OPINION

Care for clothing…

Suddenly what should be a self-explanatory process is being presented as catharsis, the compulsory as a revolution. There is debate about ordering churchmen not to dress so extravagantly, and quite rightly too. Richly woven cassocks are unlikely to convince God about the devoutness of those who wear them. As for everyday citizens, such opulence serves only to provoke. But did we have to wait 2,000 years to finally understand one of the clearest proclamations made by Jesus Christ about the soul being more significant than nourishment and the body being more significant than clothing? Matthew continued in this vein when he queried why others were so concerned about their clothes… But power is a complex thing. It is not enough for it to exist; it must also make itself seen and heard, and it must erect a barrier between those who exercise it and those who are subjected to it. One such barrier is represented by these cassocks and the crosses the Church figures are adorned with. After all, wasn’t the original cross made of wood? As for the proposal that clerics should no longer be paid for performing sacraments, that is yet another case of the self-explanatory being presented as a radical breakthrough…

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