Inspiring Ire

Just recently,while doing coursework for my class in Spiritual Theology, I read an excerpt on Moses from St. Gregory of Nyssa. He spoke of the clothing of Moses being washed clean as a "habit", significant because the exterior of a human being reflects upon the interior. It was an allegory, to be certain, but I suspect, not having done other research, that the term we use for religious garb likely dates back to that usage by St. Gregory of Nyssa.

To Wear or Not to Wear

This topic seems to always get people up at arms, and truly I don't understand why. We all have opinions. We all have clothing. We all have opinions about clothing. Why does the use or non-use of the Habit inspire such ire?

Last spring, I attended an Archdiocesan training event, and shared a table with a DRE from another parish. Somehow, the topic of Vocations arose randomly, and I mentioned a friend of mine who was entering a Benedictine Cloister. The DRE was shocked and stated that she thought women no longer chose that kind of life. She sincerely wanted to know why my friend, and other women, would choose not only to wear a habit, but to live that kind of life?

I responded that it was a Call of Christ Himself, to give herself radically to Him, to pray for the Church, for Priests (their charism) and us all. I mentioned the other communities that are EXPLODING with Vocations, such as the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, and the LA Carmelites, as well as others that wear habits. The DRE's confusion was growing; this was beyond her worldview. She truly wanted to know what would inspire young women to give up all that they had to wear a common form of dress and live in community?

She literally stated, "I didn't think anyone wanted to do that anymore!"

It was MY turn to be shocked. Even though I and the people I knew were well aware of the tide of Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life taking place all over America, this woman, a DRE, hadn't a clue. This information completely took her by surprise. She'd never heard of the Sisters of Mary or the Nashville Dominicans from which they had sprung. She'd never heard of the LA Carmelites. She didn't even know that there is a Carmelite Cloister just east of St. Paul!

I did my best not to reveal my shock, but I think I failed, even as I earnestly shared with her my friend's Vocation story, and the reaons for it. I encouraged her, as a DRE, to look up this information and present it to the young men and women at her parish, so that they would see this great opportunity open to them, to give their lives to Christ.

Hostility

That DRE was from a parish known to be somewhat left-leaning, although in our exchange there was no hostility; only surprise. Yet I have made the acquaintance of a woman who was once a Sister with a local notoriously-left-wing-nearly-pagan (if not outright) commmunity...and that meeting didn't go so well. I had innocently brought the use of a habit as a prop into our conversation, and she immediately went on the attack. I was taken off guard until she identified herself. Had I known, I would have made my point in a different way, but as it was the "war" was engaged and I did my best to be diplomatic in response to her verbal and rhetorical attack.

She made some good points, and some with which I agreed; her community was originally formed to look just like the people they served, so as not to stand out. So it was that they returned to this, and I have no quarrel with that.

Indeed, many missionary communities cannot wear identifying garb, for if they did, they would be executed, or at the very least, harassed. I know of one situation where, if the community wore religious clothing they would be misidentified with a certain governmental oppression, and the people would not trust them. These Sisters, then, even if they in other places wear a habit, don't in that location for the habit would literally be a barrier.

While persecuation has been our lot as Catholics from the Cross itself, we have to realize, that in some countries or locales, to obviously identify ourselves could mean that the mission is not spread, and the slaughter of the only evangelists in a thousand mile radius does not bring Christ to that community.

So let us at least be willing to admit that the Habit isn't synonymous with survival of the Gospel. Nor does the Habit automatically signify orthodoxy; there are habited communities that are faithful to their clothing, but not to the Gospel. It is important to recognize this.

Discernment

I'm going to admit it; I'm back to thinking I have been called to Religious Life. Now, don't go getting excited. Please don't comment it on that at all. Even my family doesn't know, most of the people closest to me in my life don't know, and I prefer it that way. I did it wrong the first time around, and I don't need a whole bunch of people giving me their preferences, sending me links, etc. I know what I need to do next, I have communities I want to visit, and I know what I'm giving up. Or not giving up.

I'm further going to admit that the Habit is part of my discernment; for I will not consider a community that doesn't wear it 100% of the time.

Why?

From past experience in discernment. It seems that, consistently, the communities that have entirely left the Habit behind have also left De Fidei issues of the Church behind. I am not willing to substitute contemplative prayer or the rosary or Liturgy of the Hours on behalf of Yoga or Centering "Prayer" or classes in Reiki. I've already gone the route of Tarot and other Occult things...I'm not willing to revisit those practices.

Even further, there is the issue of Discipline; if a community is lax in discipline, without a clear head, clear obedience to that head through a hierarchical system, well, I have to wonder what poison may be introduced...and not confronted. As I have read in the works of St. Catherine of Siena, the virtue of Obedience is the key to Heaven, and if obedience is not necessary, then where is there a foundation of Humility?

