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Chapter IV
The garment which is Christ

Meg: I will be away from internet for another week or so. It seems to me that each reader of this blog can learn this method of lectio only by doing it. I suggest that you take this theme of getting dressed, putting on clothes and do this dialogue with OUr Lord. The references of Scripture in the Eastern Monk's writing might be helpful.

I will also do this, but not post my meditations as the point is to have one's own direct experience in the Presence of Our Lord.

The father said to his servants: Bring forth quickly the best robe and put it on him. Luke 15, 22.

Dressing is a vital necessity. The man who wakes from his sleep, who gets up and who washes himself, must still get dressed. I tried to meet Jesus in my ablutions. I can also meet Him in the everyday acts by which I cover my body with clothing.

One must be clothed before the Lord, in the Lord. One must also know how to take off one’s clothing in the Lord’s Presence. The garment which the Lord gives me is a new one. I can put it on only after casting off my old clothes.

When the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened, when our first parents knew they were naked, they “sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons.” And when God, walking in the garden toward evening, called Adam and said to him; “Where art thou,” Adam answered: “I heard Thy voice in paradise and was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Adam and Eve’s fig leaves are the type of the “false garment,” of the miserable, apparent covering which offers no guarantee of solidity and endurance and which is only precariousness, pretension and pretext.

We too clothe ourselves with fig leaves each time we wish to appear in the eyes of God and of men other than we really are. If we wish to become humble and true, our first care will be to cast far from us deceitful affectations in dress, the costume which disguises, and to show ourselves in our moral nakedness – such as we really are. God said to Adam: “Who hath told thee that thou wast naked?”

Lord Jesus, it is You who points out to me my nakedness, my falsehood. I no longer wish to hide myself under false pretenses. I no longer wish to wear clothing which I have picked out or sewn myself. I desire to be clothed by You alone. I pray you then to undress me in order to clothe me.

Master, I must also reject my garment when it prevents me from following You. When You were arrested at Gethsemani, a young man was following You, having only a linen cloth about his body. The soldiers laid hold of him, but he, casting off the cloth, “fled from them naked.”

In order for this young man to join You, or to follow You – at the very moment when Your disciples abandoned You and fled, he had left his room and probably his bed. He did not take the time to dress himself. He only wrapped a sheet around his body. When Your Presence calls me (and words of appeal are not necessary:

Your very Presence is an appeal), I must not trouble myself about clothes, that is to say, about material, intellectual or emotional possessions which are only a hindrance to me. Having become free of everything except You, I must run toward You.

O Lord, I too cast my clothing before You, beneath Your feet, in union with the mob at Jerusalem, who at the time of Your triumphal entrance “spread their garments in the way.” Together with this multitude, in the same outburst of homage and enthusiasm, I cry out: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” May my clothing then be trampled under foot by the ass that carries You! May all that I possess be Yours and remain humbly submissive to You!

O Lord, inspire me with these thoughts every night when I get undressed.

And now, Jesus, here I am before You. It is You who will clothe me. I read with emotion the divine words transcribed by the prophet Ezechiel and which I apply to myself: “And passing by thee, I saw that thou wast trodden under foot in thy own blood . . . and I passed by thee and saw thee and behold thy time was the time of lovers: and I spread my garment over thee and covered thy ignominy. And I swore to thee and I entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God: and thou becamest Mine.

And I washed thee with water and cleansed away thy blood from thee: and I anointed thee with oil. And I clothed thee with embroidery and shod thee with violet colored shoes: and I girded thee about with fine linen and clothed thee with fine garments.”

These very beautiful words echo the Gospel verse which I wrote down as a heading for this meditation and in which we shall hear the father of the once prodigal son, now repentant, order that they bring forth “the best robe” in order to clothe the son who has been found again.

We must weigh these words well. The father did not say: “Bring forth his best robe.” He said: “Bring forth the best robe.” It is not a question of seeking, among the clothes which the prodigal son could have left at home, what was actually the best garment in the house. The father wants to give his son “the best robe” that can be found, the best one available, wherever it may be. Thus, when the Son of Man seeks and saves in my person “that which was lost,”

He is not content with restoring me to my former state. He not only wants to give me back those treasures which I abandoned and dissipated. He wants to increase them; He desires even better riches for me; He wants to communicate to me every perfect gift and every excellent grace. Lord, put on me the best robe.

What then is this robe which is the best of all? Lord, You do not want to give me less than Yourself. The mystery of clothing has been formulated in the most concise and powerful way by Your servant Paul: “For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ.” And so this mystery of clothing is thus found to be bound up with the mystery of water, with ablutions.

God did not permit Adam and Eve, after being cast out of Paradise, to continue covering themselves with their poor fig leaves. “And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin, and clothed them.”

I hope I am not being fanciful and too bold if, going beyond the literal sense, I venture to see in these “garments of skin” which God Himself gave to our first parents, a prefiguration of the flesh of the paschal Lamb, the spotless Lamb immolated for the life and salvation of the world.

The mystery of clothing conceals still other depths. I shall point them out in all moderation. The prophet Isaias said: “My soul shall be joyful in my God. For He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation and with the robe of justice He hath covered me: as a bridegroom decked with a crown and as a bride adorned with her jewels.”