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Oh, thou slob! Thine attire at church proclaims who thou art

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I am appalled at the attire of some of the faithful at Sunday Mass. It ranges from the sloppy to the exhibitionistic: men in scruffy dungarees and grimy T-shirts; women in hip-hugging Levi's and frowzy blouses; boys, like bums, in baggy, rent breeches and frayed sport shirts; girls, like demimondaines, in skimpy skirts and tank tops.

The Catholic man or woman who does not dress appropriately for Sunday Mass is an individual who really does not understand the full meaning and importance of the "every eighth day." The very fact that we put on our "Sunday best," our “Sunday-go-to-meeting-clothes," says something to ourselves and to others – something about the quality of our personal religious life and observance. The smartly dressed person conveys a message.

For the follower of Christ, the Sabbath is that day of the week on which the Lord rose from the dead. So the Christian Sabbath is not just a day of resting and recreating, it is the weekly holy day; it is a "little Easter," the Lord's day.

The Second Vatican Council states: "By apostolic tradition the Church celebrates the paschal mystery every eighth day .... The Lord's day is the original feast day. It should be taught to the faithful in such a way that it may become in fact a day of joy and freedom from work."

The Council offers the main reason why thinking Catholics don their finery on this special day of worship, culture, and renewal. Indeed, the United States bishops (1973) went so far as to say, "A major manifestation of genuine Catholic life is to keep holy the day of the Lord's resurrection."

Catholics express their belief in the specialness of the Lord's day by worshipping God at Mass and by adorning themselves for the day in dapper but not foppish apparel. Just as we show respect and obeisance to the Pope in a papal audience by wearing trim and distinctive raiment, so also we give honor to the Lord when, upon visiting God's house for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, we garb ourselves in stylish clothes.

In my own family of nine children, all the kids were decked out in their "Sunday best," even though at the end of the day childish high jinks reduced the clean wardrobe to a ragbag of shabby, soiled, and tattered laundry. Immigrant Catholic families, chiefly those in Hispanic parishes, still cling to the tradition sprucing up for Sunday. Regretfully, offspring of second- and third-generation immigrants have, for the most part, discontinued the practice.

Times change. Our forebears dressed for dinner. Today, only a royal invitation would prompt Americans to put on their fancy vestments.

Casual dress is the order of the day.

High-toned restaurants rarely require jackets and ties for men and fashionable dress for women.

Classroom professors like to look more like tatterdemalions than a fastidiously attired Mr. Chips.

Students religiously conform to the peer-popular ragamuffin style. Dress codes are passé.

Even Catholic priests, at one time identified by black suit and Roman collar, are now, costume wise, indistinguishable from the laity.

O tempora, O mores! Nostalgia for the "good old days" increases with age. Golden Agers pine for Elysian days when women preened for Sunday Mass and men regarded a pin-striped suit, starched collar, and wife-picked necktie as a sine qua non for church going and as the epitome of sartorial splendor, equal to the best of a Beau Brummell.

Can we turn the clock back? Perhaps. When old timers, however, bemoan the demise of decorous habiliment at Sunday Mass, their underlying concern is that indifference to proper dress manifests a lack of appreciation for what the Lord's Day is all about.

Of course, with only 30 percent of all Catholics participating in the Sunday liturgy, pastors are happy to see church pews occupied, no matter if men look like "Ben the beggar" and women like "Sally in our alley."

In final analysis, clothing can and does reflect religious conviction. The Bible reminds us, "The attire of the body tells you what a man is." (Ecclesiasticus, 19:27).

The Bard of Avon also counsels seemliness in dress:

"Let thy attire be comely, not gaudy

For the apparel oft proclaims the man."

Father Lennon is a resident of St. Thomas Aquinas Priory at Providence College.