Question:
My question is regarding the way one should dress for Mass. I should clarify that this is about a Children’s Mass. Because of the season, which is vacation time, many adults and children go in shorts, sandals, tank tops, etc. There are people who are upset by the reminders about this, and one of them asked me to show them where in the Bible it says how we should dress for Mass. I only found a letter from Peter and in the Gospel of Luke something that says ‘to dress decently,’ but it doesn’t speak about Mass or the Eucharist. I want to know how to defend this topic, since our religion is not based on the Bible alone; it is based on faith, traditions, and the Magisterium. Does any part of the Roman Canon speak about dress at Mass?
Answer:
As you rightly state, our religion is not based on the Bible alone; it is based on faith, Tradition, and the Magisterium. Well then, how should one dress to go to Mass? The answer must be sought in Christian morality. The virtue of Temperance is what moderates the appetites of the concupiscible faculty. And specifically, this cardinal virtue has other annexed virtues that make a man good and govern his actions.
Modesty in dress is a virtue that has as its object to keep the due order of reason in the arrangement of one’s body and clothing and in the display of exterior things.
The exterior things we use, considered in themselves, are not vicious; but they can become so through immoderate use, because they do not conform to the right reason. Furthermore, one must take into account that the intention of the person acting can vitiate the entire action. If someone dresses inappropriately to provoke others or out of vanity, the entire action is disordered.
Common sense also affirms this, telling us that one must dress according to the circumstances, always decorously, but the sacredness of a holy place demands that one dress decently.
May God bless you and may you not be discouraged by the difficulties you encounter. Unfortunately, we live in a difficult world, where all these things are not understood because people live superficially and with a worldly spirit.
I greet you attentively.
Fr. Miguel A. Fuentes, IVE
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