“Of darkness visible, so much be lent As half to show, half veil the deep intent.” Alexander Pope

“It’s a blessing in disguise”, people say. They seem to mean, “Don’t take it so hard - things aren’t really that bad.” We have a problem when we confront adversity. We would like to be able to face trouble square-on - but we seldom feel we can. If you think about it, we often clothe problems in the appearance we prefer, rather than in their true colour. When we think of ‘realism’, in films say, we think of toughness, violence and we experience a frisson of fear. The great playwright Bertolt Brecht did not think this idea of ‘realism’ really got into reality : “Realism does not consist in reproducing reality, but in showing how things really are.” We must get beyond appearances; we must get real.

Let me now beg you to observe that the Light of a Master Mason is darkness visible, serving only to express that gloom which rests on the prospect of futurity. It is that mysterious veil which the eye of human reason cannot penetrate, unless assisted by that Light which is from above.

An initiation is a joyful occasion, symolising for the candidate a journey towards Light, a journey undertaken in innocence, trustfully and free from apprehension. But there are already forebodings.
    We learn for example that hope:

is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and enters into that within the veil... if we believe a thing possible, our despondancy may render it so, but he who perserveres in a just cause will ultimately overcome all difficulties.

There are veils, difficulties ahead.
    We learn about darkness in the Light :

As the steps of man are trod in the various and uncertain incidents of life, and his days are variegated and chequered by a strange contrariety of events, his passage through this existence... is often beset by a multitude of evils; hence is our lodge furnished with mosaic work, to point out the uncertainty of all things here on earth.

So we have an intimation that this Light, symbolically conferred in the First Degree, will not be easy to attain spiritually. Beware! it seems to say; you are going to have to work at this. The Third Degree, in stark contrast to the first, requires much more of us. The veil has now become the darkness “which the eye of human reason cannot penetrate”. It is not the function of a mere blindfold shutting out material light, but is a powerful emblematic representation of the darkness of ignorance, fear and evil. Darkness is the foe against whom we test our mettle. In Ireland, Sri Lanka, the Middle East and in our own back-yard there are people pitted against one another because of political, ethnic, religious or other differences, more or less in ignorance of others’ aspirations and so fearing them. Fear is the real breeding-ground of evil. We should not be afraid to be afraid. When the darkness is made visible, we can work in our souls and in our communities towards Light, trust and Love.
    For me, the point is the veil. A veil is made of a fabric which, tantalizingly, allows you to see something, but not all. The light of a Master Mason is not the light of euphoric gladness; it is a tiny glimmer which we have to work at to increase and, most importantly, we cannot increase it “unless assisted by that Light which is from above” - beyond reason, beyond appearances : the healing reality of the welcome stranger.
    This is the true “blessing in disguise”. Penetrate that veil; increase your own and your brethrens’ share of that Light; banish whatever darkness confronts you, and above all, face, rather than confront the adversity. Deal with it joyfully. In the experience, you may be able to say with the seventeenth century poet, Henry Vaughan :

There is in God, some say,
A deep, but dazzling darkness; as men here
Say it is late and dusky, because they
See not all clear.