Grandpa’s Gift, Sunday Best, and What Not to Wear to Mass

There’s an episode of “Seinfeld,” where Jerry is getting ready because George is picking him up to go somewhere. George walks into Jerry’s apartment and Jerry says, “Give me one second, I’ll be right back”. He goes into his bedroom, and he’s gone for a moment, and he comes back out and he’s wearing a new sports coat. He’s fixing the collar and kind of tucking it at it when George says, “That new?” Jerry says, “Yes, just got it. I have got to tell you, when I wear this jacket, I feel something different inside. It’s changed everything in my life. I feel the sense of purpose and I feel a sense of peace and I feel like I’m ready for any social situation.” George says to him, “Can I say with all masculinity, your look fabulous.”

I want talk about what it means to dress our Sunday best. When you were baptized, you were given a white garment. You were given this new gown. Every time we come to Mass, we take off our garment of misery and mourning and we put on the beautiful garments, the cloak of Justice from God. 

We hear from the prophet, Baruch, “We will be wrapped in the cloak of justice, and bear on our heads, a mitre that displays the glory of the [God’s] eternal name.” 

When I was growing up there were six of us kids, three boys, three girls and I don’t think I ever had anything new. I think everything that I owned was passed down to me either from my older siblings or cousins or neighbors. I remember my Confirmation I wore my neighbor’s suit, and it was three times too big. That’s what I wore to my Confirmation. I went to Holy Family Grade School where everyone wore a uniform. Then I went to Valley Forge High School, and I was so glad I didn’t have to wear a uniform anymore. That was in the 90s. I don’t know if you remember the early 90s but everybody dressed as grungy as they could, the grungier you looked, the better. So, it was torn jeans and a rock band T-shirt with the flannel tied around you, and that was my experience of dressing up for high school. When I went to Tri-C for college, which was five minutes from my house, I used to pride myself on waking up ten minutes before class, putting on a pair of Adidas pants and a hooded sweatshirt, and that’s how I went to college.

Then I went to the seminary, and everything changed. I had to go back to a dress code at the seminary. I’ll never forget that we needed two things, a black suit and an Alb, the white Alb that the servers and the Priest and Deacon wear for Mass. 

My grandmother, my father’s mother, was a very classy woman. She dressed to the nines for everything. She was just a beautiful woman, and she dressed my grandfather that way as well. She died before I went into the seminary but when I went in and found out I needed a suit, (I never had a suit before, but my grandfather wanted to buy me one and he gave me the money. He said, “I want you to buy a really nice suit.”), I went to the mall and bought a suit with a tie and a dress shirt, shoes, belt, everything. I remember looking in the mirror and thinking, ‘That’s quite a difference there.’

There was a priest that gave me an Alb and as seminarians, once a year we have to go to a different parish and do a weekend live in and preach at all the Masses. I was at Holy Angels in Bainbridge, and the night before I tried my Alb on for the first time and I looked at myself in the mirror and I thought, ‘Wow, I look holy.’ It really did something. So, the way that we dress does impact us. 

I want to do two things before I finish the homily. Promise me that you will not look around at each other right now, OK? And secondly, that you will never judge anyone on how they dress. We should never judge anyone by how they dress. 

A couple of formal tips. When we were baptized, we were given this white garment, this white baptismal garment, this Alb when we were baptized. We do this so that the outside reflects our inward dignity. When we come to Mass, our outside should reflect our inward dignity. That means that when we come to Mass and present ourselves to God and to each other, it matters. It reveals something about who we believe that we are. 

I think back then to the grunge era, and I think a lot of what was behind that was really like just low self-esteem, a self-loathing, you know, that we didn’t think we were even worthwhile dressing up. The truth is you are worthy, you are beautiful, you are God’s beloved son and daughter. 

I think it’s good that we do try to dress our Sunday best. I was thinking about a couple of things with that. Both have to do with words and symbols. When we come to Mass, we come to hear the Word of God, and this is a practical thing this is not anywhere in the church teaching, but it’s just something I thought would be neat. We shouldn’t have any words on our shirt that would take us away from the message at Mass that we have come to receive. 

A practical thing that you might think about is don’t wear shirts with words on them. It’s interesting, especially I’m sure with Eucharistic ministers too, you see people coming up for communion and you can’t help but read sometimes what is on the shirts. So, don’t put any words on your clothes, because that just would take away from the word of God. 

And the second is symbols. We should not brand ourselves as anything other than God. So again, no blame or judgment but, you’re not sponsored by Nike when you come to Mass, or a sports team or anything else. Don’t wear any brand because our identity, our branding should be about Christ, about Jesus. 

I love this freedom that the Prophet is telling us. We have the freedom to take off our robe of misery and mourning. Isn’t that beautiful? We can take that off, leave that behind when we come to Mass. We can get rid of our misery and mourning. We do that every Mass at the beginning of the Penitential Right when we call to mind our sins, when we ask God to grant us His pardon and peace, He’s removing our misery and mourning. Then when we receive the Eucharist, we become a temple of God; We begin to radiate His glory to all of those that see us. 

I hope that you know that you do have dignity. Sure, we should never be judged by how we dress, and we should be loved unconditionally by how we dress. But also, because we are a sacramental people, what we wear reflects our inward dignity. Because your inward dignity is good, your inward dignity is beautiful, your inward dignity is of such value. Dress yourselves to reflect that. Maybe, like Seinfeld, God the Father will look at you and say, “You look fabulous.”