A third excerpt from 'Meditation on the Passion' compiled by Rev. Reginald Walsh O.P. published in 1922 by Burns, Oates, and Washbourne. London.
Each post deals with a different aspect of our Lord's Passion, and are posted alternately and sequentially on this site and on 'whitesmokeahoy' (link on sidebar)
'CHRIST WASHING THE DISCIPLE'S FEET' (1548/9) by Tintoretto
1.
OUR LORD'S OBJECT IN WASHING HIS DISCIPLES' FEET
Jesus had a twofold aim in view in performing this unusual action at the Last Supper..
He intended to give the Apostles a significant answer to their dispute about the order of their rank. Jesus wishes to teach them humility and charity --- that the aim of those in authority is not to be the gratification of selfishness and love of authority, but the welfare of those under them --- that the exercise of their office is a service --- rendered not as a mark of gracious condescension and kindness, but as a matter of duty: a service of loving humility and humble charity. This is the lesson our Lord wished to inculcate upon all His Apostles.
The second aim or object of our Lord was undoubtedly a mystical one --- viz. to impart to His Apostles purity and conformity with Himself --- that they might perform their Apostolic work worthily and perseveringly; possibly too, the ceremony was to be their immediate preparation, by an increase of purity and faith, for the reception of the Blessed Sacrament, as Jesus Himself mysteriously hints. Our Lord prepares even the wretched Judas, in the way best suited to him. He warns him once more by predicting his evil deed plainly and positively, and points out the hideousness of the crime in all its blackness, ingratitude, and callousness, --- for Judas turns against the hand that gives him food, like a brute beast. Lastly, Jesus shows that it is an offence against God Himself, for whoever receives or ill-treats our Lord, receives or ill-treats Him that sent Him.
Jesus seems to have been most anxious to impress this lesson deeply upon the minds of His Apostles. This is shown in the way in which He gives it. In the first place--- He does so more strikingly than on any previous occasion. He had already taught the Apostles this lesson twice before, but never in such an earnest and impressive manner. Secondly, He does this just before His death, and so that the lesson forms, so to speak, a part of His last will. Thirdly, Jesus uses every means to impress this lesson upon His Apostles, by word and deed, first, by washing their feet, and, then, explaining why He did so.
II
THE WASHING OF THE FEET
Let us see the persons --- listen to the words --- consider the
actions --- then reflect and draw fruit for our souls.
As Jesus looks round on those faithful friends who have remained with Him in all the troubles of His public life, He reads their hearts. They are honest, upright hearts, without guile or malice, all, except one. He longs to be more closely united with them. But He misses a virtue in them which of all others is dearest to Him --- one that is not always a very great favourite with us perhaps--- but is very dear to our Lord, and has a wonderful power over His Heart wheresoever He finds it--- that virtue is humility. Mary's humility drew Him down from Heaven --- we can never have too much for Him.
But the Apostles had little love for humility --- they liked outward show and honour, they liked working miracles, casting out devils, preaching to an admiring crowd. They turned against the mere mention or thought of shame, humiliation, suffering. Jesus had tried for the last three years to humble them, to keep them in their place. This very night even, they had been again disputing and aiming at the highest places. Now they must learn their lesson --- for He cannot give Himself to the proud. He exalts the humble, but the proud He sends empty away. Jesus will Himself give them an example of the spirit He looks for in His own.
Rising from table, He lays aside His upper garment, takes water in a basin, girds Himself with a towel, and kneels before Peter to wash his feet. Peter, with wide-open eyes, has watched our Lord make the preparation. He cannot believe his senses. Jesus! his Master and Lord --- the Son of the Living God! --- wash his feet!
Completely bewildered, Peter cries out: “Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?” “What I do thou knowest not now,” Jesus answered, “but thou shalt know hereafter.” Jesus was so calm, so meek, so resolute. But Peter could not bring himself to obey, and answered in his rough, loyal-hearted way: “Thou shalt never wash my feet” --- Jesus knows Peter, one word will overcome him, one threatening word: “ If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with Me.”
