Fr. Ferdidando Colombo: Dressing the Ignudes
Actualizing the works of mercy through the eyes of Fr. Ferdinando Colombo
By now, it’s obvious, we only think about how to dress. And if we don’t have that pair of Nike or Adidas shoes, we pout. Buying and buying clothes that after a couple of months have become out of fashion! While there are people who, in their need, if they have a pair of rags to wear have a full wardrobe!
“If one undresses the one who is clothed, he is called a thief. And he who does not clothe the naked when he can do so, does he deserve any other name? The bread that you keep for yourself is of the hungry; the cloak that you keep in the wardrobe is of the naked; the shoes that rot in your house are of the barefoot; the silver that you keep underground is of the needy.” St. Basil the Great (330 A.D.)
Particularly incisive is the admonition of St. John Chrysostom: “Do you want to honor the body of Christ? Do not neglect him when he stands naked. Do not honor him here in the temple with silken cloths, and then neglect him outside, where he suffers cold and nakedness.”
From Genesis to today
The human act of clothing those who are naked is based for the Bible on the original act of God himself who covered human nakedness by preparing clothes and then clothing Adam and Eve after their transgression: “The Lord God made man and woman tunics of skins and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). Man’s transgression in the garden of in-principle caused humans to step out of the space of communion and realize their “nakedness,” that is, their limited and fragile creaturely condition, that they began to feel distrust and fear of each other, that otherness began to be experienced as a threat.
This is how Adam and Eve “plaited fig leaves and made themselves belts out of them” (Gen. 3:7). But it was only at the moment when God himself made tunics of skins and clothed them (cf. Gen 3:21) that they would see their dignity reinstated, see their frailty wrapped in divine mercy, their limitations protected and covered.
Sharing clothes with the poor man is a gesture of intimacy that requires delicacy, discretion and tenderness, because it has to do in a direct way with the other’s body, with its uniqueness that is crystallized to the highest degree in the face, which remains naked, uncovered, and which with its vulnerability recalls the fragility of the whole body, of the whole human person, and refers back to it.
Sharing clothes with the poor-not in the impersonal and efficient way of collecting aid to send to the third world poor, but in the face-to-face encounter with the poor-becomes then a concrete narrative of charity, a celebration of gratuitousness, an exchange in which the one who is deprived of something is not impoverished but enriched by the joy of the encounter, and the one who benefits from the gift is not humiliated because being clothed introduces him into a relationship and he feels welcomed in his need as a person, that is, in his uniqueness, not as an anonymous recipient of a shipment of clothes discarded by the rich.
“Dressing up” in the Christian tradition
In the Western Christian tradition, the gesture of clothing the naked is most famously expressed by the episode in which Martin of Tours cuts off his own cloak to share it with a poor man defenseless against the rigors of a freezing winter. Venantius Fortunatus writes in his Life of St. Martin of Tours, “To a poor man whom he met at the gate of Amiens, and who had turned to him, Martin divides the shelter of his chlamys into equal parts and with fervent faith puts it on his shivering limbs. The one takes a share of the cold, the other takes a share of the warmth, between both the poor is divided heat and cold, cold and heat become a new object of exchange and one poverty is sufficient divided to two people.”
At the end of the fourth century in the Syriac area the performance of the baptismal rite included the act by which the (or the) neophyte stripped off his (or her) clothes and stepped on them; the anointing of his (or her) naked body; the immersion (always in total nudity) in the baptismal waters; and finally the act by which, having risen from the pool, the newly baptized person was clothed in a white garment.
The glorious nakedness of the dead (and on the cross the condemned man was in total nakedness to signify his unworthiness) and risen Christ clothes and protects the newly baptized person who now knows himself immersed in a new life having “clothed Christ”: “Baptized into Christ, you have clothed Christ” (Gal 3:27). Clothed in Christ, in baptism, beginning with the nakedness of their own limited and fragile human condition, Christians know themselves to be immersed in God’s mercy (Titus 2:4-5), covered and enveloped by it, so that their practice of charity toward those who are in nakedness and shame, powerlessness and misery, humiliation and deprivation of dignity, will be but a reflection and witness to divine mercy. (Luciano Manicardi)
“Even for clothes, why do you worry so much? Look at how the flowers of the fields grow: they don’t work, they don’t make clothes… yet I assure you that not even Solomon, with all his wealth, ever had such a beautiful dress! So if God makes the flowers of the fields so beautiful that they are there today and the next day they are burned, all the more reason He will provide clothing for you, people of little faith! So, do not stand around worrying too much, saying, “What shall we eat? What will we drink? How will we dress?” It is the others, those who do not know God, who are always looking for all these things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things. You, on the other hand, seek the kingdom of God and do his will; everything else God will give you in addition.” (Mt 6:28-33)
PRAYER
by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Lord Jesus, you have been stripped of your garments, exposed to dishonor, expelled from society.
You took upon yourself the dishonor of Adam, healing him.
You have clothed yourself with the sufferings and needs of the poor, those who are expelled from the world.
But in this very way you give meaning to what appears meaningless.
Just so you make us recognize that your Father holds you, us and the world in his hands.
Give us a deep respect for man in all stages of his existence and in all situations in which we encounter him.
Give us the robe of light of your grace.
Online version of the book by clicking on “The Work of Mercy – Fr. Ferdinando Colombo – browsable”
Photo
- “Le Opere di Misericordia“, fr. Ferdinando Colombo