by John Oven
Guest Column
What we wear to church matters, not only because it affects us personally, but also because we worship as a community and in that way we become responsible for how we influence each other. We are dressing for an encounter with the King of Kings each time we go to church. That includes not only Mass, but also adoration, baptisms, weddings, confession, and more.
When we enter a Catholic church, we are entering a sacred realm, God’s house. God is present in a special way that demands our attention and respect. Every day we make decisions about what to wear based on where we are going and what we are going to do there. When we are preparing ourselves to come to church, to be in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, we should give God our best when we get our whole being ready, body and soul.
Some will say that God simply desires our hearts; is just happy that we are at church, and has no need for fancy clothes. This minimalist claim ignores the fact that we are composed of both body and soul. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and real demands are placed on us regarding how we use and treat our bodies.
Others might decry dressing up for church as false externals as when Jesus says: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth” (Matthew 23:27). This is a legitimate concern but it does not disprove the need for externals altogether. It does mean we need to employ modesty, which is part of the virtue of temperance, when we choose the clothing we will wear to church.
“Modesty is decency,” states The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), paragraph 2522 and it “protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden” (CCC 2521). This means that we should not only avoid tight-fitting and revealing clothing, but also that we need to choose clothing that conveys our seriousness and respect for God’s house.
Dressing modestly for church means dressing in such a way that we are not drawing attention to ourselves. Both underdressing and overdressing can be signs of our own pride and both can be sources of scandal for those around us. To clarify, though, our level of dress should not just be based on the current standard at the parish in hopes of not standing out, but rather, consider if someone who saw you would assume you were on your way to church based on your clothing.
Before considering the moral implications of how our choice of clothing affects others, we should understand that dressing our best for church benefits us personally. It is important that we prepare ourselves each time we enter a Catholic church and especially before we attend holy Mass and have the opportunity to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. While it is true that God desires most that we prepare our hearts, it is also true that God sees everything and he made us in such a way that we can use our bodies to inform our souls. We do this when we genuflect before entering a pew in a church with a locatable tabernacle. The act of genuflecting with our body cultivates in our heart and soul an increase in our belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and helps our love for him grow. In the same way, we can form ourselves spiritually by the way we dress our bodies for church.
The way we dress for church can inspire others to holiness or distract them. In the case of immodesty, our clothing can even be an occasion of sin for each other. We should consider that we are going to church in order to pray and worship as a community and being part of a community means accepting the responsibility of being interdependent. In my opinion, the most important example of this is the scandal that can be given to children who see you dressed as though the Mass is just one of the things you have to do that day.
Dressing our best for church is a simple way that we can be intentional disciples and evangelists for Christ. The next time you prepare for Mass, adoration, or the celebration of a sacrament, dress to impress upon yourself and others the heavenly reality that you are partaking in.
(John Oven is a parishioner of St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Bloomfield.)
