Habits.
Brown, black, white, gray?
Habits, regardless of color, define the ones wearing them.
It is easy to spot a habit and recognize the one wearing it as a monk or nun – just as it is easy to recognize a man wearing a Roman collar and a cassock as a Catholic priest.
[There were times, back when I was a Protestant pastor, that I chose to wear a clerical collar in the performance of ministry. It was like carrying a placard that said, “Open Door Policy – I am here if you need to talk.”]
I question the Post-Vatican II movement of Orders that have exchanged the habit of wearing habits for a habit of attiring in ordinary clothing; regardless how conservative the style of the garments.
Uniformity and collective oneness are insinuated by habits.
A complete surrender of one’s will to a higher will and purpose is insinuated by habits.
A habit insinuates that one is no longer living in the world for themselves but for Christ, the local community that one belongs to, and to Christ’s Church in its larger institutional context.
Obedience is insinuated by habits.
I am reminded of the motto of the Carthusians. Stat crux dum volvitur orbis. Latin for "The Cross is steady while the world is turning.”
Our collective purpose as followers of Christ includes not blending with the sinful turning of the world in any way that removes the lines and marks that distinguish us from the world. Monasticism, and its assortment of monastic expressions, greatly assists us in living out the intention inherent in the Carthusian motto.
We, in living out this monastic and altogether Christian intention, instead “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”[1] We instead, live in a way that is entirely different from the way the world lives; whether we are dressed in an outward habit or not.
Why?
Because Christ has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and brought us into his kingdom of light.[2]
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