"Clothed with Christ"

06-11-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Mike Straley

Howdy,

I have mentioned before a book by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) which I highly recommend. In one chapter on Liturgical Form/Vestments, he writes:

“The liturgical attire worn by the priest during the celebration of Holy Mass should, first and foremost, make clear that he is not there as a private person, as this or that man, but stands in place of Another-Christ.

What is merely private, merely individual, about him should disappear and make way for Christ. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20) These words of St. Paul, in which, from his own very personal experience of Christ, he describes the newness of the baptized person, apply in a special way to the priest celebrating Mass. It is not he himself who is important, but Christ. It is not he himself who he is communicating to men (others), but Christ. He makes himself the instrument of Christ, acting not from his own resources, but as the messenger, indeed as the presence, of Another-’in persona Christi’, as the liturgical tradition says. Liturgical vestments are a reminder of those texts in which St. Paul speaks of being clothed with Christ: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).

This is not something I would have written when I first arrived but I hope it makes sense to you now as I am leaving.

Always in Christ,

Fr. Mike