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.