March 29, 2018
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15
The human condition retains the residue of original sin even though a Christian is washed clean of sin by the sacrament of Baptism. Theologians refer to this residue as concupiscence, that is to say a tendency towards sin and towards giving into temptation and towards selfishness. The freedom from concupiscence is offered to us by the Lord Jesus in His call to follow Him. Following Him includes following Him on His way of the Cross; it is not simply living one’s life by an ideal worldview that has been put together by oneself from different statements and phrases of Jesus for one’s own personal and private philosophy of life.
The first reading from Exodus speaks of the Passover. The Israelites are spared the last punishment to be visited upon Egypt. They are commanded by God first to prepare a meal to be eaten as part of a sacrifice; they are to eat with their shoes on their feet as a people in flight. They begin by fleeing and seeking refuge from the oppression of slavery. They begin their flight as a mob of refugees but it is the Covenant made between God and Moses on their behalf that makes them a people on pilgrimage to the land promised to them by the Lord God.
Tonight’s reading from John’s Gospel recounts the events of the Last Supper of Jesus and places its emphasis upon the washing of the feet by Jesus of His disciples with His command that they go and to do the same in ministry of others. The Israelites were dry shod on their Exodus but the Lord fulfills that first Covenant by having His disciples remove their shoes that He might wash their feet. Jesus is not in flight from oppression; Jesus is processing obediently and decisively to the victorious fulfillment of the Father’s mission to conquer sin and death and to destroy the prince of this world through His perfect act of obedient and sacrificial love. This is perfect charity. It is the life of the Trinity that envelops the life of the Christian.
It is the Eucharist, the sacrament of perfect charity, which establishes our belonging to God and to each other in Christ. It is not our shared opinions and practices that validate the Eucharist as some sort of ideal and abstract symbol of flexibly interpretive meaning but of little value in reality. This is why the norms and expectations for reception of the Eucharist are so clear and binding for members of the Church. It is the Eucharist that enables us to make the journey with Jesus that is the Way of the Cross — of our sufferings and of our sins carried by Him and with Him in His perfect act of sacrificial love. The washing clean of the grime on the feet of the disciples — symbolic of the residue of original sin, which is to say concupiscence — is necessary and represents the life of sacramental grace that enables each of us to serve as Christ serves and but first to love as Christ loves. Without this sacrifice of the Eucharist as confected by the offering of the priest and our participation in it, the washing of feet becomes simply self-congratulatory altruism.
As Saint John Paul II spoke at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper in 2003, “During the Supper, knowing that His “hour” had now come, Jesus blesses and breaks the bread, then gives it to the Apostles saying: “This is my body”; He does the same with the cup: “This is my blood.” He commands them: “Do this in remembrance of me.” Truly this is the witness of love taken “to the end.” Jesus gives Himself as food to His disciples to become one with them. Once again the “lesson” emerges that we must learn: the first thing to do is to open our hearts to welcoming the love of Christ. It is His initiative: it is His love that enables us, in turn, to love our brethren. Therefore, the washing of the feet and the sacrament of the Eucharist: two expressions of one and the same mystery of love entrusted to the disciples, so that, Jesus says, “as I have done... so also must you do.” Christ enables us to do as He has done.
The mandatum of Jesus becomes the measure by which our lives as human beings, and not simply as compliant allegiants to abstract ideals of vaguely understood Catholic doctrine, will be measured and judged by God. Thus, the Eucharistic bond that blossoms forth in the lowly and slave-like washing of our neighbor’s feet will not give way to any other standard of how we live our lives here and now in the United States of America or anywhere else — it is a standard that trumps all other customs, laws, and philosophies of life.
Tonight’s celebration of the Eucharist — the Mass of the Lord’s Supper — is structured in such a way as to end abruptly with a procession with the Lord Jesus Himself leading us to the altar of repose — the Lord’s gift to us of a spiritual Gethsemane. It is part of one large liturgical celebration of the Triduum. Our feet are washed as His disciples so that we can make this procession willingly with Him and with confidence in His sacrificial love that enables us to love by first receiving the gift of His unconditional love which requires humility, trust, and a willingness to change on our part. Without the grace of this willingness, we risk taking the path of Judas who sneaks away into the darkness of night closed off by the self-sufficiency of his own greed and refusal to be loved and therefore to love.
Finally, as Saint John Paul II preached, “What will happen tomorrow, Good Friday? What does the cup of the New Covenant mean in the blood of Christ? It means death on the cross. It means His heart pierced by the spear. It means the hour of Christ’s passage from this world to the Father: it means the love with which He loved His own who were in the world: “He loved them to the end.” The Chalice of the New Covenant therefore means Life “because love is as strong as death.” The love that leads Christ to accept the Cross will reveal His full and definitive power in the resurrection: ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’”
