Passion Saturday – 28 March – Our Lenten Journey With St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Doctor of the Church
Passion Saturday
How We Should Wash Each Others’ Feet
“If I then, being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you too ough to wash one another’s feet”
John xiii. 14
Our Lord wishes His disciples to imitate His Example.
He says, therefore, If I, Who am the greater, being your Master and the Lord, have washed your feet, you too, all the more who are the lesser, who are disciples, slaves even, ought to wash each others’ feet.
“Whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister . . . . Even as the Son of Man is not come to be ministered unto but to minister” (Matt xx. 26-28).
St Augustine says, every man ought to wash the feet of his fellowmen, either actually or in spirit.
And, it is by far the best and true beyond all controversy, that we should do it actually, lest Christians scorn to do what Christ did.
For when a man bends his body to the feet of a brother human, emotion is stirred in his very heart, or, if it be there already, it is strengthened.
If we cannot actually wash his feet, at least we can do it in spirit.
The washing of the feet signifies the washing away of stains.
You, therefore, wash the feet of your brother when, as far as lies in your power, you wash away his stains.
And this you may do in three ways:
(i) By forgiving the offences he has done to you. “Forgive one another, if any have a complaint against another: even as the Lord hath forgiven you, so do you also” (Coloss iii. 13).
(ii) By praying for the forgiveness of his sin, as St James bids us, “Pray for one another that you may be saved” (James v. 16).
This way of washing, like the first, is open to all the faithful.
(iii) The third way is for Prelates, who should wash, by forgiving sins through the authority of the Keys, according to the Gospel, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost; those whose sins you shall forgive , they are forgiven them” (John xx. 23).
We can also say that in this one act, Our Lord showed all the Works of Mercy.
He who gives bread to the hungry, washes their feet, as also does the man who harbours the harbourless, or he who clothes the naked.
“Communicating to the necessities of the saints” (Rom xii. 13).
ST THOMAS AQUINAS (1225-1274)
Priest, Theologian, Dominican
Doctor Angelicus (Angelic Doctor)
Doctor Communis (Common Doctor)
Added by Pope Saint Pius V in 1568
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