Article May 1, 1995 Issue

Unraveling the veil of fear and hate

Sylvia Messner

In the Old Testament, the Israelites built their tabernacles with a sacred inner chamber divided from an outer chamber by a fine, twisted-linen veil. The inner chamber contained two tables of stone on which were engraved the Ten Commandments. The veil was to make a division between "the holy place and the most holy" (Ex. 26:33).

In the New Testament, we learn that when Christ Jesus was crucified, "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom" (Mark 15:38). Was this tearing apart more than a physical event? Did it symbolize an exposing through Christ, Truth, of the falsity of materialism and of man's supposed separation from God?

After a traumatic incident early in my second marriage, I felt alone and separate from all love—lost in the wilderness. I was afraid of my husband, and afraid to let him parent my children from a previous marriage. I found myself too distrusting to turn as a little child to our Father-Mother God. Like the tabernacle, it seemed, I was divided within, a mortal trying to be good enough to become a loved child of God.

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