1. The last school day for the apostles.
The last supper is the last day of the apostles in the school of the Lord’s service. And so, the Gospel reviews the stages that they had passed through, sort of summarizing what they had gone through before describing the last steps in their training.
The Liturgy is Holy Mother the Church’s way of telling us, first, what are all the steps in the training of a Christian. And secondly to guide us so we can know at what stage we are in our own training. This is the main reason why the messages of the Gospel are repeatedly celebrated year in and year out……so we can know the steps towards salvation and, also, know what grade we are in the school of the Lord’s service.
The Gospel tell us in what step the apostles are, so we can know in what step we are. Today, during the Last Supper, we see the apostles having their last class day in school. Have we reached this stage?
2. Summary of the way of salvation.
Today’s Gospel gives the summary of the steps towards the way of salvation; first, by having a contrite heart. Secondly, by having a broken spirit. Thirdly, by having our feet washed. Fourthly, by attending Mass. The fifth step which is the last step will be taught on Good Friday with the crucifixion of Christ. Let us briefly take each step.
The ‘sacrifice that is pleasing to God is a contrite heart and a broken spirit,’ says the Psalm. ‘A contrite heart and a broken heart, O Lord, thou wilt not despise,’ the Psalm repeats. That is how we prepare for Mass.
3. A contrite Heart. A contrite heart is acquired through the life of Penance by which the VIRTUE of Penance is acquired. This is the spirituality of the Old Testament. This life consists in observing the commandments of God the Father in the Old Testament which is summarized in the 10 commandments.
4. A broken spirit
A broken spirit is acquired through the virtue of humility and this is the spirituality of the New Testament. This is the first Beatitudes.
With a contrite heart and a broken spirit, the soul is a holy person. But because he is still alive here on earth, the soul will tend to dirty his feet; i.e. to sin through contact with human relations and other worldly activities. Thus the need to clean one’s feet. Without these three mentioned steps the person would be wholly dirty from head to feet, like Judas. But having obeyed the commands of God in both the Old and New Testament, the soul would only be dirty in his feet. And Christ was giving the remedy for these dirty feet…..and this is community life wherein each member of the community who by this time have the supernatural virtue of Faith can aid their confreres by cleaning each other’s feet.
5. The washing of the feet.
At the last supper Christ took off his cloak; this is a symbol of a contrite heart, the life of repentance which is the spirituality of the Old Testament. Then Christ put a towel around His waist; this is a symbol of a broken spirit, the virtue of humility which is also the first Beatitude of the New Testament.
Then Jesus washes the feet of His Apostles. The apostles had reach the height of their spirituality, now, at their last day at school, they have obeyed many of the commands of Christ. They have the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. That is almost the perfection of the Christian life. But they were still alive on earth. So will tend to be in contact with the things of the world, which is the territory of Satan and will be stained in the process. The only part of their bodies that will be stained by their occasional contact with the world is symbolically their feet.
So Christ tells the apostles the need to wash their feet, they, being advanced in the spiritual life, only had their feet dirty; the rest of their bodies are symbolically clean. But Jesus mentioned an exception, Judas. He was dirty all over; from head to foot because he had not progressed at all in the spiritual life. He had not even started in the first step, which is to have a contrite heart. How do we know that? Because if he had a contrite heart he would not have been tempted to covetousness. Judas did not have the sign that he had the virtue of Penance which is the fruit of obedience to the commands of God in the Old Testament.
So the scenario during the last supper where Christ said the first Mass and washed the feet of His apostles is this; they were in the upper room. St. Thomas explained this as the inner sanctum of the Catholic Church with the upper room a symbol of the height of their knowledge of Catholic Doctrine.
The apostles were all in a very high degree of spirituality, almost having reached the perfection of Faith, Hope and Charity. They were all men because, not only were they representing the Catholic Church, they were the first bishops to be appointed to run the Church and evangelize the world. That evening, they were cut off from the rest of the world, they were sort of living in a monastic community.
This is the picture of the Catholic Church today evangelized by the ‘new’ evangelization of Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI an entirely different evangelization from the similarly called ‘new’ evangelization of the present Papacy and many Bishop’s conferences, like that of the Philippines’ Bishops.