Away went Peter's wilfulness --- bowing his head and stretching out his hands, he cried out: “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said: “He that is washed, needeth not but to wash his feet, but is clean wholly. And you are clean, but not all.” Jesus knew their hearts; they were all true but Judas --- and He was using all means, every opportunity, to draw the unhappy man from the misery of his crime. Kneeling before each Apostle, Jesus washed his feet. Try to realise their feelings of humiliation, reverence , and love, as Jesus, their Blessed Master, occupied Himself with each. How He spoke to their hearts, purified them from defects, urged them to the practice of humility and charity --- those virtues so dear to His Sacred Heart, and so necessary, as without them there can be no close union with Himself. The more earnestly we endeavour to excel in humility and charity, the more pure we shall become. Our Lord will then be able to say to us, “Ye are clean.” We have always need of the purification that these virtues will effect, for as long as we dwell in these corruptible bodies we shall contract stains which may be instantly effaced by self-humiliation, contrition, and love.
The Saints of God were clean of heart, but still as they walked through life they contracted some little dust of this world, and this they carefully washed away by their daily acts of humiliation and love. And so pleasing to God, is the practice of these virtues, that He suffers these human frailties to remain in His faithful servants that their continual humility might gladden Him, for these proceed from love and win for them ever new graces and light.
“ A soul that truly loves its own abjection will never want God's pity.” “A contrite and humble heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” Let us strive to merit these words from the lips of Jesus, ye are clean. What a pain it must have been to the faithful Heart of Jesus to add, but not all. To have loved His own, and that even to the end, as St John tells us, and yet to be repulsed, despised, and betrayed by that one soul was an agony to the human Heart of Jesus that we shall never fathom in this life.
Judas' turn came. With exceeding great love our Lord bathed that poor sinner's feet and, tender as a mother, wiped them. How tenderly Jesus handles these feet that have wandered far from Him. How much Jesus longs to make him clean, but Judas hardens his heart still more. No sign of sorrow, no passing gleam of hope softened the traitor's heart --- he will not cooperate with the abundance of light and grace offered. Jesus turns sadly away! How many times and in how many ways Jesus tried to move this hardened heart. But He will never constrain the free will of His creatures. The Apostles were humble now; for nothing humbles us so much as seeing the humiliation of one we venerate and love. They had seen their Lord and Master kneel before them, loose the latchet of their shoes, and wash their dust-stained feet. A great remedy for a great evil. Oh, let us learn the great lesson here.
Colloquy. --- O Infinite Goodness, I love You, and I want to love You, with all my strength; I wish to do everything in my power to please you. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine. Help me, dear Lord, to understand the value of humiliations; strengthen my will to embrace them generously when the opportunity offers, and so in some little way, and through love, to imitate Thee. O infinite love, my God, I believe in Thee. I love Thee. O Mary, my Mother, intercede for me.
III
THE GREAT AND “ IMPORTANT” LESSON JESUS GIVES US BY WASHING HIS DISCIPLES' FEET.
There was silence in the room. Having resumed His garments and re-seated Himself in their midst, Jesus again addressed them: “Know you what I have done for you?” Look at the rapt attention of the Apostles as they gather closer to their dear Master. Jesus looks with love on each and all, and asks so tenderly: “Know you what I have done to you? When I created you, when I died for you? When I forgave you, not seven times, but seventy times seven times, and much more? When I planned My Blessed Eucharist for you, and gave you my Blessed Mother to be a Mother to you? When I called you to follow me, to be my intimate companion, friend, apostle? Know you what I intend to do for you, when you have fought the good fight, and when your work here on earth is done?”
“You call Me Master and Lord: and you say well, for so I am. If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that as I have done, so you do also. Amen, amen, I say to you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither is the Apostle greater than He that sent him. If you know these things, you shall be blessed if you do them.”
This act of washing with His Sacred Hands the feet of His disciples is intended by our Lord to teach us the happiness of performing menial services for those around us. To wait on others, especially on our less fortunate brethren, for Christ's sake, is far more honourable than to be waited on by them; to make ourselves the servants of others is far more noble than to be served by them. Is this the principle on which I act? Again, this act combines the two virtues which are most prominent in our Lord's life on earth, charity and humility. Charity takes pleasure in everything that promotes the happiness or comfort of others and of all with whom we live, because they are the brothers and sisters of Christ. Humility takes pleasure in whatever puts us into an inferior position. Jesus gives us powerful motives to overcome selfishness and pride, and to acquire the virtues of charity and humility.
