There are three germane quotes, today, for our purposes, from the Bible.

First: “And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized” (Acts 9:18).

That was about Paul and his literal enlightenment.

Think about that strange word, “scales.” In Scripture, we start out with a snake. A snake has scales. The devil is a snake. It is he who blinds (and binds).

There were also “scales” on the armor of Goliath.

When we have scales over our eyes, we can’t see what is actually all around us. We see only the material world. We hear but do not understand. We see but do not perceive.

There is 2 Corinthians 4:4-5: “The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God.

Then, Matthew 27:51: “And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”

Might we take that temple “veil” to be a metaphor for how the Lord lifts the wool from our eyes?

When we see in the spirit, we see beyond the veil.

We see into the temple sanctuary.

A “veil” is often depicted as separating us from the hereafter, from the afterlife, from Heaven.

As for wool over our eyes: that’s when we function in the dark, wearing blinders.

And a synonym for blinders?

“Scales.”

When we are in Christ, when we praise, when we pray with fervor during the Consecration, when we pray the Rosary, when we confess well, when we love, when we believe, when we put God first–always– the scales drop from our eyes and we see much we didn’t even know existed.

New dimensions open before us.

Often, this is why conversion is instantaneous: the scales drop suddenly. We see and perceive.

In this way can a blind person—a physically blind person, but a spiritual one—”see” more than do the “sighted”!

When you can’t get through to someone and you are exercising good faith, this is often the reason: They are behind a wall. It’s not even a veil. It’s cement.

Only love penetrates it.

When we stray after falsity in life and are deceived, it’s because we have allowed the “scales” to return. We have exercised materialism or pride, we have envied, we have failed to quash impatience or selfishness or anger, we are worldly.

And so we simply don’t have vision except for what is physically in front of us. And even that is woefully limited: the entire rainbow of radiation observable to the human eye only makes up a tiny portion of the electromagnetic spectrum—about 0.0035 percent.

A very worthwhile prayer it is to pray each day that any remaining blindness (or nearsightedness or farsightedness) is completely lifted.

Pray with fervor. Pray in the Spirit.

Go with the flow of God, and ask to see with the eyes of angels, of Heaven.

[resources: The Veil and Profound Good; highly recommended!]

[resources: Michael Brown retreat]

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