I know, it’s kind of a tricky situation.
Yes, wearing a mantilla is a visible sign of respect for God.
So is praying a rosary with rosary beads.
So are statues and stained glass windows.
So is venerating a crucifix.
And a whole bunch of other things.
BUT a person who doesn’t wear a head covering, doesn’t use rosary beads while praying, has a church which doesn’t have statues or stained glass, etc can be equally respectful of God.
Of course we all know that some people are just about ‘the outward appearance’ for their own personal satisfaction.
BUT we also know that sometimes actually the ‘outward appearance’ is not for personal satisfaction but for showing that ‘respect’.
And we really cannot, and should not, be determining the heart of another person based on ‘appearance’.
I’ll give an example. Suppose you’re a young woman attending an outdoor wedding of a not particularly religious friend (and let’s make it outside COVID times). You’re Catholic, and you choose to wear to the wedding a crucifix necklace and a small ‘choose life’ pin (like the ‘precious feet’). You wear them because you always wear them, as to you nothing is more important than your Catholic faith and your devotion to the pro-life movement.
You could, of course, have those very same feelings without wearing a visible crucifix or the pins, but the fact is, that those visible signs ‘show’ what is otherwise hidden. And they can provoke not only ‘good’ attention but ‘bad’ attention. Perhaps another woman at the wedding had an abortion and sees the precious feet pin and starts haranguing you about how ‘hateful’ the anti choice people are. Perhaps you get sneers and jeers sent your way about ‘genocidal cults’ from militant atheists. You would have avoided the ‘bad attention’ had you not chosen to put a visible sign of your belief out there. In this world, that can be dangerous. But it could also lead the young women who had an abortion into talking with you about Rachel’s Vineyard and lead to her healing. It could make the older man who had left the church 40 years ago start remembering the prayers of his youth and return to confession. Again, these ‘good reactions’ would not have occurred without the visible sign.
So it seems sometimes God can call us to be a more visible sign. . .and sometimes we don’t know what the reactions could be. It might seem as if we’re constantly misinterpreted or if the reactions are all bad. . .but we don’t know the whole picture. We can trust God and hope. . .and again, not ‘assume the worst’ of others.
:smiling_face_with_three_hearts:
