Dressed to Pray, or Something Else?

     I want to keep this one short, but it has a point. I was in a conversation with a good friend and he mentioned to me someone he knew who made a rather big deal about someone wearing shorts to pray in the Adoration Chapel. I am sure this well meaning fellow saw this as an opportunity to educate someone on the proper dress when approaching the Lord and what a missed opportunity it was! Imagine saying “Is THAT what you are wearing?” to someone who simply wants to go pray. The simplest remarks could turn a person from yearning piety to shameful aversion.

      I have been on the receiving end of such scorn, in Mass no less. Let me set the record straight I do own a suit and some nice clothing BUT there was a time when I did not, and my nicest clothes were still packed. (Nicest being a polo and jeans without holes in them) So here we are, my wife and I, in a new town, going to Mass at a parish that apparently had a dress code. I get it we want the congregation to look nice. In no way were we dressed as slobs but I was not wearing a fine suit or anything either. Like I said, polo and jeans. We did get looks throughout Mass but the icing on the cake was the literally “once over” look we both received from a Eucharistic Minister who in this order: Held the Body of Christ in her hands, looked my wife from head to toe, rolled her eyes, and mumbled “The Body of Christ.” I swear if I had been wearing shorts she might have refused us Communion!

     Now this brings to mind several things. What if some poor soul stumbled into that Mass after the worst day of work in his life, dirty and tired, with no time to come home, and in a state of desperate need for love? What if that look I received had been given to him? If our dress is regarded as a prayer then should we not go into the quiet place of our heart and, you know, not worry about what the other guy is wearing. Maybe that guy in shorts or jeans is like the poor woman at the well who gave her two coins. The nicest I have had at times, my two coins, have been a pair of jeans and a nice shirt.

      I do like dressing up nice for Mass. I really do, but I am not about to flaunt it as though it is the highest and almighty good, or that it is the requirement to come before the Lord. Certainly some will argue: You would dress as nice as you could to see the President! Yes that is true but I don’t plan on having a relationship with the President, nor do I put God on such a low level as to compare him to a politician. He should be held in much higher regard than that. He is the ruler and Creator of All. So if you think about it, if we were to come before the Lord as he wants us, as he sees us, then we would all be naked.

Quick! Tie me to the Mast!

In the series A Song of Ice and Fire, the character Mance Rayder makes the interesting comment that men must have someone to bend a knee to. While he spat this as an insult it does ring true. Humans have a propensity to gravitate towards leaders, have people they look up to, and are, no matter what we think, servants.

What's that? You aren't a servant? of course not how silly of me to assume. you can leave the room now, OK now let's get back to it. Yes. Slaves. We are kidding ourselves if one of us wakes up one morning and says "Oh yes, I am in complete control of what is going on!"

The truth is that we have to, at some level, acknowledge that we are not in control. We are following some code of behavior or thought that has us chained. What are we chained to? Christianity is a religion of paradoxes. Eternal life was won through death, and in order to be free we must be servants. Of course our silly human brains hear this and think "How dare God claim I should be a servant to anyone? Should I not be free?" It is our nature to rebel against this and that is why it is all the more beautiful when a person rebels against their own broken nature and links their mind, body, and heart to serving the Lord.

The truth is, we are put into slavery no matter what we do. The free thinker is still subject to his own ideas and experiences. He is a wanderer without a map. The Congregation of the Amalgamated Church of the Spiritual but Not Religious are still lost to the extend that they have a destination but no directions or guide. The sinful are slaves to their sin. So that is the choice, bond one way or another. While there is another choice, it is certainly the worst of the three: we can always not choose! (which is still a choice) Not taking the servitude of one Master or another leaves one without quarter. It leaves one to stagnate in the cold darkness of the night. To be bound to an ideal or belief is to be pulled in the direction of it, and we must always be aware of the direction we are be led. We are not called to be blind, but to follow. This is true in life and in the everlasting life. BadCatholic wrote a piece on Heaven that was more intelligent and elegant than I can hope to write today. He has it right though, Heaven is an absolute forward motion. "Further up and further in" as my good friend C.S. Lewis would say (I can say that because he isn't around to defend against such allegations like being associated with me). We are Ulysses, tied to the mast, with the world spinning around us but being pulled ever towards our goal: home. Whose mast have we lashed ourselves to? Where is this boat heading exactly?



