There are many things which we do not see. We praise God for these things each time we pray the Nicene Creed (I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all thingsvisible and invisible). It is important that we pray this, not only to praise God for His Creation, but to remind ourselves of it all. God has created all things, and we will only know a few in this life.
In our scripture readings today, we are reminded of how this affects our lives. We never see everything, and this can either confuse us, or lead us into mistakes. In our first reading, we hear of the veil that veils all peoples being lifted by God, and the great joy we will experience when we see God face to face. In our Gospel passage, we read of the king’s wedding feast for his son, which so few realize was so special. In the end, not realizing how special it was to be invited to the feast led some to disregard the invitation (or worse), and they met with terrible consequences. All because they failed to see the importance of this invitation, and the love the king was trying to express with the feast. They could not see this reality, because it was behind the same veil.
We can’t always know everything, and many things are hidden from us, so how is it that God would hold these things against us? The truth is that we are able to eventually know some of these hidden things, and for all those that we come to know, we realize that there is so much more that is just beyond the veil. We first come to know this in the people we love. Christ commands us to realize this more and more, each time He reminds us that we are supposed to treat one another as brother and sister.
Think of someone you know very well. This might be your spouse, a child, a parent, a sibling, whomever you think you know best. Isn’t it still possible to get to know that person better? Haven’t you become closer over the years, and won’t you be closer yet in years to come? If you are continually getting to know someone deeper and deeper, in ways that others don’t see (or maybe can’t see), then isn’t there something deeper in every person which we are missing? What God sees in every person is far beyond what any of us see in anyone, even our closest soul in the whole wide world. We get to see glimpses of that sight, and it makes our love for one another grow ever greater.
Because we know that this is true of the ones we love so dearly, we must treat everyone as our brothers and sisters. There are many in the world who make it hard for us to see beyond the veil, and sometimes it seems like a brick wall. Whether it be a prickly personality, differences in opinions, a long list of mistakes, wounds of past fights, or any of the other things that come between us in this life, we must remember that when we think we are seeing another person, we are often only seeing the veil. We will never have the time to know everyone in the way they deserve, so we Hope for that in Eternity. In the meantime, let us not miss the gifts in front of us, both in those we have come to know and love so well, and in all whose souls are just beyond the veil for us.
St. Anthony Catholic Church 