How does Mr. Hooper's veil benefit him in his role as a clergyman? How do these details suggest the theme of the story?

One way in which Mr.
Hooper benefits from the
veil is that he can now affect his parishioners to a much greater
extent than
he ever did before he put it on.  The narrator tells us that, on the day he
first
wears the veil, his sermon was "marked by the same characteristics of
style and
manner" as his sermons always were, and yet

there was
something, either in the sentiment of
the discourse itself, or in the imagination of the
auditors, which made it
greatly the most powerful effort that they had ever heard from their
pastor's
lips.

Despite the fact that Mr. Hooper speaks
as
mildly as usual, this sermon is somehow more persuasive, more poignant
than any he has delivered
before.  In fact, every listener "felt as if the
preacher had crept upon them, behind his
awful veil, and discovered their
hoarded iniquity of deed or thought."  They feel more
understood by him than
they ever have; it's as though he somehow knows them more fully, and this

feeling makes them extremely uncomfortable because there is something they wish to
hide.
 Moreover, when he goes to pray over the body of a recently deceased
girl,

The people trembled, though they
but darkly understood him when he
prayed that they, and himself, and all of
mortal race, might be ready, as he trusted this young
maiden had been, for
the dreadful hour that should snatch the veil from their faces.

We begin, now, to understand what this veil represents.
 That his
audience feels that he, with his veil, has "discovered their
hoarded iniquity of deed or
thought" and that it is death, alone, that will
"snatch the veil" away, helps us
to see that the veil must have to with our
secret sinful thoughts or actions.  Our pretense --
portraying ourselves to
the world as sinless -- separates us from one another, preventing us
from
truly knowing each other, and will only be lifted when we die.  If the thing we fear
most
is the revelation of our sinfulness to another person, then we can never
realize that
we are all sinners (a popular Hawthorne
theme), and it is our
unnecessary deception that ultimately -- and
unnecessarily -- alienates each of
us.

Furthermore, if Mr. Hooper were to just come out and accuse
each of
them of being a secret sinner who purposefully hides their true, sinful, natures,
his
message would seem a lot less palatable to his listeners. Wearing the
veil, however, not only
engages them in some critical thinking about why he
would wear it and what it represents but
also precisely conveys the point
that we all do this.  Even the minister hides his true nature,
recognizes the
universality of the pretense, and STILL doesn't have the nerve to tell them
what
the veil means.  Therefore, this need to present ourselves as
sinless creatures seems
to be a real deep-seated human impulse.
 Not even the minister can escape
it.