Veil

Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

 - From 2 Corinthians 4

There are probably a number of logical reasons why some people turn away from eternal life. Today's reading opens with one such reason:

They can't help it.

It all starts with stubbornness, willfulness, self-centeredness, self-love, instant gratification, desire for material or sensual pleasures. 

And we all start out with these traits. No . . . babies do not come into the world pure. They enter life with a hyper-focus on themselves. They have to . . . if they didn't, we might not care for them as we should. We have to learn not to be selfish (or hateful, or racist, or misogynist, etc.) One reason we have babies is so that as adults, maybe then, we can learn to put others ahead of ourselves. And that just prepares us to care for our elders.

Evil people are basically people that never grew up, to an extreme.

But it all starts there. God begins reaching out to us, from the very beginning. But if we keep resisting Him, it's like we are training ourselves to be very good at closing our minds, for turning away from the long-term. God requires us to see ourselves as part of the bigger picture. We must think of others ahead of ourselves. That's what God teaches us. 

But if we keep pushing back, God gets to the point of, "Well, okay . . . then I will harden your heart, Myself." It's a last-ditch effort to get us to listen.

The Gospel is veiled, because God has placed a veil over it, for those that simply will not listen to Him, after years of trying. It makes sense, too . . . we don't want people whose faith is weak, and that hate God, to understand everything about eternity. I think history has shown what happens when people people have too much knowledge.

Despite our past, and all of the mistakes we make every day . . . if we yearn for eternal life, and to be found acceptable to God, that may be all the reassurance we need, that we are in good hand, for the long haul.