Notre Dame leggings

The mother of a male Notre Dame student likely embarrassed him royally when she “encouraged” the female students to consider jeans instead of the more revealing leggings that are now in vogue. As I read the reaction to this mother’s plea, I turned over the question, “How could it be wrong for a woman to wear leggings?”

Now certainly in the last several years society has made clear that one is not responsible for the choices of another. Pornography, rape and incest have all been sickly justified as “she made me do it.” That’s a lie from the pit of hell. These are all sinful choices by the person acting. The choice to violate another’s body is never excused by the clothing they don. Certainly, this good Catholic mother raised her son to deal with temptation by turning to God for help. 

As I kept flipping thoughts around I landed in the first few verses of Genesis 3. Here the first couple chose to go for the forbidden fruit. The first reaction of the couple after eating was to cover up. Why? Because their eyes were opened. Does that mean Eve felt ugly? Did Adam try to suck in his gut? A More reasonable take would be that each saw something first in themselves, then in each other that demanded they hide. 

In fact, when God came on scene and asks where they are Adam responded, “I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” Disobedience immediately induced the need to hide the body. God provided the couple their first set of clothes at the cost of the lives of innocent animals. Innocence was sacrificed so that this first couple could know evil as well as good.

As parents we enjoy the privilege of seeing flashes of that lost innocence in our children. Oh, they are not perfect, yet their lack of knowledge of certain evils reveals what innocence has been lost. Wide eyed they trust and laugh and  accept others no matter their appearance. That privilege doesn’t last long, a few years. When those kids head out into a world devoid of innocence we parents worry. This mom turned her worry into action with a letter to the editor. 

But innocence is out of the bottle. The purity of nudity has fallen underfoot to selfish sin. Now all we can do is cope in a world more likely to misunderstand, take it the wrong way go too far. Like generations before us, our children have to learn how to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit to guard and guide our thoughts and reactions. In Christ this is possible.