I agree that God is perfect and Holy and His Holy Word tells us to dress holy (I posted two passages already), and God’s Church also says the same thing.
Neither scripture nor the church has said that jeans are inappropriate.
I disagree. At some point, the lookee is complicit in being a distraction.
Jesus was often invited to dinner. How did He, and the other diners dress?
Or how about Saint Francis, did he wear a suit to church, or did he show up in the equivelent of jeans because that was all he had.
Jesus often wore a seamless garment, which in those days was quite expensive and considered high quality. At the cross the soldiers did not want to ruin the expensive garment by tearing it into pieces.
I agree, jeans are not mentioned. Yet, the Bible and the Church speak of proper attire, and “proper” is defined as being respectful, holy, and modest.
Very simple, because getting dressed up for a wedding is a custom. By following the custom, I avoid drawing attention to myself, which is proper because the wedding is not about me. In addition, as I said before, the wedding is partly a human affair and some people seem to get their knickers in a snit if people wear jeans. Out of respect to them, I will bow to their preferences, even though I think their preferences are silly and rather petty.
Standing on your head during Mass is not expressely forbidden either.
As I said, you are more concerned with humans, then God.
No, because God calls us to be charitable to one another. My dressing up for a wedding when is a form of charity. But my getting wearing a suit to church for mass is not a form of charity towards God. God is not concerned with the externals, he is concerned with the internal state of a person. Let me put it another way. Yes, I would wear a suit to a wedding, but not to my parents for Thanksgiving dinner. Does this imply that I value the person getting married more than my parents? Absolutely not.
The external is governed by the internal.
True, to some extent. If I were to show up to mass in my swimming suit, that would say something about my internal state of affairs. However, my showing up in jeans, says very little about my internal state of affairs. All it does is say that I look at what Scripture and the Church teaches and find there is nothing that convicts me not to wear jeans. Given that the Church has not addressed this issue, it is something that we must leave up to an individual’s conscience.
You consistently state that God does not care about externals, yet I have posted two passages that prove He must give it at least some merit. I know of no Bible passage or Church teaching that says God does not care about externals, if you do please post it here.
Ok, I will concede that God is not totally unconcerned with externals. For example, I would not show up in a swimming suit. On the other hand, what is appropriate depends upon the context. I once attended mass wearing an old t shirt and ripped shorts. Was it innapropriate, no, because it was a mass for our high school football team right before a game, in that context it was quite appropriate. If jeans are inappropriate for mass, are they inappropriate for daily mass or just sunday mass? If I am walking down the street in Chicago (I used to live there) would it be inappropriate to stop in for an hour of adoration because I happen to have jeans or shorts on? Context matters.
Thank you for that chat. I think we both know where we stand.
I can answer that.