Wedding Garment

“My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?” (Mt 22:12)

“The characteristic Cistercian habit is the white cowl. Given at solemn profession it is a sign both of a nun’s consecration and of the unity of the whole Order.” (OCSO Constitution 12)

At last the usually warm fall is cooling off and we are once again putting on our monastic cowls for the major offices of the day and night.  The cowl is an ankle-length white garment with sleeves that, when hanging, also reach to the ankles.  Much as we appreciate leaving aside the cowl during the heat of summer, the time to put it on again brings with it a wonderful sense that things are now as they should be.  Its shape signifies the cross, and we remember this as we put it on several times daily.  Its ample folds also invite the remembrance of being enfolded in God’s ineffable mercy.  This garment, received on the day of solemn profession and monastic consecration, is a concrete, visible sign of our inner spiritual identity as persons wedded to Christ in perpetuity.
 
I have not found in historical accounts of the development of our habit either rational reason or spiritual meaning for the extraordinary length of the sleeves.  Perhaps it was simply a monastic form of fashion.  For the newly solemnly professed, these sleeves present a comical sort of challenge.  The ability to raise or lower one’s sleeves according to the needs of the moment or what everyone else is doing is an acquired skill.  One may find oneself with sleeves down and suddenly realize that one needs one’s hands to give the greeting of peace to the sister looking on expectantly, or abruptly find oneself at the front of the Communion line without hands at the ready to receive the Lord.  When carrying something in one hand, an attempt to reach down and pick up something on the floor with the other may be foiled when one’s sleeve drops of its own accord, covering both one’s hand and the object.  I tend to think that the cowl, being manifestly ill-adapted to any practical activity, is by design a garment solely for prayer.  We are reminded that ours is a life “wholly ordered to contemplation” (Const. 2).
 
Pope Boniface VI described this garment in terms of the seraphim spoken of by Isaiah: “Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew” (Is 6:2).  The cowl likewise veils the face as with two wings (imagine the hood for a monk, or veil for a nun), the arms with two and body with two.  I rather like this.  It also complements the rationale given for the adoption of the white cowl by early Cistercians, in contrast to the black garments that had become traditional for Benedictines.  St Alberic, second abbot of Citeaux, was said to have dreamed that Mary placed a white garment over his head.  White stood for Easter joy and angelic attire, as well as Mary’s immaculate purity.  Nevertheless, Cistercians retained the liturgical color of grief and penitence in the black scapular, worn with a white robe beneath the cowl.  Thus the black-and-white look is symbolic of penitence and joy.  As our Constitutions put it, we are called to live a life of “joyful penitence” (Const. 25).
 
The “wedding garment” of today’s parable caused many Fathers of the Church to scratch their heads and wonder what is could signify.  Could it be the baptismal garment?  But both good and bad may wear such a garment.  Likewise, as tradition tells us: “The cowl does not make the monk.”  Eventually they settled on purity of heart or love as the meaning of the wedding garment.  And this is indeed the goal of all Christian and monastic life.  This is what is expected of everyone invited to the wedding feast:
“Love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Pt 4:8)
“Above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Col 3:14)
St Paul takes us deeper:
“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rm 13:14)
“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27).
 
St Bernard defines spiritual marriage as a union of wills between Bridegroom and bride.  This means loving what Christ loves and choosing what Christ chooses.  Our heart should come to resemble his heart.  It is not only the newly baptized or monks who are summoned to a wedding feast dressed white garments.  This is a call for all people, for the whole human race - God’s chosen bride - to put on the garment of God's all-merciful, all-loving heart.
 
“Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his bride has made herself ready;
to her it has been granted to be clothed
    with fine linen, bright and pure’—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” (Rv 19:7-9)