Covenant and Command

At the close of Mass this evening, instead of giving a final blessing, I will process through the church with the Blessed Sacrament. As that happens, we will sing a hymn written about 800 years ago by the Dominican friar St. Thomas Aquinas. His brilliant theology is still widely read and studied, but St. Thomas is perhaps as well known today for his deep love and devotion for the Eucharist. Over the course of his life, he wrote five hymns about the Eucharist and the most famous of these is the Pange Lingua, the one we will sing.

In one of the last stanzas of the hymn, St. Thomas succinctly summarizes the whole meaning of this evening’s liturgy: “Et antiquum documentum novo cedat ritui” – “And may the ancient covenant give way to a new rite.”St. Thomas is referring to how, on the night before he died, Jesus established a new and eternal covenant that fulfills and succeeds the prior covenant God had made with his people Israel. As we heard in the first reading, that old covenant had the Passover meal as its principal sign. Each year, the Passover lamb would be sacrificed and eaten as a remembrance of and a sharing in God’s saving action to bring his People out of slavery in Egypt. In the new covenant of Christ, the People of God partake not of roasted lamb but of the living Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, who as the Lamb of God, sacrificed for us on the Cross, has brought us out of slavery to sin and death. That’s why we can say, echoing the words of St. Paul, that whenever we eat the Bread that has become the Lord’s Body and drink of the Cup that is his Blood, we have Communion with the Lord and proclaim his death and resurrection.

Icon of Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples (1497), Kirillo-Belezersky Monastery, Russia

Maybe it seems strange then that our Gospel today tells us not about the eating and drinking at the Last Supper but instead the washing of feet. Only the Gospel of John recounts this event, and it seems that he does so as a way of explaining the new covenant with Christ in a different way. Jesus washes the disciples’ feet so that they can have an inheritance with him, as he tells Peter. But he also does it a sign of what they must then do for each other – and not just for each other, but for all. The new covenant with Christ, then, is about sacrificial love, and Jesus will show them the depth of that sacrificial love the next day when he goes to Calvary. Just as the Lord stooped to wash the disciples’ feet, so too he would stoop to bear the Cross for their sake, for the sake of all who have an inheritance with him.

But, if the Lord has made himself lowly for us, even to the point of death, then we who have Communion with him in the new covenant of his Blood must also do the same for others. When we come to partake of this Supper that we call the Eucharist, we commit ourselves to serving others with sacrificial, Christlike love – not by washing their feet, but by helping the poor, lifting up the lowly, welcoming the stranger, forgiving the sinner, working for peace and reconciliation. Just as Christ poured himself out for us, so too we who receive him, who have Communion with him, must pour ourselves out in loving service to one another.

In a few moments, friends, we will once again partake of the Sacrament of the Altar. We will do so at Jesus’s command, in memory of him, but not just with his memory but his very Presence among us. As we partake in this ritual meal, what St. Thomas calls the new rite of our covenant with him, may we remember that it is only by his grace and his Presence within us that we can fulfill his command to do what he has done for us – to lay down our lives in love for one another.