What does this set of clothes signify?
What do you wear to Church? What about to work? To bed? Or the pool? Would you wear the same thing in all of these different settings? Of course not! Wearing a suit in the pool would make it hard to swim and wearing a swimsuit to work would probably get you fired. The fact that we change clothes for different activities may seem obvious to us, but why do we do this? Because the body matters!
What we wear often signals our intentions to others. While we obviously shouldn’t judge people for what they wear generally, we can make reasonable inferences about what a person might be doing based off their clothes. If you see me in a swimsuit, you can assume I expect to encounter water. If I wear armor, I’m probably headed towards trouble, or some sort of costumed event. In a dress suit, you’d probably expect me to attend a formal gathering. When our outfits don’t match the occasion, it can send confusing signals to those around us. If I attended a gala in my bathing suit, the host might reasonably think I’m pulling a prank. If I dress sloppily to take a girl on a date, she might reasonably think I don’t respect her. If I showed up to mass in pajamas, you might reasonably think I didn’t take it seriously.
Our clothes can also portray something of our own self-image. When I leave home to run errands, I don’t dress up. I usually wear athletic shorts, a tee shirt, and flip flops, because I know I don’t need to impress anyone. On the other hand, when I go to a job interview, I try to look sharp, because I do want to impress the interviewer.
The same can be said of modesty. Some parts of our bodies have a special–even sacred–place in God’s design. If I don’t feel the need to cover these parts of my body, I most likely don’t really see them as sacred. This might happen because I don’t feel worthy of love and feel the need to attract others in order to feel loved. But God made our bodies fundamentally good and loves us no matter what. We dress modestly to reflect this fact. Every person has dignity, and the way we dress should honor that dignity.
So next time you open your closet, take a moment to think about where you intend to go that day. It might be worth asking yourself the question, does this outfit respect God’s
design for the body?
This is when it’s appropriate to wear armor to work
Chris Tarantino is the Communications Director for TOBET. He studied History at The University at Texas A&M and has written for the Tennessee Register and Nashville Catholic.
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