Dress and God: A call for modesty

Recently, I've been thinking about modesty in the light of the virtue of chastity. I admit that was it not for the assurance from the scriptures that "where sin abides, grace abides all the more," (Rom 5:20) I would have despaired by now. All it takes one to see how deprived we are of this virtue is to open his eyes. May it be sitting in the comfort of one's home and watching television, or being out in the markets of modern society, the observant man will conclude just from the fashion trends that we have either abandoned the once revered sense of modesty, or that we have abandoned it all together in search of a pseudo freedom that is not only destructive, but which has robbed many of the dignity that is due a person. I must confess that I have thought about writing on this topic for a long time but my procrastination syndrome to downright lack of ideas has kept me from it. This however was recently put to rest after reading an article titled "a letter to women" by my friend Brendan a university student whose courage has at least inspired me to give it a shot. Let me give you a taste of his no nonsense approach to the subject in a quote from his letter.
   "It is increasingly difficult for me to look at you without disrespecting you with my eyes. What else do you want me to think of when you wear skin-tight clothing? You have stripped yourself of everything that made you beautiful. You have offered yourself to many men and wonder why I do not treat you like the only woman in the world." You can read the rest of the letter here
    Before I continue, let me just make you aware that the this article was published in a university newspaper. Without saying anything further, you can already guess what kind of reaction this stirred to the credit of my friend whose courage was not deterred by an anticipated anger and downright lunacy. I am oft of the thought that especially for a young man and especially when it comes to chastity, being in a college campus is like "having one foot in hell and the other on a banana peel; either way you are going down." But like I stated before, where there is plenty of darkness, the light shines forth all the more, so in the same sentence, I think that the occasion to exercise the virtue of chastity is greatest in this circle.
 Since my friend has already addressed this topic with a forthright approach of which you can read in its entirelity here, I will take an alternate route and ride on the caution for the sake of the weak minded and the undiscerning hearts that may mistake the call to truth with personal attack.
    Now, why put God and dress in the same sentence? The answer can be found in 1 Corinthian 6:19; "do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit." This statement by the inspired Scripture writer forms the fundamental connection between God and how we dress. The first and foremost reason of why we should dress modestly is in honor of God whose love is so great that He has made our bodies a temple of His Holy Spirit and anything that is contrary to this truth is a lack of gratitude on our part of His gracious love. This alone should encourage all people of good will to take care of how they dress, and even in our hedonistic society where we think we have the sovereign right to our bodies to do with whatever we will, there lies a silent voice that tells us otherwise. I have often observed, especially in young girls whose consciences have not been fully desensitized, whereby while wearing either short dresses or tight clothing, there entire engagement when they sit is to try to pull their dresses to cover themselves more. This sense of shame goes to show that deep down inside, when we wear immodestly, we know that we have deviated from the good and our consciences condemn us. 
     However, our society has become so accustomed to this deviation, that we think it is the norm and even a good to let loose and wear or not wear anything and to think otherwise is to repress personal freedom that we have worked so long for.  This mindset goes to show that just like our first parents, in search for freedom apart from God, we succeed only to enter into the bondage of sin.  Unfortunately, the social sin of fashion trends that are meant only to deceive and to tempt have become the norm today.  Although not exclusive to women, this immodesty in clothing is at cancerous stages that only the grace of God and a rediscovery of truth can cure.  These days, the dress that was meant to be worn and sheepishly so in the nightclubs in now worn in the Church and revealing attire that only the unscrupulous of past generations wore has become the dress of choice regardless of where it's worn. The sense of shame is long gone and what is private in one's body has become public display as if it's a commodity to be admired by all.  Oh lost generation we are. So quickly to forget that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and if undeterred by that to remember the words of Our Lord in Matthew 18:6 that; " whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy milestone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." With words like these, we can see the dangers of immodesty both for the one dressed so and for the one who falls in the hands of their temptation. 
   I must say that dressing immodestly is not exclusive to women. While men are more prompt to fall from the women wearing short skirt, tight clothes and revealing tops among other things, men pulling their pants to their knees and showing their undergarments may be a cause of temptation for women. I however think that it might annoy them more than it tempts them. Men however fall mostly in their speech. The way they describe women and loosely use sexual terms in a disrespectful way does the same damage.  So what then?
    While I might point out multiple ways in which we have failed as a society with the promotion of immodest fashion trends to the point of leading some to despair, the prudent thing is to start addressing this issue in a truthful way. Being fallen like the rest, I can say that the premier step is to seek God's help first so that you yourself do not become an object of temptation for another, but also that you may not succumb to the temptations presented to you on a daily basis. This, pampered with speaking the truth in love whenever possible to those whose sense of modesty is all together eroded by society and trying to charitably arouse their consciences to the good that can be found in respecting one's body and not using it as an object of pleasure and allurement but rather as a temple of the Holy Spirit always ready to accept and give love both to God and neighbor. 
    Truly the damage has been done and it's great but once more we should not loose courage of acquiring the holy virtue of chastity which immodesty is its biggest casualty. I therefore urge you ladies to give thought to your dignity as the temple of the Holy Spirit  before you dress and how you ought to respect your body and you guys before you open you mouth to think of the same. It doesn't go without mentioning that the Purity of Jesus Our Lord and that of His holy mother Mary should be our standard. God help us all.