Christ, first, washed the feet of the apostles. But since he will soon ascend to heaven, he instructed his apostles to clean each other’s feet. In the washing of the feet, it is essential that no ordinary person wash the feet of others except the apostles; i.e. people who were inside the upper room, i.e., inside the Catholic Church; and have already reached a high degree in their spiritual training, i.e. they possess the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. This is the spiritual significance of the washing of the feet.
6. Being totally clean, they attended Mass and received Holy Communion, i.e. they united themselves to the unbloody passion of Christ.
7. Critique of Pope Francis’ Mass and washing of the feet.
Pope Francis can wash anybody’s feet or any part of anyone’s body as he pleases. But he was celebrating a historical event with a very specific meaning as we have seen above as explained by St. Thomas of Aquinas.
The people whose feet were washed were apostles; Pope Francis did not have anyone close to the apostles at all. But that is excusable because it is difficult to find true apostles today.
The apostles whose feet were washed were at the height of their spirituality. Alright, that is excusable too because even bishops are not very high in their spirituality. At least, Pope Francis should have chosen little boys whose spirituality is closer to the apostles rather than adult men. The apostles were very specially chosen and segregated in the upper room. Well, Pope Francis’ group was not really very segregated.
The apostles were all men. If Pope Francis chose a few male gays, that would still be excusable. But when he choses women and non Catholics……he can really do what he wants. But he is no longer celebrating a historical Catholic event with very deep meaning. Pope Francis is misrepresenting an event and calling it the Last Supper. That is very deceitful; and coming from the father and head of the Catholic Church it is akin to poisoning the minds of his flock. It is prostituting Catholic mysteries.
8. Understandable
Pope Francis, many Jesuits and many speakers in the latest Eucharistic Congress in the Philippine do not believe in Transubstantiation, the doctrine that states that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Host both in His human and Divine nature. They believe in some nebulous idea by Karl Rahner called transfinalization of transignification, wherein Jesus is just signified in the Sacred Host but that host is just mere bread. Here the crisis on the Holy Eucharist began according to Pope Paul VI. He condemned this heresy in ‘Mysterium Fidei.’
From this heresy came the scandalous statement from the CBCP President, Villegas explaining the careless and sacrilegious handling of the Sacred Host during the Papal visit in Manila that went viral in the Internet. Well, they are all birds of the same feather flocking together. No wonder they play with the Last Supper as they played basketball with the Host in Manila.
9. The ‘Last Supper’ not yet celebrated in most Catholic communities.
The above four steps summarizing the complete teachings of the Church was shown by Christ thus; First, the need for a contrite heart which is obedience to the commands in the Old Testament and this was shown by Christ in the Gospel when He took off His robe. Secondly, the need for a broken heart, Humility (‘Learn from Me for I am meek and humble of heart) was shown by Christ when He tied a towel around his waist. Thirdly, the need for purity of heart before they can see God. This was shown by Christ when He washed the feet of His apostles.
Then and only then were they worthy to see God in the mystery of the Sacred Eucharist.
Since most of the priests, bishops, cardinals and probably Pope Francis are the types pre-figured by the Pharisees and Scribes on Good Friday, the possibility is great that they have NOT done the four steps taken by Christ to perfect His apostles. Thus as shown in previous posts, the four visible signs of the true Church as enumerated in the Nicene Creed cannot be found in them. These four actions of Christ cannot be found in them, too. These four actions of Christ corresponds to the four visible signs of the true Church.
If our Pope, most of the cardinals, most of the bishops and most of the priest had not undergone these four actions of Christ….namely taking off His robe, tying a towel, washing of their feet and saying the first Mass for them……then there is no Holy Eucharist in their midst; as there was no Ark of the Covenant during the time of the Maccabees due to the infidelity of the Jews, as they was no Ark of the Covenant during the Passion of Christ because of the infidelity of the Jews, again. . Today, the probability that there is no Consecrated Host in most Ark of the tabernacles is because of the infidelity of the Jesuit Karl Rahner who have infected many bishops who now teaches that there is no transubstantiation, no Real Presence. But only trans…….????? whatever he means,…. a teaching Pope Paul VI condemned. There goes the Last supper all out of the window; the bishops, the washing of the feet, the Consecration of the Bread and Wine…….all out with Judas into the night.
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