In his conversations with the journalist Bill Moyers, the mythologist Joseph Campbell commented on the power of lived symbolism in communal life. When the judge comes out in a black robe, sits behind a high desk and calls the court to order with a gavel he is no longer an ordinary man. He is the law incarnate. He is justice. He is the authority.
A uniform and dress code are not merely utilitarian. The policeman, the soldier, the nurse, and even the waiter, the school child, or utility man wear the uniform for more than its function. The uniform temporarily suspends the personality. With it the individual conforms to the common good and the common goal. There is a practical symbolism involved.
When the monk or nun dons their habit they are doing the same, and the more extreme the habit the more extreme their submission to the rule. Likewise when the priest dons his vestments he is clothing himself in the vestiges of ancient religion. He is robing himself in romanitas, vesting himself in the persona of the priest and clothing himself as Christ the great high priest. We take this symbolism for granted; so much so that in our egalitarian age we misunderstand it and even dismiss it as an anachronism—a cultural curiosity akin to wearing lederhosen for the Oktoberfest.
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