← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
What Do You Wear to Mass?
00:07:46
Should we wear our best to Mass? Fr. Mike explores the balance between 'coming as you are' and 'putting on your best for the Lord.' He explains that while the state of our hearts ultimately matters most, it's not the only thing that matters. Dressing respectfully for Mass can be a way to honor God, but it should never cover up a lack of sincerity or distract from the true purpose of the Mass. The question to consider is: does my outward appearance reflect the love and reverence in my heart?
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Let this be the beginning of a discussion. In the comments, be nice to each other. What are your thoughts when it comes to this idea of bringing wearing your best to Mass? Also knowing that we can also show up to Mass wearing our worst. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascended Presents. I was talking with someone the other day, and in the course of our conversation they said that a priest once told them about the importance of what we wear to Mass and that. That it's very important to if you can get dressed up for Mass. And this was something that struck them in a way that. In a way that they didn't like it. I'll say that they did not like this message because they said, listen, I know the truth about God. I know the truth about God is that he accepts me however I am, however I approach him, he loves me however I approach him, he rejoices over the fact that I exist, over the fact that I've shown up, over the fact that I'm there. They're right in saying that what they know about God is that God loves them as they are, that God loves you as you are, that how are we come before the Lord? Like, again, he accepts us because he. Why? I mean, think about. One of my favorite lines in the Old Testament is from the first book of Samuel where the prophet Samuel goes to Jesse to see. To anoint one of his sons as the next king. And he sees the oldest son. And Samuel's like, well, this has got to be the guy. I mean, he looks like a king. And the Lord God says, no, no, no, do not judge by his lofty stature or his appearance. The Lord does not look at the outward appearance, but at the heart. Essentially. In some ways, it is the heart that ultimately matters. Now, at the same time. So that's totally true. At the same time, if it's the heart that ultimately matters, is it also true that it's the heart that only matters? We realize that sometimes the external covers the internal and sometimes the external conveys the internal. Here's what I mean. And so sometimes the external covers the internal. So Jesus talks about. How many times does Jesus talk about hypocrites? That term is the Greek word for actor, right? Pretender. Someone who wants to look a certain way on the outside, but doesn't want to actually be that way on the inside. So they're pretending they're acting. They're a hypocrite. So in that case, the external is actually covering the internal. So in the case of, say, go to Math Going to mass. I'm going to cover the external with like very, very nice clothes because I don't really care about my internal disposition. So I'm going to look like I like this matters, but it doesn't really matter to me. I'm going to look like I want to give God my best, but I don't actually want to give God my best. Internally, that's a reality. That's a danger we could fall into where the external covers the internal. The other thing though is sometimes we have to realize the external conveys the internal. What I mean by that is if I knew. If I knew that when I come to worship that I'm about to do the greatest act in the known universe to actually worship, offer the sacrifice of the Son to the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit with the ministerial priest united Jesus, the great high priest, right? If I knew that that was happening, this is the greatest work possible, would I not dress appropriately? Would I not want my internal disposition of. I mean, I'm here to worship the Almighty God. Would I not want my internal disposition to in some way be expressed by my external appearance? Again, we know the internal ultimately matters, but is it the only thing that matters? And I don't think it is. In fact, it seems like. And you know, when we're talking about Jesus parables, sometimes we have to be a little bit. Know he's making a point. But there's a couple times when Jesus tells some stories. Remember the story about the king who's holding a banquet? He sends people out, bring them all in. I want everyone to come into my banquet. I want everyone to be part of this. And there's one guy there without a wedding garment. And Jesus says, bro. He says, friend, bro. He says, friend, how come you're here without a wedding garment? The man doesn't say anything. He kicks him out. Now, let's keep this in mind. When it comes to parables, it's not about clothing necessarily. It is about an internal disposition. That is, it could be about baptism, it could be a bunch of different things. But it seems to me that Jesus is making a connection between our internal disposition and our external reality. External dress. Now, what that external dress actually is can vary from place to place, right? Culture to culture. What is like, you know, your Sunday best in downtown Manhattan would not necessarily be person's Sunday best in Zimbabwe. Which person's Sunday best in Kiev would not necessarily be their Sunday best in Bogota. But in all of those cases, I want to be wearing my best. It might not be the same thing across the board. And also we know individually, right, we know individually that my best might not be the same as someone else's best. That actually it might be the case that I only own, I don't know, torn up jeans. And so I'll wear my nice torn up jeans. I remember having a. We had a Easter vigil and at one point we had the rehearsal that, that earlier that day. And one of our young men, he had on a pretty nice tracksuit, right? So, like, you know, warm ups, they matched the bottom and the top matched, you know, this nice tracksuit. It's all clean. And I was like, hey, so what are you wearing tonight? Because I was thinking that I think you're going to wear that tonight to the Easter vigil as you become Catholic. And he's like, well, this. I was like, okay, well, it's a very nice tracksuit. Do you have anything that you would consider your Sunday best? He's like, oh, yeah, totally. I have a suit and tie. How about you wear that? So he was thinking, oh, my best, my best tracksuit is great. But I think it was actually helping him to say, oh, this is the kind of event where if you have something nicer, we're the nicest thing you have to this event. Because this is a really big deal. Because why we know that our external sometimes covers the internal. We also know that the external sometimes conveys the internal. And I knew this guy, I knew that if he knew that, oh, this is a suit and tie thing. I'll be there with a suit and tie. Sometimes you don't tell each other that because we, of course, because, you know, telling people what to wear, it's treading on thin ice. But I think there's no rule about what you need to wear. I just think this, I think God deserves our best. And so we give him our heart. That's what he wants more than anything else. As an expression of that, I think sometimes we say, God deserves my best. And I want my external to convey that internal. So he gets my best heart, he gets my best self, he gets me at my best dressed last thing. We also know God wants all of us, meaning our best and our worst. So I give him my best in my heart and also give my worst in my heart, I give my best self, but I also have to be willing to give him my worst self. And yes, even when it comes to externals, I gave him my best, you know, my best dress. But I also, you know, sometimes you may show up at your worst. You may show up with your worst clothes but your best heart. God takes it all because he wants all of you. So my invitation don't let not having nice clothes prohibit you from going to mass. Don't judge someone else for not having nice clothes. It's not about the clothes. Ultimately it's about the heart. But does my external cover that internal heart? Or does the external convey that internal heart? What are your thoughts? Be nice to each other, but what are your thoughts in the comments below? Anyways, from all the safety sense presents, my name is Father Mike. God bless.