Passiontide and the Blessed Sacrament: The Theology of Veils

Veiling of Crucifixes and Statues

The last fortnight before Easter constitutes the most important time of the entire liturgical year. These last two weeks open with the fifth Sunday of the Lenten season, known traditionally as Passion Sunday. This last Sunday before Holy Week inaugurates the short two-week season that we call Passiontide (the time of the Passion). Holy Mother Church invites the faithful, during this season of Passiontide, to focus their daily prayers and meditations more directly and more intensely on the sufferings that Our Lord endured for the sake of man's eternal salvation.

As you enter into a church on Passion Sunday, you will notice that the statues and crucifixes inside the church are covered with violet-coloured veils. While some churches (alas!) have abandoned this now optional practice, fortunately there are still many parishes and Catholic chapels that observe this time-honoured and ancient liturgical tradition. And of course all the places that celebrate the traditional Roman Rite of Mass do observe this practice of covering crucifixes and sacred images during Passiontide, since it is not "optional" in the traditional liturgy.

The practice of covering statues of the Saints, holy images, and crucifixes during the last two weeks before Easter is believed to have begun around the 9th century or slightly earlier. It is based on the Gospel reading from John 8:46–59, read on Passion Sunday (the fifth Sunday of Lent) in the traditional Roman Rite of Mass. This reading ends with the line:

Tulérunt ergo lápides, ut jácerent in eum: Jesus autem abscóndit se, et exívit de templo.

[The Jews] took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and left the temple. -John 8:59

The veiling of crucifixes and holy images in the sacred liturgy represents Christ hiding Himself from the people. But even more so, this beautiful and ancient tradition in the Catholic Church expresses in a profound way the theology of the Passion — and also of the Blessed Sacrament.

Bethlehem and Calvary

Our Lord Jesus Christ is both God and man. He is the 2nd Person of the Most Holy Trinity. As God, He cannot suffer or feel any pain. In fact, one of the attributes of God as God (that is, insofar as He is divine) is His impassibility, which means that He is incapable of suffering. But in the Incarnation, from the time when God was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and became man, God became able to suffer, through the sacred humanity of Jesus Christ. The Divine nature is impassible, whereas the human nature (as we all know well from our own experience) is indeed very capable of suffering and feeling pain. At the Incarnation, when God became man in the manger of Bethlehem, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity assumed our frail human nature in order to show us just how far His love for the human race would go. In fact, the primary purpose of the Incarnation was to give God a passible (that is, a "capable of suffering") human nature, one that was also mortal, so that He could indeed give up His life for mankind and atone for our sins. There are, in fact, beautiful images of Catholic art that depict the Nativity scene with three Crosses on a hill in the background (such as the one shown above). Their purpose is to show that the manger was ordered to the Cross; that Christ's birth as man was ordered to His Sacrifice and death.

The Theology of Veils

At the Nativity, the Divinity of Christ was hidden from the sight of the world. It was hidden behind the "veil" of Christ's humanity, in the form of the Divine Infant. No one who saw the Divine Infant in the manger could directly see the Divinity of Christ, His identity as the Eternal Son of God. All they saw was a small, human baby, completely dependent on his parents for everything, including his own survival. However, the eyes of Faith allowed some to pierce the veil of the mystery, and discern in that little Babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, God the Eternal Son. The Virgin Mary and St. Joseph surely could "see" the mystery and pierce that holy veil, since they both knew that the origin of the Christ Child was anything but human (because of their knowledge of the virginal birth). The Shepherds and Magi also felt attracted to that humble manger. Who could doubt that the veil of Christ's true identity was — at least partially — revealed to them? But in general, the "veil" that was the Babe of Bethlehem hid from the sight of most of the world the true identity of that Divine Infant.

During His Passion and Death on the Cross, Christ’s divine nature was once again hidden from the sight of men. But this time, the veil wasn't the Divine Infancy: it was the suffering humanity of Jesus. Christ's suffering as man hid from the world His true identity as God the Son, for the simple reason that everyone knows that God cannot suffer (see above on the divine attribute of impassibility). Thus, during Our Lord's ignominious Passion, the power of His Divinity was (in a certain way of speaking) eclipsed; it had not disappeared (for Christ cannot cease being God!), but His suffering human nature "veiled" the power of His Divine nature and identity. While He never ceased to be God, Jesus "set aside" His divine power during His Passion in order to experience fully the pains of sinful and suffering mankind. It is in this sense that we say that Jesus was in solidarity with the entire human race through His Passion and Death.

This "setting aside" of Christ's divine power is what St. Paul calls the kenosis of Jesus Christ:

[Jesus], though He was in the form of God, did not deem equality with God a thing to be grasped; rather, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave... (Philippians 2:6-7)

The Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition of Holy Scripture has an important note related to this difficult-to-understand passage, and especially the words in the form of God:

The [original] Greek shows that divine attributes, and therefore nature, are implied here. It is not the divine nature he set no store by, but equality of treatment and recognition of his divinity. [Christ] emptied himself of this external recognition, which was his right.

This "emptying of self" is, in the original Greek, expressed by the word kenosis. It can mean "to empty" or "to make void." But why did Our Lord do this? What motivated Him to hide His divine power and identity as God the Son behind the veil of His suffering humanity during the Passion? The answer to this question was given to the disciples on the road to Emmaus by Our Lord Himself on the evening of the Resurrection:

O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and so enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:25-26)

Our Lord, therefore, hid His divine power and identity during His Passion because it was "necessary", in the order of the Father's divine wisdom, that man's salvation be obtained through the Sacrifice of Christ, who only became capable of suffering and death because of the human nature that He had assumed at the Incarnation. This is why Christ "hid Himself" from the eyes of mankind (see the quotation from John 8:59 above). The suffering humanity of Christ was the veil; His Divinity was what was hidden behind that veil.

It is because it was especially during His Passion that Christ's divine nature was "veiled" that Holy Mother Church covers or veils crucifixes during Passiontide. This veiling of crucifixes represents the Divinity of Christ being veiled or eclipsed, His glory as the Eternal Son of God being hidden from the sight of men, while His pain and suffering are put on full display for all to see. And because the glory of the Saints is a reflection of the glory of Jesus Christ, statues and images of the Saints are also veiled during Passiontide. The Saints cannot shine in the glory of their holiness while Our Lord’s own glory is in eclipse — because their glory and their holiness flow from His! 

On Good Friday, after we adore the Holy Cross, all crucifixes in the church will be unveiled once again so that Christ's Sacrifice may be visibly seen and worshipped by all. But the statues of the Saints will remain veiled until the glorious the Easter Vigil, the night when Christ rises victoriously from the dead. Since Christ is then glorified once again, and His Divinity is no longer veiled or eclipsed, the glory of His Saints can be seen once more in the fullness of their splendour.

The Blessed Sacrament as the Third and Final Veil

In the Most Blessed Sacrament — both in the Tabernacle and on the Altar — the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ is once again "veiled." But this time, it is not the Divine Infancy that is the veil (as at Christmas), or even the suffering humanity (as during the Passion). It is instead a sacramental veil that Christ uses to hide His divine nature from unworthy eyes. The veil of the Holy Eucharist is the exterior manifestation of the Sacrament, or, as one would say in scholastic philosophy, the accidents that comprise the Sacrament are what constitute the veil.

