Moses faithfully served the God of the Hebrews, even at great personal cost. He gave up a quiet country life tending the cattle of his father-in-law in order to bring God’s messages to the Pharaoh and to the Hebrews. This role of go-between demanded a special one-on-one intimacy with God, which Moses experienced on Mt. Sinai or in the tent of meeting. After these experiences of divine intimacy, the face of Moses began to shine brightly. This light terrified everybody, even Moses’ own brother, Aaron. Therefore, after he had spoken with God person-to-person, and after he had delivered God’s messages to the people, Moses covered his face with a veil (Exodus 34:33).
It must have been quite an inconvenience and an embarrassment for Moses to walk around the camp with a veil on his face. We know that “Moses was very humble, more than anyone else on earth” (Numbers 12:3). Moses wore the veil to preserve his humility, to keep from showing off.
There is a line between proclaiming the gospel to your neighbor and showing off. We want to tell people of the good things that God has done for us, but this can sometimes turn into glorifying ourselves. Imagine the discretion of the Blessed Virgin Mary in deciding whom to tell about her encounter with the Archangel Gabriel. It must be according to prudence and good judgment that we, too, decide what to share with others and what to keep behind the veil.