COMMENT: The veiling expresses the Bridal role of the Church; It is a visible reminder of the sacred union with Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

I look at the Blessed Sacrament, contemplating the image of the crucified Christ’s broken body shed for the Church; himself—his body, his blood, his soul, and his divinity—are truly present on the altar. I feel like a bride as I wait for the moment to go forward and receive my Groom.

In an instant, I was lifted from my personal experience of my soul as a bride to the understanding that as a woman, I represent the entire Church as the bride of Christ. I see all the women in the church kneeling down and preparing their hearts to receive our Lord. Then I look at men who are part of the Church, the bride of Christ, but who uniquely symbolize Jesus the Bridegroom.

My father comes down the stairs with the Holy Eucharist enshrined in a golden ciborium and presents Our Lord to His bride. I look forward to the moment when I kneel before the Lord and receive Him in Holy Communion. As I move up the line, I adjust my chapel veil; It also has deep symbolism.

Alice von Hildebrand wrote: The Privilege of Being a Woman“A veil symbolizes both mystery and holiness,” giving examples such as Moses covering his face after speaking with God and the curtain of the tent in our churches. A woman veiled in the presence of the Eucharist also symbolizes mystery and holiness. This shows the mystery of transformation and the mystery that each woman carries within her own personality; It always symbolizes the Church as the bride of all creation.

The symbolism of a woman veiled before the Eucharist also has a sacred character. Woman as Alice von Hildebrand pointingUnlike humans created from soil, it had the privilege of being composed of a human body. In Genesis 1:27, we see that God first “created man in his own image, in the image of God”; “man” here means “human being”. But secondly, we read that humans were created male and female: “Male and female He created them.” While there is a practical reason for this (the reproduction of new humans), there is also a theological meaning in God’s creation of humans as male and female.

Catechism of the Catholic Church He helps us understand this meaning when he explains that “man is created in the image and likeness of God, who himself is love” (1604). One way we imagine God’s love is through the groom-bride relationship. Over and over again in Scripture the image of God as the bridegroom, the Church, and the individual soul as the bride is used. We see this in Israel’s parable of an unfaithful bride in the Song of Songs, in Jesus’ parables, and in the language St. Paul uses when speaking about Christ and the Church. The Catechism tells us: “Since God created him as male and female, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man” (1604). That is, the love of a man and a woman in marriage is an image of the theological reality that every person is created for union with God.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Crusade (Edith Stein) explains it this way: Science of the Cross: “(T)he marital union with God is seen as the original and true marital state, while the corresponding human relationship appears as imperfect images of this original.” Union with God, which is the destiny of our souls, is the highest bridal state, and the sacrament of marriage should be understood as only an image of this; Therefore, everything we think or say about men and women must be placed under the theology of God’s union with the soul, for the “highest meaning” of the human marital relationship is its capacity to express a divine mystery.

Theologically, in the marriage union, the man represents Christ and the bride represents the Church. We see this in Ephesians 5:23: “For just as Christ is the head of the Church, her body, and her Savior, so the husband is the head of his wife.” But the husband is also part of the Church, the bride of Christ, and must take his model of how to be a bridegroom from Christ, who “gave himself up” for his bride (Ephesians 5:25). The woman also shows the man how to be a bride in response to Christ; He is receptive with his body and must learn how to be receptive with his soul along with all creatures. The primary example we have of this is the Blessed Mother, who models feminine surrender to God’s love for all people, both male and female.

In 1 Corinthians 11 (“A woman must have a covering on her head,” verse 10), which is the biblical basis for the tradition of women wearing head coverings in church, St. Paul writes: “Nevertheless the Lord is not independent of the man in the woman, nor is the man independent of the woman; Because just as woman was created from man, man is now born from woman. And all things are from God” (1 Corinthians 11:11-12). We all received our existence from God, we all received our lives from our mother and father and we were born from a woman. Jesus was also born of a woman; He came down to be one with us and to resurrect us with Him. And St. As John of the Cross writes, St. As quoted by Edith Stein: Science of the CrossChrist, our bridegroom, wants to “exalt our souls.” “It is correct to make love equal to the object of love,” he says. Thus we see that the human bridegroom and bride dream of this equality when they live in holy, holy union.

A woman who conceals the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist in the Blessed Sacrament becomes a symbol of the mystery and holiness of the character of the bride as a woman, and at the same time allows men participating in the same Mass to imagine Christ the Bridegroom. . Moreover, when we receive the Eucharist as man or woman, we are incorporated into the body of Christ and the entire Church is resurrected as a bride by her heavenly Bridegroom.