In sacramental theology, there are two aspects to every Sacrament: there is the exterior sign that the Sacrament takes, and there is the inner reality to which that exterior sign points. The exterior sign is often the external matter employed in the Sacrament (known as accidents in philosophy), and the inner reality is the deepest meaning of what the Sacrament really is: we call this the substance of the Sacrament. In the Holy Eucharist, the accidents are bread and wine. In the Latin Church, it is unleavened bread and pure wine (fermented grapes, with no additives or preservatives). But the substance of the Holy Eucharist (that is, its innermost identity or what it truly is) is the Body and Blood of Christ. And because Christ's Body and Blood never exist apart from His human soul and His Divinity, the true substance of the Most Holy Eucharist is Our Lord's Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. But these are not visible to man's visible eyes. We do not physically see Christ's Flesh, His Blood, His human soul, or His divine nature. It is Faith that supplies to our mind what our human senses cannot perceive. This is why the Most Blessed Sacrament is very aptly called The Mystery of Faith (Mysterium Fidei).

The Three Veils

In the Most Blessed Sacrament, the "veil" that hides both Christ's Divinity and His human nature is the accidents: that is, the external appearance and attributes of mere bread and wine. The Blessed Sacrament, even after the Consecration, still looks like bread and wine, and tastes like bread and wine. The accidents remain unchanged. But the substance (the innermost identity or reality of what is present) are transformed. They are transformed from the substance of bread and wine into the substance of Flesh and Blood (along with Soul and Divinity). This is why the Church calls the moment when this transformation occurs transubstantiation (meaning literally, the changing of substance). This transubstantiation from bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is a miracle that takes place on our Catholic Altars each and every day. It is, in a true sense, an even greater miracle than the creation of the entire world, and even than the miracle of the Incarnation (God becoming man)! The miracle of transubstantiation is greater than both these other acts of God because the humility of God is much greater.

When God created the world, He did so with the desire to share His love with created beings. He didn't need to create anything outside of Himself, for He is self-sufficient and has no need of anything or anyone in order to be completely happy. When God came into this world at Christmas (the Incarnation), God humbled Himself even more and showed an even greater love for His creation (especially for the human race) by becoming a mere mortal man. Thus the miracle of the Incarnation is greater than the miracle of creation since the humility of God is greater. But there is an even greater act of God's humility and love for the human race than the Incarnation: it occurs when, at the Consecration at Holy Mass, God takes on the external appearances (accidents) of bread and wine. Bread and wine are much lower than our human nature, and thus God's humility is greater when He becomes bread and wine than when He becomes man. The miracle of transubstantiation, and therefore the Catholic Mass, is truly the greatest miracle of God in this world!

The season of Passiontide is, therefore, an especially appropriate time of year in which to contemplate the Mystery of the Blessed Sacrament. As the veils that cover our statues and crucifixes in our churches hide the divine power and identity of Christ, the "veils" of bread and wine hide both Our Lord's Divinity and His humanity in the Holy Eucharist. The external signs of the Holy Eucharist (bread and wine) are the Veil, and the Reality that they hide is Jesus Christ in Eternal Glory. Saint Thomas Aquinas calls the veil "the Sacrament" (Sacramentum, in Latin) and the Reality "the Thing" (Res, in Latin). Thus he speaks about Res et Sacramentum as the sacramental Veil and the Thing that is veiled.

The Final Unveiling

Veils are not meant to last forever. The veils in our churches will be removed on Good Friday (for the crucifixes) and at the Easter Vigil (for the statues of the Saints). But the Veil of the Blessed Sacrament will only be removed definitively from the Holy Eucharist when the Holy Sacrament finally gives way to the Thing (Eternal Reality) itself to which it points, in the Beatific Vision. And that Reality is Jesus Christ, in the fullness of His Glory, truly God and truly man. It is Christ's Flesh and Blood, His human soul and His Divinity in His glorified state in Heaven. The Blessed Sacrament is, in this world, this veiled Mystery that we all hope one day to see, face-to-face, in that Kingdom where all will be unveiled forever: the Kingdom of the Eternal Resurrection.

And that is why the Catholic Church, following St. Thomas Aquinas, calls the Blessed Sacrament futurae gloriae pignus: the Pledge of Future Glory!

How beautiful is our Catholic Faith!

Res et Sacramentum: The Blessed Sacrament as the Pledge of Future Glory