Book Review - A Corner of the Veil (Le Coin du Voile)
By Laurence Cosse
Translated from the French by Linda Asher
Forward by Jack Miles
Published by Scribner, 1996
Father Bertrand Beaulieu, a member of the Society of Causists, enjoyed visiting with his companions, the sound of their voices, their wit, culture and collective knowledge, yet, after the evening meal was over, he desired order, silence and the mystery of the garden.
The day's mail was yet unopened and one envelope in plain brown paper stuck out from the pile. The envelope was the only one made of plain brown paper, was the tenth one Bertrand received from Martin Something containing proof of the existence of God. Ten different demonstrations, one day by logic, three months later through chemistry, once by way of semantics, another time by way of the absurd, each time argued over fifteen or twenty pages.
This time the proof was neither arithmetical, physical, esthetical, or astronomical, and Bertrand realized the hour had arrived for the world's great tribulation and that he was called upon to launch a battle against the manifest truth.He called upon his friend Herve Montgaroult who said there are limits to reason, and that the idea of God is not contradictory, that science, which proceeds by proof and links known theories into a logical sequence could neither prove nor disprove the existence of an unknown object.
After two hours of efforts to postpone hand-to-hand combat with angels, the two priests sought fellow believers to test their new consciousness of being in the world and to confirm and bring clarity to belief in proof of the existence of God creating an atmosphere in which man would know himself to be truly free.
The two men discussed among other priests this amazing theory of proof of God's existence, afraid of the risks if the document became public because this knowledge was a departure from private terrain into the public realm and possible public turmoil and because equilibrium depends on the noncertainty of God's existence.
The absence of proof of God's existence obliges respect for unbelievers, but the absence of proof of the nonexistence of God obliges respect for believers.Even though secrecy among the priests was promised, somehow the government was notified of this proof of God's existence and the prime minister demanded to see the document but when he saw the envelope containing the pages he felt paralyzed, wept heavily, and declared as though possessed by forgotten angels that he believed.
Some of the priests admitted they had not taken seriously the existence of God because they had to know proof was actually established.Boleil, a friend of the priests who was told of the proof felt his life changing and realized the only truly bright moments he had known in the past forty years were not the ones riddled with power, the spirit of power, the dreadful reflexes around powerful men, but the moments when he was tending to his rosebushes, and his early years of marriage.
The government leaders became concerned about the economy if the citizens became aware of the proof of the existence of God because most of the time might be spent praying, comforting the lonely and gazing upon nature instead of producing a stable economy. Some government officials suddenly realized their functions made sense only in a world that was in the clutches of evil, that with harmony established, there would be no use for the judiciary procedures, prosecutors, appeals, and reversals.
Further, dazzled by God, men would have no further reason to keep working to make the machinery turn, the order of priorities, the scale of importance, the distinction between essential and incidental, the basic values of the model societies might become unbolted, and the angel suddenly flying over might be the Extermination Angel.
However, Boleil, explained that the indispensable tasks like farming, shop owner, and teaching would continue, but most likely the spirit of competition would disappear and there would not be need for sports, automobile racing, champagne heirs, television game shows, editors of newsmagazines, genius investors of triple-action fuel, tranquilizers, and directors of marketing communications and public relations.
Members of the government were told to stay at their posts, that their functions would reshape and adjust on their own, that the transition period would require resourcefulness and modesty and that they would become at one with the anonymity of God.
The priests realized that in the face of rationalism, secularism, scientism, atheism , Freudianism, and structuralism, God had won and people would be in direct contact with God with no use for an intermediary, man would become terrifyingly free. Either people would not believe in God and felt personally responsible for the world, or else he did believe in God, but without being sure and therefore did good in order to make God exist.
But once people knew God was a certainty, they would feel no further responsibility of the world or the divine advent. The arguments and discussions between the clergy and the government continued with an attempt to resolve the issue of whether Christianity was born when people thought they could be done with Jesus by eliminating him, and concluded that if the proof of the existence of God comes from God, even if sunk in a concrete block, it would return.Officials at the Vatican responded that the church is not a trade union whose main goal is enlisting the most members possible, that the church is responsible for all mankind.
The Cardinal warned the priests to remain silent about their discovery, that it was a secret to be kept hidden in the Vatican, that it was not the first Vatican secret and would not be the last.Overcome by the sense of their own betrayal to the government and friends in violation of their oaths of secrecy, some members of the Society of Causists returned to the homes of their childhood, some committed suicide, and others disappeared into a monastery while society continued as usual.
