The parable is about the white garment of Baptism, which is the purity of our souls.
Do you actually wear a literal wedding dress to Mass?
This is a question that is often asked “backwards.” When we say “appropriate” and suggest that decent attire according to our cultural norms (which vary even from county to county in the U.S.) is appropriate for Mass, somebody always says, “what about. . .” the poor or what-have-you. The point is not that the poor or people on the bottom rungs of the culture ladder should not be admitted without tie and jacket. The point is that those who are from social strata where jacket and tie are normal should consider Mass to be at LEAST as important as a day at the office.
Even men’s fashions change, eventually. In 1776, all the best-dressed men wore wigs, lace, and silk stockings. In 1938, men wore suits to sell you a car, but they took those Fedoras off in church. When I was growing up, I remember having to get “dressed up” to go to the grocery store. Women wore gloves before setting foot into a department store, let alone a church. If you showed up at a decent mercant in gym clothes, you would not be waited on. You might even be asked to leave the store. That was a day or two ago!
--and as long as you have a shirt and shoes on, no questions asked. For some reason, the mere fact that a person can drop $100 each on a pair of deliberately worn-out(!) jeans and a pair of sneakers means that these should be considered appropriate clothing everywhere. Yet the pressure on young people to wear the “right” clothes, regardless of cost, is perhaps more vicious than ever. (In other words, the “no fashion” fashion is a myth. The slaves are chained in tighter than ever!)Of course not “tuxedos” (properly called dinner jackets). They are evening dress. Up thread, I mentioned a church where the ushers on Sunday morning wear striped pants and cutaways. In the “swell” Episcopal Church in Palm beach, they wear white flannels, white bucks and blue blazers – Palm Beach is casual.Even men’s fashions change, eventually. In 1776, all the best-dressed men wore wigs, lace, and silk stockings. In 1938, men wore suits to sell you a car, but they took those Fedoras off in church. When I was growing up, I remember having to get “dressed up” to go to the grocery store. Women wore gloves before setting foot into a department store, let alone a church. If you showed up at a decent mercant in gym clothes, you would not be waited on. You might even be asked to leave the store. That was a day or two ago!
When John Kitzhaber was governor of Oregon (1995-2003?), he went nearly everywhere in jeans and cowboy boots. It isn’t just that dress has become far less formal and far more likely to be immodest in church. This is the general trend in “fashion”…no fashion, no standard other than comfort–except maybe “is it sexy?” even down to preschool girls!
Correct me if I’m wrong, though, but in no social group in which men wore tuxedos on a regular basis were those garments ever worn for Sunday morning worship. Suits, yes, but not tuxedos.
Palm Beach is a little bit of an extraordinary case when it comes to how it defines “casual”, don’t you think? Still, I see your point. What might make a person look odd in Oregon could be de rigour somewhere else. I don’t know if he’s pulling my leg or what, but the OP is holding out not only for dinner jackets, but for white tie. There may have been somewhere in space or time when that was appropriate attire for Sunday morning worship, but I’m not aware of it.
And expensive, too, at $814 per ounce.
Logically, the church decides. Just like restaurants decide what dress is acceptable for their establishment, so should the Church.
Restaurant dress codes are business decisions. I would hope that this case is more like your grandparents deciding what kind of clothing to tolerate in their home.
Restaurants have that right, of course, the question is whether to have a dress code would be prudent or not. It probably would not be prudent (i.e. profit maximizing) for a local diner to require a coat and tie. They would lose too much business that way.
What’s a “tie”?
Sounds like a Smothers Brothers routine.
I dress for Mass better than I do for anything else, and let it go at that…
You know those red things that guys put around their necks when they want to get elected? One of those.
that’s what ethel says…I dress for Mass better than I do for anything else, and let it go at that…
I believe that St. Francis would argue that the peasant robe would be more appropriate.
Interesting point. Do we go to dazzle, or in humility?
I for one would prefere to kneel at an altar rail and receive on the tongue.