His own example, which we learn to comprehend in some measure, when we reflect who He is. Great stress is laid upon this in the words of St John, that our Lord did this “ knowing that the Father had given Him all things into His hands, and that He came from God, and goeth to God,” that is, in the full possession and consciousness of His dignity as God-Man. Our Lord calls Himself a little later “Master and Lord”, and draws the special attention of his disciples to the position in which He stands to them: “You call Me Master and Lord: and you say well for so I am. If I then, being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so do you also.”--- adding that “ the servant is not greater than his Lord; neither is the Apostle greater than He that sent him”
Who can compare himself to our Lord? And yet Jesus performs in person this office of love and humility. And upon whom? Upon His Apostles and servants. And in what does this service consist? In washing their feet --- that is, performing the lowest and most servile office that was usually done by slaves. What, then, ought we not be ready to do for our fellow men? What may we consider beneath our dignity?
The second motive is our Lord's express wish. He says He has given us this example, in order that we might imitate it.
The third motive is the reward that our Lord promises for this humility and charity: “If you know these things you will be blessed if you do them.” How happy the house in which this spirit prevails. On the other hand, our Lord, in His words to Peter, gives us to understand, that whoever will not accept this lesson will have no part with Him --- no part in His spirit, His character, or His life. Our Lord also points to the future reward in Heaven: “And there shall come from the east and the west, and the north and the south; and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God. And behold, they are last that shall be first, and they are first that shall be last.” In heaven service and sacrifice cease, and are replaced by rest, abundance, and dominion, even special power and glory. Even on earth the humble and charitable earn honour and respect.
This is the great and important lesson that our Lord gives us all by washing His disciple's feet --- charity and humility: loving humility and humble charity. We must have both. Humility without charity is like the bright but cold light of the moon; charity without humility is but a transient flame that soon expires. It is the union of these two virtues that characterizes the Church and Christianity. The Church, the Saints, and all our Lord's true servants and Apostles have always borne this character of His Sacred Heart.
Have I the dispositions with which Jesus washed His disciple's feet? What progress have I made in these virtues? “Look and do according to the pattern” (Exod, xxv.) are words that our dear Master is always silently saying to us as we contemplate His sacred life and Passion. He says to each of us: “If you know these things, you shall be blessed if you do them.” When therefore, we have an inward perception of a Gospel truth, then we must, with our will, labour earnestly to obtain grace to do what we have learned, remembering always that even when “ the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.”
Christ's words are true: “The disciple is not greater than his Master.” If our Divine Master was glorious in the sight of the Angels as He stooped to wash the Apostle's feet, our road to glory must be by stooping, by ministering in all humility, to others. We never can be as great as our Master. We must take care lest our selfishness and pride place us in direct contrast with the Son of God. “ He that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger: and he that is the leader, as he that serveth. For who is the greater, he that sitteth at table or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at table? But I am in the midst of you as he that serveth.” Jesus, looking at His dear disciples with an emotion of joy, added, with a thrill of tenderness and love: “And you are they who have continued with me in my temptations; and I will dispose to you, as My Father has disposed to Me, a kingdom.”
The courageous fidelity of His own will not be in vain. The Son of Man will not always be in the wine-press of tribulation; the days of triumph will come. “And I say to you that you shall eat and drink at My table in My kingdom; and shall sit upon thrones judging the tribes of Israel.” “Our God is a faithful God.”
Colloquy. --- With the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He says to me: If through Divine love thou exerciseth humility and charity towards all, whosoever they may be, thou, My child, wilt assuredly be the good odour of my Heart for all who shall see thy example. And, although others should not profit by thy example, thou shalt be no less dear to My Heart. Blessed is the soul who, by the example of a humble charity, shall so shine before others as to show that the goodness of My Heart is to be loved and imitated!
O meek and humble Jesus, my blessed Lord and Master, I need Thy powerful grace to do the things which Thou teachest me. I beseech Thee, dear Jesus, to help me with Thy efficacious aid. O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I believe in Thy love for me. Dear Jesus, grant me to follow Thee faithfully and to imitate Thee closely --- make me a perfect disciple of Thy Heart. Free me, dear Lord, from the selfishness and bitterness of pride and self-love; render my heart like Thine, always kind, and ever animated with humble charity towards all. “Virgin Mary, Mother of God, pray to Jesus for me."
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