“The Sacrament of The Altar”
Saint John 13: 1-15
Holy Thursday: 29 March Anno Domini 2018
Father Jay Watson SSP
We don’t celebrate Seder meals for the same reason we don’t do any of the pagan Talmudic nonsense from the time after The Advent of The Lord’s Messiah. We don’t celebrate the same Pascha of Moses, Joshua, or David because Christ our Passover has come and fulfilled all Blood sacrifice.
Even the Lord’s own Last Passover, which started off as the Traditional Exodus Passover, was something different, was what you will receive this evening.
The “12” didn’t take anything that evening and neither do you. They received a gift so great that it must have put them in puzzled awe. You also receive that same forgiveness, life, and salvation; a gift so great it can’t really be understood, but only accepted in grateful faith. He Who is Peace gives Peace in Himself.
But what of the foot-washing? What does this mean?
The Gospels of Matthew and Mark come early in being recorded. The Blessed Physician’s Evangel and St. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians also were written down post-haste. But Saint John’s theological Good News of The Love of Christ for His flock came later. The “institution narratives” had been shared, embraced, and practiced everywhere in the Church. And in the 13th chapter of John’s Gospel he reveals that the “12” received the foot-washing with the same stunned dislocation as The Precious Body and Blood of their Rabbi. John’s record of Christ’s Eucharistic theology comes earlier, at John chapter 6, in Jesus’ “Bread of Life” discourse. “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.” [Jn. 6. 54-56] So, on that evening, in the upper room, Jesus placed into their mouths His true Body and His true Blood. It was for them then, and now, for all Christians to eat and to drink. Why? Because it was instituted by Christ—God—Himself.
True means true. Think not how this can be but receive Mercy and be free. With God, all things are possible. Can God wash a man’s feet? Can God have His own feet pierced through by nails? Then God can give you, and Peter, His true Body and Blood.
As before mentioned, this event, is recorded carefully by Sts. Mathew, Mark, Luke, and Paul. The verba, i.e. the words, of Jesus are remembered for all time: “Take eat, this is My Body, which is given for you; drink ye all of it; this cup is the New Testament in My Blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins.”
Why do you need the remission of sins? Well, God says you do. And, God’s Word of The Law shows you do, and kills you dead with this truth. Peter seeing His Master’s humble, even embarrassing (to Peter) and servile foot-washing, caused him to at first reject this scandalous free-Grace, and then, subsequently, caused him to desire that all of his filthy and loathsome body be washed.
The Lord is always correct and true in His words.
Peter had been Baptized and only needed His feet washed. You will not be re-Baptized this Mass but will again have your “feet washed,” in the full remission of your daily trespasses. The Sacrament of The Altar is like receiving Christ’s Holy + Absolution, only in Body and Blood, as contrasted to the aural proclamation alone. But even in The Sacrament, it is forensic, oral, vocable, spoken, declarative proclamation. What is the benefit of such eating and drinking? That is shown you by these words, “given and shed for you for the remission of sins; namely, that in The Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are give you through these words.”
Pity the poor sectarian who attempts to “take” to “get” these gifts from God by their own actions. How does one take from God? Is it firm desire, or manly obedience, or intellectual assent and choice? Does one just “think” really, REALLY hard about Jesus 2,000 years ago? Pity. You though, “receive” Him here where He has promised in His Words to be. The Spirit simply has you believe what The Son says.
Ever since Adam was first created God had had His children live by eating and drinking. Since that night in the upper Room, The God/Man has had His children live forever by eating and drinking Him!
How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things. Well, it IS as mysterious as The Incarnation and The Atonement, to be sure, but “it is not the eating and drinking indeed that does them, but the Words here written, ‘given and shed for you for the remission of sins;’ which words, besides the bodily eating and drinking, are the chief thing in The Sacrament; and he that believes these words has what they say and express, namely, the forgiveness of sins.”
Do you deserve this mercy? No. Is there anything you can do to warrant this kind of favor? No. So, the outward fasting and bodily preparation are not done to be worthy, to merit forgiveness, but are done because The Holy Spirit has produced contrition and repentance in your hearts. The fine outward training is just that—training—mortifying the flesh—drowning the “old Adam” not in your works but in the very Word of God. Peter did this. You do this.
Christ takes off His garments for you and girds Himself with a towel, as He would be girded with a burial shroud for you by Joseph and Nicodemus.
The Apostle of Love, Saint John, records the Words of Love Enfleshed, Christ Jesus “…If I have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.” The Lord was/is saying “If I have forgiven you; Loved you, then you also forgive and love one another.” The Holy Sacrament is the Feast of Love because it is the Feast of and on Jesus, God, Who is Love. The Love of God in Christ Jesus is not your action, but Jesus’ action. It is your reception. It is not a deed done but a gift, a Love received.
You are worthy because Jesus says you are worthy and because He feeds you His precious and holy Flesh and Blood—Immortality and Peace.
You believe.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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