Definition for Garments
Glossary
Garments and Robes
Let us examine Scripture references to flesh, robes, and garments. I believe that these words refer to the body (the clothing of the spirit), i.e., the salt/dust of DNA. Throughout our exploration of STOSS, we will begin to realize just how important is the fact that we are an embodied spirit, which is in the image and likeness of a Triune God. He gave us a body for a much deeper reason than meets the finite eye.[1] Examining scriptural references to garments, robes, bodies, and flesh, we begin to see the endeavor to achieve perfection of the human person as a joint effort of both body and soul. The human person cannot be perfected, either in degree or separation, from the other. In OT times, all garments were made of organic material, i.e., the cells of organisms containing the salt of DNA. There were no synthetic materials in those days.
In the parable of the marriage feast (a type of the Mass in which the Eucharist is eaten), Jesus says, “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth’” (Mt. 22:11-13). In this parable, the wedding garment is an organic human body washed clean of the guilt of sin (cf. Is. 61:10-11) via Baptism.
In the words of God, St. Catherine writes, “[the soul] will re-clothe herself on the Last Day of Judgment, in the garments of her own flesh … [SML]. Wherefore, know that the glorified body can pass through a wall, and that neither water nor fire can injure it, not by virtue of itself, but by virtue of the soul.”[2] And also, “Do you [believe you can — SML] be admitted to the marriage feast in foul and disordered garments … you must leave mortal sin by a holy confession [aka reconciliation], contrition of heart, satisfaction, and purpose of amendment. Then you will throw off that hideous and defiled garment.”[3] All Sacraments are an integral component of a Covenant of Salt and should be understood in light of that fact.
As we have previously discussed, Covenants of Salt are multi-generational. They are family (i.e., genetic) bonds of salt, the very reason the Son of God became man from the seed extending back many generations to Adam’s seed. Our flesh, our robes, and our garments are an integral part of the family bond of salt / dust of DNA. In Isaiah 61:9-11, we read, “Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring in the midst of the peoples … my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me [all emphasis SML] with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, … For as the earth [we are created from the dust/salt of the earth — SML] brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown [genetic seeds — SML] in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”
Specific passages in Scripture seem to apply directly to DNA, but without actually using the word salt. For example, St. Paul writes, “But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is alike, but there is one kind for men, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish” (1 Cor. 15:38-39). I think it is reasonable to assume that when St. Paul uses the word flesh, he refers to the salt of DNA, which builds, differentiates, maintains, and directs the functioning of the different varieties of flesh.
The overriding scriptural theme associated with the words garment/robe is this: coming into the presence of God requires that your garment, i.e., a component of your body/soul composite nature, must be clean (e.g., Num. 8:7, 21). God designed the flesh /garment / robe of man to be changeable (either washed clean or soiled) so that it accurately reflects the increasing or decreasing purity of our inner heart/spirit. Contrast this with many Scripture references to a hard heart or a heart of stone, which indicates a heart that stubbornly refuses to change. Let’s look at a couple examples of the contextual use of garments and robes in the presence of the Lord. It is written:
1) “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and be ready by the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people’” (Exodus 19:10-11);
2) “So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments; then let us arise and go up to Bethel, that I may make there an altar to the God’” (Genesis 35:2-3).
The parallels between this last passage and the NC are striking. The word Bethel means house of God;[4] the NC house of God is the rebuilt Temple that Jesus said he would rebuild in three days — the resurrected and glorified body of Jesus (Jn. 2:19-21). We become one Mystical Body of Christ through Baptism, which is a prerequisite to becoming one flesh with the NT Temple through the Mass and the Eucharist. It is through Baptism that we are purified, and our garments are changed (cf. Eph. 2:15, 4:24). In his lectures on the mystery of Baptism, St. Cyril of Jerusalem
In Revelation, John writes, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14). A verse similar to the one above is, "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates" (Rev. 22:14). The above passages directly refer to the New and Eternal Covenant of Salt between the Father, his only begotten and incarnate Son, and the Father’s adopted children — mankind.
ENDNOTES:
[1] West, Theology of the Body Explained, 6.
[2] St. Catherine of Siena (2009-06-11). Dialog of Catherine of Siena - Enhanced Version (Kindle Locations 1266-1267). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.
[3] Ibid., Kindle Locations 3105-3109.
[4] John Corbett, “Bethel,” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907), http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02532d.htm, (accessed August 10, 2011).
[5] St. Cyril of Jerusalem, “Catechetical Lecture #20; On the Mysteries II. of Baptism,” (Third Millennium Media L.L.C., The Faith Database L.L.C., 2008), n.2.
[6] Catherine of Siena. Dialog of Catherine of Siena, Kindle Location 796.