Fashion is probably one of our modern age’s greatest concerns. It may not seem so, when one looks at some young people in ripped jeans and creased tee-shirts, but don’t be deceived, as each rip and each crease is carefully placed. ‘Sunday Best’ has come a long way and means difference things to different people. Indeed, the diversity of fashions seems to create divisions, often unintentionally, so that one group may be dismissive – or even fearful – of another group’s attire.
Whilst it is always important for the Christian to show respect by making an effort to dress for Mass, there is something far more important than mere fabric, which the Christian must consider as part of his or her calling. It is a far more glorious garment than any designer ensemble and enables the bearer to be an individual, but without losing their identity as a member of the Christian family. It proclaims the wearer as being a follower of Christ, united with God and His Church.
In today’s second reading, St Paul discusses the divisions in the society of his age when he talks of Jews, Greeks, slaves and freeman. We have our own divisions: rich and poor; black and white, etc. Some things don’t change! However, here we see how radical the gospel truly is. For no matter how our ‘enlightened’ and godless societies might consider themselves, they cannot help but create division and difference, in spite of their rhetoric to the contrary. True unity can only come from the God who is Unity in Trinity. For this reason, Paul teaches his listeners to clothe themselves with Christ – to put on Christ. In doing so, we become Christ’s and share in the Divine Love of the Trinity, which we celebrated in a significant way two weeks ago on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, but which is itself the apotheosis of all Christian worship. To clothe oneself in Christ is to enter an intimate relationship with God. It is to become one who proclaims Love; it is to become a living Gospel. We give testimony to God by putting on Christ.
In the Gospel today, Peter knew how to put on Christ when he acknowledged who our Lord truly was. The Gospel reading makes it plain that the price has been paid by Christ in his suffering. It is through the Passion and Death of our Lord that we can put on Christ. There is no other way to enter into this relationship of Divine Love; but, whilst the price has been paid by Christ, it is clear that, for our part, we must renounce ourselves, take up our cross and follow the Lord. The final point, that of following Christ, is an ongoing action and it is an eternal one. As the Compendium of the Catechism puts it (56):
While respecting our freedom, God asks us to cooperate with Him and gives us the ability to do so through actions, prayers and sufferings, thus awakening in us the desire ‘to will and work for His good pleasure’.
Phil. 2: 13
In a holiday, given at St Chad’s Cathedral in 1850, the Venerable John Henry Newman considered what it meant to put on Christ in this way when he wrote:
[We do not] dream of asking for more than that which, through God’s grace, will be ‘evident’, though there be ‘many adversaries’… No one proclaims the truth to a deceived world, but will be treated himself as a deceiver. We know our place and our fortunes: to give witness, and to be reviled; to be cast out as evil, and to succeed. Such is the law which the Lord of all has annexed to the promulgation of the truth: its preachers suffer, but its cause prevails. Joyfully have we become a party to this bargain; and as we have resigned ourselves to the price, so we intend, by God’s aid, to claim the compensation.
