CHAPTER XXVI.

JESUS CELEbrates the JEWISH PASSOVER.

Matt. xxvi. 17-20 and 29; Mark xiv. 12-17 and 25; Luke xxii. 7-18.

THIS solemn banquet of thanksgiving, in which the Hebrews celebrated their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt and commemorated all the subsequent glory of their elect race, was in the present case the final tribute of the Messias to the Mosaic law. Solemnly, His heart full of the omens of His approaching death, the Lamb of God prepared for the eating of that lamb of the Passover which was one of the most conspicuous types of Himself and of His mission of salvation. He prepared for the celebration in a miraculous manner, as being a worthy prelude to this solemn occasion. He secretly inspired a disciple living in the city to get ready a room with all the proper requisites, including the lamb itself, roasted and ready for eating.

Jesus and His Apostles came back from Bethany the evening corresponding to our Holy Thursday. The narrative of what happened, blended from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, is as follows: "And the first day of the unleavened bread came, on which it was necessary that the pasch should be killed. And He sent Peter and John, saying: Go, and prepare us the pasch, that we may eat. But they said: Where wilt Thou that we prepare? But He said to them: Behold as you go into the city there shall meet you a man carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth. And you shall say to the good man of the house: The Master saith to thee, My time is near at hand; I will keep

Where is My guest-champasch with My disciples?

the pasch at thy house.
ber, where I may eat the
And he will show you a large dining-room furnished,
and there prepare ye for us. And the disciples went
their way, and came into the city, and they found
as He had told them, and they prepared the pasch.
And when evening was come, He sat down, and the
twelve Apostles with Him."

The paschal lamb used by our Saviour had been killed at the Temple, according to the Jewish custom, on the afternoon prior to the feast. It was brought to the dining-room, having been roasted, as is most probable, by the disciple whom Jesus had engaged to provide all things necessary for the cere

THE PASCHAL BREAD.

mony. The little band of the Apostles, twelve in number, were like the twelve original tribes of that race whose children they were, and whose deliverance from worse than Egyptian bondage they were about to celebrate. Jesus, presiding as father of the family, observed faithfully the prescriptions of the law as they were interpreted in His time, very probably as follows: As the opening ceremony of the feast He drank from a cup of wine, which He then passed to His Apostles, all offering a short prayer of thanksgiving; and this was followed by the washing of hands. Next they ate of a salad of bitter herbs with unleavened bread, in memory of the sufferings of their ancestors during their slavery. Then followed a sweet aromatic sauce, typical of the divine favor which had always protected them, and after this the paschal lamb was brought in and placed on the table.

It was solemnly blessed by the head of the family, a second cup of wine passed around, and the lamb divided and eaten. This was followed by a third cup of wine, which was called the cup of blessing, because it accompanied the final thanksgiving. During the whole banquet Jesus would follow the custom of His people, explaining the meaning of each observance, and leading them in singing psalms of praise, such as cxii., cxiii., cxix.

Of the Passover banquet itself the Evangelists have given us but the briefest account. But they tell us of two things which Jesus said, which in their deep tones of love and sorrowful farewell indicate how pathetic was the whole ceremony. One of these utterances was as follows: "With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you before I suffer. For I say to you, that from this time I will not eat it till it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God." Herein He spoke of His crucifixion, in which was fulfilled and finally completed all the prophetical significance of the lamb slain and eaten as the end of exile, and of the passing over by the angel of destruction of all souls sprinkled with His blood. The second recorded speech of our Saviour is what He said when passing to His Apostles the cup which opened the feast. "And having taken the chalice, He gave thanks and said: Take and divide it among you. For I say to you that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine till the Kingdom of God come." Both of these utterances mean the same thing-the abrogation of the ancient rite, and the substitution in its stead of the new rites and observances of the Church of Christ. The foremost of these is the Eucharist, the mysterious banquet of Christ's own body and blood. This He was going to institute before they finished

the evening, setting it in the place of highest dignity in the Church's worship. Jesus thus performed His last act of Jewish ritual observance, ate His last daschal lamb, and drank His last paschal cup.

CHAPTER XXVII.

JESUS WASHES HIS DISCIPLES' FEET.

John xiii. 1-20.

IF little is said by the Evangelists concerning the Jewish Passover celebrated by Christ and His Apostles, a very full account is given of what occurred after it was over, events of supreme interest to the human race.

The Holy Spirit reserved to John, the latest Evangelist, the beloved disciple, and the chief exponent of our Saviour's love, the description of the washing of the disciples' feet. What a spectacle! the Son of God stooping down and washing and wiping and kissing the feet of these rough men! