"It was Martin Luther who explored the other side of the idea of the holy-- it fascinates as well as its tremendum." In this excerpt from Landscapes of the Sacred, "fascinans" means draws us to it while "tremendum" means to recoil in fear. Lane claims that God's identity remains hidden by a mask or "larvae Dei." A biblical example of this would be God presenting himself to Moses in the form of a burning bush. The bush shielded Moses from the face of God and portrayed him in a different appearance.
"Yet, because of Christ, all ordinary things assume new importance. They are masks of the holy: not sterile occasions for rationally inferring the existence and attributes of God, but vivid, if broken, means by which God as Mother of creation comes to meet us." When we think of the reason for wearing a mask, we think of the idea trying to conceal an identity. Usually this means there is something to hide or that you want something left to wonder. In my opinion, God wants humans to wonder about him. I think that was his reasoning in utilizing a mask to show himself to Moses.
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