I find, objectively, the virtues lacking in many of the Orders that have lost the Habit. I can't speak to the holiness of the women, individually, but I can objectively observe disobedience to the most basic tenants of the Catholic Faith, and I can objectively discern that they have nothing to inspire me to be anything other than a secular social worker.

Yeah. I already have a degree in Criminal Justice. I can already be a secular social worker. I want something more. God wants something more of ME.

TO BE FAIR

I'm not slamming all Orders that have shunned the habit; as I said, there are legitimate reasons for not wearing it. I respect those reasons, (some of them), and condone others outright. The habit does not make one Holy; nor does it make one Naive.

Oh yes, I went there.

Some people level the charge that those Sisters that are now taking Vows in habited Communities are doing so out of naivete, or a sense of romance or nostalgia. Some suggest they are "immmature" or will "grow out of it" and the habit "phase" will fall into oblivion.

I read an account of a young woman who was at a discernment retreat involving both habited and non-habited Sisters. She sat down at a table with some non-habited Sisters and became engaged in a conversation. During this exchange she mentioned the habit, innocently, and that she wanted to wear one...immediately the conversation changed, the Sisters got up and abandoned her. She was confused and hurt by their reaction as she'd never indicated a rejection of their communities or their lack of a habit. The girl was literally not aware that the habit was a point of contention; and on that day, she, a sincere seeker, experienced a definitive lack of charity that could have destroyed her Vocation.

I've read many accounts of people, Catholic and non-Catholic, who have fond memories of Sisters in Habit. I've heard stories of people who have been drawn to these women who wear a visible symbol, even though the people drawn to them may not be Catholic themselves.

Our world today, more than ever, needs a visible manifestation of Christ among us, and the Habit provides that, just as we see it in the Roman Collar of the Priests who move among us. It was Sisters in black-and-white habits who once gave me courage through their presence and idendification alone to ask for help in a foreign country, where I wasn't even sure someone would be willing to help. If those Sisters hadn't been in habit, I would have been lost. And it was their presence that inspired respect in the people who shared our Combi that evening, for I've never seen such charity, even after the Sisters had departed. And that's saying something, for in Mexico, the charity I experienced on a daily basis has NEVER been equaled in my entire life in America.

It's legitimate to suggest that not all Orders began with a Habit in mind, however, the way our Spirituality has developed over the years, and in the way our culture has become so secularized, it is clear that we need "sound bites" in the form of identifiable dress so that people will be able to see a manifestation of Christ before their very eyes.

Just today I read an accusation suggesting that women who choose the habit do it "for attention". I must STRONGLY disagree!

Been There, Done That, Still Have the Shirts

I have worn many uniforms, and can't say I was truly comfortabe in any of them. I knew that my uniform identified me, and indeed, people came to me to address their problems, hoping I had the answer they needed. They also looked judgmentally at my uniform, projecting upon me any problems they'd previously had with someone else in the past who had worn the identical patches. I've been the juxtaposition of being a perceived savior even as I've represented oppression, all while someone else was breathing down my neck, defining me in yet another way.
So it is that I regard the idea of taking a habit through a lens of having been there before. It's much more comfortable to blend in, to not be noticed, to not stand out from the crowd. I am a very ordinary-looking person and I like it that way. I don't like standing out or being recognized. When I wore a uniform, I felt the stares, and felt the depersonalization, realizing that every action I took did not reflect upon me as a person, but upon the entity I represented in that dress.
So is the Habit, although the Entity represented is God, and the standard is much higher.

The accusation of "attention" is another one that astounds me, for it's also one of the reasons I have hesitated. For I almost fear being "swallowed up" in a sea of people who look just like me. I fear to lose my individuality...my own nothingness being absorbed into greater nothingness. On the other hand, I know that in donning a visible symbol, I will again enter a world of discomfort, of the inability to be invisible.

Yet I'm willing to do this because in donning a Habit, I am dying to myself, I am putting on Christ...and I am becoming a living symbol to a world that desperately needs a visible sign of hope. It's not about me, but it is all about God, and about His Only Son. God is He who Is...I am she who is not. The Habit makes this reality tangible.

Certainly, God could call me to a community that does not wear a Habit, and I am willing to accept that. Yet I believe that He is calling me to die to myself, to allow myself to be "lost" so that I may become all I am supposed to be, known to the world or hidden forever, to be known only by Our Lord. Or perhaps I will be forced to accept all souls who come my way, responding not to me...but to God manifested through me, identifying me not individually but by whom I represent.

We all have to remember; we are not here on earth to glorify ourselves, but rather, to glorify God. And I would rather be hidden in a Habit through which Christ becomes known to others, than through myself, a pitiful Minnesota woman with an unforgettable name and unforgettable face.

Let us all put on Christ every day, for it is He who lives in us, and He who must reign.
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