My daughter got a call from a friend asking if she could serve at a wedding that
day. As she got ready to go, her mother got a look at what she was wearing.
A T-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes. "Is that what you're going to wear to
serve the wedding?" "Why not? What's wrong with it?" "Nothing except your
serving at a wedding, not a picnic. Get something better on."
A wedding, not a picnic. Profound words. We will get in our 'Sunday
best' for a wedding, even for a wedding of someone we really don't know.
Maybe a spouse's co-workers child is getting married. Regardless, if we're
invited, we dress in our best. There are number of functions we may be asked
to attend that would mean we'd get dressed up. If you were to meet President
Clinton or the Pope, would you dress in T-shirts and jeans? Of course not!
We'd get dressed in our suits and ties, or best dress or pant suit, etc.
When we were there, we would be thanking them for seeing us, for inviting us.
We wouldn't presume to act as though the honor was theirs that we came.
We even see 'Holiday dresses' going on sale. For those parties we'll
attend for Christmas, so we'll look our best.
Yet, every Sunday, we're invited to meet the greatest of all, the Creator
of all, the King of kings and Lord of lords. We meet God, really and truly
present.
And we wear? Well we see T-shirts, tennis shoes, worn baggy jeans, etc.
We act and behave as though He should be happy we even came. Singing about
how great we are, how we are strong, how we are one, and forget that it's God
Who is great, strong, and makes us one.
In some churches, they even have to go 'fetch' Him because we can't have
Him in the church with us, too distracting. (From what? Our view of
ourselves?) And when we go to receive Him, we act as though He doesn't
matter any more than receiving a piece of gum.
For the wedding couple and family, for the President, or the Pope, we'd
dress and act with respect, but for God, we act as though He doesn't matter.
Indifference can be worse than hatred, or rejection. It betokens that we
don't need Him, that He is not an important part of our lives.
"And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 'The words of the
Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold
or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew
you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need
nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be
rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your
nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.
Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent. Behold,
I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. He who conquers, I
will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat
down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the churches'" (Apocalypse/Revelation 3: 14-22).
What we wear to church, to the Mass, seems to be what we symbolically wear
in our souls. We think we're ok, but in fact we're ill, but refuse to go to
the Divine Physician for healing. We say we are rich and need nothing, but
we refuse to see that we are spiritually poor and have nothing. That we are
naked before the Lord.
It's almost like a spiritual rendering of the "Emperor's New Clothes"! He
thought he was dressed in new and beautiful clothes, and, of course, only the
enlightened could see their beauty. So we are told that we need to be
'enlightened' to see this new spiritual nakedness. We aren't asked, or even
encouraged, to look critically at what we are wearing, what we call our faith.
But just as it was a simple child who spoke the truth to the Emperor, so
God tries to speak the truth to us. A truth we reject, or worse, ignore.
We look to those dressed in 'fine clothes', dressed in the world's
finest. Those with sweet sounding words, dressed in the vain praises of men.
Yet we reject the hard, coarse words of Christ.
"Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: 'What did you go out
into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken by the wind? Why then did you
go out? To see a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, those who wear soft
raiment are in kings' houses. Why then did you go out? To see a prophet?
Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written,
'Behold, I send My messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way
before thee.' Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen
no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of
Heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the
kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by
force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; and if you
are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to
hear, let him hear'" (Matthew 11: 8-15).
Christ was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a stables manger.
Yet He was the greatest gift ever given. He is the true wealth.
John the Baptist was dressed in camel hair yet he was dressed in Heavenly
richness.
"A very delicate young man of noble birth entered the Order of St.
Francis. A few days after he took the habit, through the instigation of the
devil, he began to hate the habit he was wearing so much that he felt as
though he was wearing a very coarse sack. The sleeves got on his nerves, he
disliked the cowl, and the length and roughness of the habit seemed an
unbearable burden to him. And so it happened that as his distaste for the
Order increased, he firmly resolved to throw the habit away and return to the
world."
I stop here to ask if we can't see ourselves in this young man? How many
of us 'hate' to wear the coarse habit of our faith? How many complain that
it's too burdensome, and either throw it away or try to remake it to our
liking? (How many religious have done precisely that?)
"...it happened on the night when he decided to put aside the habit and
leave the Order that he had to pass before the altar of the friary, and
there, as usual, he knelt and bowed. And all of a sudden he was rapt in
spirit and was shown a marvelous vision by God.
For he saw passing before him and almost countless throng of saints, two
by two, in procession, and they were dressed in very ornate and precious
vestments, and their faces and hands and visible parts of their bodies were
shining more radiantly than the sun...
Among those saints there were two who were more splendidly dressed and
adorned and who were surrounded by such brilliance that they dazzled anyone
who looked at them. And almost to the end of the procession he saw one who
was adorned with such glory that he seemed like a new knight being especially
honored by the others...
'...Son, all of us are Friars Minor who have just come from the glory of
Paradise.' [they responded to the young man] And he asked, 'Who are those two
who shine more brightly than the others?'
'Those two who are brighter than the others are St. Francis and St.
Anthony. And the last one whom you saw being honored is a holy friar who
recently died. Because he fought valiantly against temptations and
persevered in his holy undertaking until the end, we are now conducting him
in triumph and glory to the joy of Paradise, with the Saints as companions,
while the angels rejoice. And these very beautiful garments which we are
wearing were given to us by God in exchange for the rough habits which we
wore with patience as religious. And the glorious radiance which you see in
us was given to us by God for the humble penance and holy poverty and
obedience and pure chastity which we observed to the end with joyful minds
and faces. Therefore, son, it should not be hard for you to wear the 'sack'
of such a fruitful Order because if, with the 'sack' of St. Francis, for the
love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, you despise the world and mortify your body
and fight valiantly against the devil, you will likewise have a similar
garment and will shine with us in glory.'
And when he said these words, the young man came back to himself. And
encouraged by that vision, he rejected all temptation and acknowledged his
fault before the guardian and the other friars.
Henceforth, morever, he longed for the roughness of penance and of the
habit as for wealth." (Little Flowers of St. Francis; #20)
If we care so little about God that we would wear clothes fit for a picnic
or a day at the beach to His Mass, if we care so little about God that we long
for the rich garments of the world rather than the course garments of His,
then what 'clothes' will we receive from God when we come before Him at our
death?
"Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a
perishable crown, but we an imperishable one" (1 Corinthians 9:25).
"Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will
receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. Let
no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God;' for God cannot be
tempted with evil and He himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted
when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has
conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth
death" (James 1: 12-15).
Pax Christi, Pat