For the Love of God

Let me just start this post by saying a big Happy Easter! to all of you. Among my friends who read this thing, I know I have everything from utterly areligious types to very devout Christians, so to the former, I say I hope you had a very lovely weekend and to the latter, a most blessed Easter to you, alleluia, alleluia!

Now, good Catholic girl that I am, I was going to make sure I got to church this morning if it killed me. I'll admit, I'm not THAT good a Catholic girl - I don't go as often as I should (especially considering there's a Catholic church a whopping 5-minute walk from my house) - but I'll be darned if I'm going to miss church on Easter weekend. A grand effort was made on my part to make sure that all of my celebrating and normal Sunday household chores got worked into the day - got up this morning, started the laundry while my cinnamon rolls (from scratch!) rose and baked...made myself presentable...ate breakfast and dashed off to church. Almost didn't make it - I got there JUST before the opening processional started, but my church is small and Catholicism is significantly less popular here than in the States, so I even got a seat (something that would be UNHEARD of at home at a late-morning mass on Easter Sunday).

Now, there are things that I think are really neat at my church - the music ministry is small, but the voices are extremely talented (even if their choice of music is a bit baroque for my taste)...the assortment of accents I hear in all of the responses from the congregation...the way I sound distinctly American in that rumble because I say ay-men instead of ah-men...the pastor and his very approachable and good-humored manner of addressing his congregation...but I saw something today that I just felt the need to bitch about. Pardon me for a moment while I hop up onto my digital soapbox....

As I looked around the church, I noticed a disturbing proportion of the congregation wearing jeans.

Now, I was raised in fairly modern churches, where on a typical Sunday the rule of thumb is come-as-you-are. I have certain standards for myself (i.e., while I might wear jeans or khakis to church, I only wear my nicest pairs and draw the line at ever wearing shorts), but in general, I subscribe to the belief that God is happy to see you regardless of what you're wearing. I figure as long as you show up attentive, clean, and generally respectable, you're doing okay. I have seen people show up toting teenage children wearing suggestive slogans on their t-shirts, or having clearly come straight from repainting their kitchen, and that bugs me, but I think my standards are generally fairly loose.

But for the love of God, people (and I mean that literally)...this is EASTER SUNDAY. It's the biggest. Day. Of the year. This is the day from which, regardless of denomination, all of Christianity takes root. For a great number of you, this is one of only TWO DAYS A YEAR you go to church. Is it really that much to ask that you dress up a little bit??? I'm not asking for frilly dresses in pastel colors and big floppy hats... but a decent pair of pants and a shoe a notch above a sneaker hardly seems unreasonable. I don't understand how someone can make the effort to actually GO to church, but never find it necessary to look good for God. It's not just an appearance thing - it's the mindset that at least today, going to church is Important. It's meaningful...even more so than on an ordinary Sunday. I just don't get how people can miss that.

But then again, I also don't understand it when people show up to a final looking like they're going clubbing as soon as they hand in their paper. There simply is no pleasing me.