You guys know how to steer this thing right??

We are all indentured servants working off our debt to our Masters. The question is how will the Master treat us once we are free. For Catholics, in the midst of Lent especially, we have cause to examine who the Master of our spiritual home is. We give ourselves away by our actions. By making our actions an imitation God, who loves, and making God the master of the house, then we free ourselves from bondage only to bind ourselves to a Master who wants to pull us forward, and make us new.

Saints of the new Millenium, Assemble!

It is no secret that I am super excited for The Avengers. It appeals to the comic book fan, the Joss Whedon fan, and the action movie fan in me all at once. One of the things that sets Marvel comics apart, for me, is the humanity of the characters. DC's Batman, and Superman are all seemingly the god figures of a mythology, but Spider man, the X-men, and The Avengers are all very human with very human flaws. Portraying our heroes with some sort of tragic flaw adds a layer of relation to the character because we are all flawed beings. We all have our weaknesses, and unlike Superman's Kryptonite, our weaknesses are from within ourselves.

So that leaves me asking which Avenger am I? Which weakness do I carry in my faith and how I live my life? Am I:

Tony Stark/Iron Man: (addictions aside) Am I the flashy one? Do my arrogance and aloofness leave me segregated from my fellow heroes? Is it hard for me to accept their help or acknowledge they are right and I am wrong? Do I think that I am somehow more qualified than the rest of the world?

Thor: Is it a different kind of pride that I have? Do I think I am invincible? Do I lack humility?

Bruce Banner/The Hulk: Is there something within me that I fear so much that i simply run? Is what I think to be my weakness actually my gift and strength? Do I hide my light from the world and thus fail to work to save it?

Steve Rogers/Captain America: Do I feel purposeless? Do I feel like i belong to another world, or another time, and that my gifts have nothing good to offer this world?

or am I something else entirely?

In what is sure to be a tense moment in the movie the main antagonist (that we know of) Loki is asking "How desperate are you that you would call upon such a creature?" referring to if not one but all of the members of the superhero team brought together by Nick Fury. I am sure we often find ourselves asking God the same question, referring to ourselves, or sometimes to others. It usually sounds something like "I am not worthy." (hopefully some of you read that in your best Monty Python accent!) The point is not that we are not worthy but we were chosen despite that! Despite our weaknesses and flaw we have been given a task to be stewards of the world and to be a light of love when there is no hope! When Jesus picked his apostles He did not go find the most upright citizens in town, he picked the weak, working men, some who would deny Him. He had to know they would fail him, but He called them out anyway because He knew their potential. So Christ assembled his team, and has called us to so assemble.

The orders are simple: make the world better, by loving one another.
Clothe the naked, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, care for the sick.
Love each other as you are so loved. Sin or no sin, we are all deserving of that love.

As Catholics we have a unique set of individuals to look to for inspirations. The Saints! From the Early Church to Modern Day there are stories of flawed men and women answering the call to make the world a better place. These are the heroes who existed and walked the same Earth we do, with the same struggles, and felt called to serve. They let their gifts shine as a light to the world in times of darkness.

We have the same call. John Paul II himself said in his World Youth Day address: "Young people of every continent, do not be afraid to be the saints of the new millennium! Be contemplative, love prayer; be coherent with your faith and generous in the service of your brothers and sisters, be active members of the Church and builders of peace." Read the whole thing here (It's a good one)

ASSEMBLE!!

If that doesn't sound like a call to form the Justice League I don't know what does! WE can be the heroes, WE can be the Saints, WE can inspire the future generations to take care of one another. What we don't have to do is be flawless about it. Fall down, get back up. Easy as that.