Mass attire

Well, I'm feeling like a failure as a blogger. It's been 3 weeks since my last post; though, in my defense, I've been really busy. I'll catch up on life and all that at some point, but I read a really thought-provoking article this morning and wanted to share.

The article, "Adore the Lord in Holy Attire-On Proper Dress for Mass" by Monsignor Charles Pope, can be found here. Msgr. Pope's whole premise is that our culture, which has by and large become a very casual culture, has lost our respect for important occasions. He says that "Here in America we have become extremely casual about the way we dress for just about everything. It seems we almost never dress up anymore. This has changed somewhat dramatically in my own life time of just less than 50 years." Now, I'm only 22, but I do understand where he's coming from. In my own family, my parents have always made a point of having us dress nicely for Mass; in fact, I don't think I've gone to Sunday Mass without nylons since I was about 11 or 12. My younger brothers all wear khakis or dress pants and either a polo shirt or a button-down shirt and tie, as does my father. The only exception is younger brother #1, who is at a military college and therefore often wears his dress uniform when he's home. My mother and I wear skirts or dress and generally make an effort to look as nice as possible. This is pretty typical for my parish, but it isn't always for every parish.

Now, Msgr. Pope doesn't say that everyone ought to be wearing the most expensive clothes available, but rather that we ought to always dress in a way that makes us aware of why we go to church, to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. He says "Going to God’s house IS important. Being ministered to by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is astounding." And he's right. We ought to dress in a way that makes us reflect on the extreme importance of the One whom we are going to receive. But here's the cool part about being Catholic: that doesn't mean the same thing everywhere. Like I said, in my parish, everyone dresses as nicely as they can, but for the Igbo people from Nigeria, that means their traditional dress: dresses with headdresses for the women, pants and tunics for the men, all highly embroidered and colorful. For the Montagnard people from Vietnam, it means, again, traditional dress. Most of the rest of the community dresses in traditional Western dress clothes, but the point is that it's totally possible to express individuality and culture within the body of the Church.

In the Latin rite, today is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, also known as Corpus Christi. Our homily today was about the transformative power of the Eucharist; the visiting priest talked about how when we eat regular food, we take what the animals and plants were and change it into what we are, but when we receive the Eucharist, if we are properly prepared, Jesus makes us more like him. He said that "Animals and plants feed us for a day or a week, but Jesus feeds us for all eternity." And that, truly, is something worth dressing up for.