If I had any ability to draw I would have made a cartoon picture
of Jesus on the cross. Standing in front of him would be a guy in shorts,
T-shirt, and flip-flops looking up at him. The caption would read, “I did this
for you and that is the best you can do when you come to see me?”
I can hear the sighs and see the eye rolls already. I have
it heard it before, “God doesn’t care what I wear to Church. He is just happy
that I came.” The arrogance in that statement never fails to astound me. The Creator
of everything that is, was, and ever will be is happy just because I could
carve out forty-five minutes of my time to come see Him in the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass. Of course, I sat there bored out of my gourd and annoyed because
the homily went over five minutes. Why can’t the priest have some respect for
my time? Doesn’t he know I have more important things to do today? I know I was
ten minutes late and left right after communion but I put forth the effort.
That’s all that matters, right?
C.S. Lewis said it best in the Screwtape Letters when he said what we do with our bodies we do
with our souls. We do Catholic aerobics (sit, stand, kneel, bow, genuflect,
cross ourselves) precisely for this reason. We show respect with our bodies so
we can show respect with our spirits. Why do we come to Mass? Simply because
God is deserves our worship. He is king of all creation and our salvation and
redemption. Nothing or no one is more worthy or more deserving of our worship,
love, and respect. If nothing or no one is more worthy then nothing or no one is
more worthy of our best. God surely deserves better than a T-shirt, swim
trunks, and flip-flops. We are going to be in the presence of the greatest King
ever to rule the earth, not to a barbeque on the beach.
Likewise, when fall rolls around we will start to see our
favorite football jerseys be worn in pride to Mass. Whom do we venerate when we
wear our jerseys to church, Jesus or good ol’ #4 (Brett Favre of the Green Bay
Packers, who is a god to many north of the cheddar curtain). Having pride in
the home team has its place. That place is not the Mass. The Mass is time to
love, adore, and worship the Lord alone.
And that is where I think the problem firmly falls. I think
there is a general misunderstanding of what the Mass actually is. Many of our
Catholic brethren have gone the Martin Luther route and see Mass as nothing
more than a prayer service, an instruction of the faithful. Mass is no longer a
sacrifice.
In reality, Mass is a time machine where heaven and earth
come together as one and we are mystically transported back to the foot of the
cross at Calvary to be with all the angels and every soul who has or will ever
live to participate in the crucifixion of Jesus the Christ. The priest acts as
the conduit merging all of these plains of existence and times into a single
act. The Mass is not the same sacrifice repeated. It is the one sacrifice that
we are joined to each and every time we participate in it.
If you could stand before Jesus on the cross on the day he
was sacrificed would you show up in a T-Shirts and shorts or a football jersey
or would you choose to dress a bit better? Well, each and every time you
participate in the Mass you are doing just that – you are standing before Jesus
on the cross on the day he was crucified. Just because you cannot see the
angels and saints surrounding you does not mean they are not there. Just like
with faith you have to believe what eyes cannot see.
“Now Moses was
pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he
led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the
mountain of God. The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from
the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire,
yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see
this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” When the LORD saw that he
turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said,
“Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Do not come near here;
remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is
holy ground.” He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was
afraid to look at God.” - Exodus 3,
1-6.
When Moses came before the Lord the Lord made Moses remove his
sandals because he was on Holy Ground. Likewise, when you come before the Lord
in the Mass you are also on Holy Ground. It has been consecrated and set aside
for the Lord. To come before the Lord without regard to the way you dress is
disrespectful at the very least, most likely sinful at best, and probably idolatrous
in the extreme. You shall have no other gods before me, even Brett Favre.
Ask yourself this question; if the clothing worn to Mass
doesn’t matter how would you feel if the priest ditched his itchy Roman robes
for shorts and sandals? How would you feel if he walked out to do a wedding in
a Green Bay Packers football jersey? What if he showed up to baptize your baby
in flannel and cowboy boots? Most would be downright furious if this happened
to them. Sadly, some would only be upset because their pictures would be ruined
but most would view this as a gross disrespect to their special day. Every day
is a special day to the Lord.
Clothing is an extension of the soul. It is the visible
representation of how important an event is to you. If the Bishop was going to
be at Mass you wouldn’t wear your shorts and T-shirt. If the Pope was coming by
you wouldn’t wear your Michael Jordan jersey. If you were going to meet the
President of the United States you wouldn’t do so looking like a hobo. You
would have respect for the office these men hold even if you had no respect for
these men as men.
Yet all of these men fail to compare to He whom we come to
worship during Mass. I get to hold the creator of everything in my hands during
Mass. I get to enthrone my King, my Salvation and Redemption and my life with
my body. I get the greatest honor a lowly creature like me could ever have.
The devil wants us to be disrespectful. He wants us to be callous
and unaware of the Lord. Once he is successful in separating us in the small
the important is easier to get us to turn from. Once the devil gets us to think
that the Lord doesn’t care for things like how we dress for Mass it becomes
easier for him to convince us that God doesn’t care about the important things
like abortion or same sex marriage.
It is time we revive “Sunday Best” and
start showing our respect for our Lord when we gather to celebrate the
sacrifice of the Mass.
