My friend how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?

The Catholic funeral liturgy is filled with rich and powerful symbolism.

The casket is met at the church door and often the family spreads the white pall over it

As a symbol, this white "garment" symbolizes the wedding garment alluded to in today's Gospel and it greets us when we enter this world and when we leave it.

At our baptism the priest declares: "Receive this white garment,and wear it in the future when you enter the banquet hall of heaven."

If we think about it all clothing is symbolic. It sends a message.

In football, the visiting team is clothed in white, the home team in dark colors.

Uniforms of all kinds identify a person as to who she is or what he does.

That is why St. Paul in writing to the Galatians admonishes them:

You "have clothed yourselves in Christ...:"

And so we pray:

O God clothe us with

mercy, peace, and understanding

so that we may not only resemble Christ

but also act like him.

Amen