and the voice of God breathes blessing and delight over a place in time that seems to stand still. This is the testimony that Jesus talks about in today’s gospel, when God announces that He is the one melting hearts, He is the one healing the sick, He is the one doing miraculous signs and wonders, He is the one exhaling love and mercy on a broken world, He is the one resting upon us as a tender dove. Jesus is our open heaven. He is the adjustment our eyes need to see beyond. He is the wind that sweeps the veil away so that we can breathe the air of eternity. He is the manifestation of our heart’s desire to know who we are and whose we are. He is the one that testifies our own belovedness. Jesus is our open heaven. 

Today’s gospel is an opportunity to check our veils. How transparent are they? Jesus let’s the Jews know in this story that their veils are as opaque as it gets, “I do not accept human praise; moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.” If I want my veil to be thin, I need to have the love of God in me, which means I need to acknowledge the open heaven above me and operate from that belovedness. “I do not accept human praise.” I only want to hear my Father’s voice speaking favor and grace over me and then together we can do this thing called love. Jesus teaches us how to be a son and daughter today, which is in fact our main event. The Father’s testimony in and over us is all that we need to concern ourselves with and a relationship with Jesus is the evidence that we get it. The gospel writer John captures that heart of the matter in a way than none of the other gospel writers really do, because he was Jesus’ beloved best friend. Today, let’s enter into our belovedness through an intimate friendship with the person of Jesus so that we can breathe the fragrance of the open heaven above us and see through the thin veil between us. It is well with my soul. 

P.S. A thin veil moment: My friend Omar turned 101 years old this week and in a retirement living community, that makes you a rock star! By the end of the day Omar’s face was covered in brightly colored lipstick marks from all the ladies in the facility that couldn’t resist giving the rock star a special smooch on his birthday. At his birthday party, the staff dressed up like 101 Dalmatians and gathered around him in total love and I sang Close To You by the Carpenters: “On the day that you were born, the angels got together and decided to create a dream come true. So they sprinkled mood dust in your hair and golden starlight in your eyes of blue.” And as he cried the heavens opened up over him and God spoke, “This is Omar, my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” The veil was removed and the fragrance of heaven breathed in by all. 

Reading 1 EX 32:7-14

The LORD said to Moses,
"Go down at once to your people
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,
for they have become depraved.
They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,
making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,
sacrificing to it and crying out,
'This is your God, O Israel,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt!'
The LORD said to Moses,
"I see how stiff-necked this people is.
Let me alone, then,
that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them.
Then I will make of you a great nation."

But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying,
"Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people,
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt
with such great power and with so strong a hand?
Why should the Egyptians say,
'With evil intent he brought them out,
that he might kill them in the mountains
and exterminate them from the face of the earth'?
Let your blazing wrath die down;
relent in punishing your people. 
Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel,
and how you swore to them by your own self, saying,
'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky;
and all this land that I promised,
I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.'"
So the LORD relented in the punishment
he had threatened to inflict on his people.

Responsorial Psalm PS 106:19-20, 21-22, 23

R. (4a)  Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
Our fathers made a calf in Horeb
and adored a molten image;
They exchanged their glory
for the image of a grass-eating bullock.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
They forgot the God who had saved them,
who had done great deeds in Egypt,
Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,
terrible things at the Red Sea.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
Then he spoke of exterminating them,
but Moses, his chosen one,
Withstood him in the breach
to turn back his destructive wrath.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

Verse Before The Gospel JN 3:16

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.

Gospel JN 5:31-47

Jesus said to the Jews: 
"If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true.
But there is another who testifies on my behalf,
and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.
You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.
I do not accept human testimony,
but I say this so that you may be saved.
He was a burning and shining lamp,
and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.
But I have testimony greater than John's.
The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,
these works that I perform testify on my behalf
that the Father has sent me.
Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.
But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form,
and you do not have his word remaining in you,
because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.
You search the Scriptures,
because you think you have eternal life through them;
even they testify on my behalf.
But you do not want to come to me to have life.

"I do not accept human praise;
moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. 
I came in the name of my Father,
but you do not accept me;
yet if another comes in his own name,
you will accept him.
How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another
and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father:
the one who will accuse you is Moses,
in whom you have placed your hope.
For if you had believed Moses,
you would have believed me,
because he wrote about me. 
But if you do not believe his writings,
how will you believe my words?"