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devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation” (Mark 12:38-40).
Every Christian has the capacity to abuse religious externals.
The following examples, are all-too-common: When we claim to be “church going” Catholics as we defraud our employers; when we exercise various ministries in the Church for purposes of vainglory; when we attend weekday Mass but take every opportunity to disagree with authentic Church teaching in thought and in conversation.
But religious externals can have a positive effect on one’s behavior. Mark Twain wisely quips that “clothes make man” because people without clothes “have little or no influence on society.”
Thoughtful priests and religious are keenly aware that religious clothing silently accuses them in every act of impatience, in every failure in charity, in every sin. Religious externals can be a healthy means to help restrain sinful passions. Ask any priest who is driving in heavy traffic how the Roman collar affects his driving. A “We Vote Pro-Life” bumper sticker also tends to tame otherwise impatient driving. Who wants to be known as a pious fraud?
Religious externals are necessary. They help define us as Christians. But do the externals of religious devotion “make the man”? Or do they indict a Christian as a “pious fraud”? It would be easy and escapist to do away with all religious externals. It is far better to allow outward religious expressions to challenge us to a true interior acceptance of Christian faith.
Father Pokorsky is the priest assigned to St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Washington.
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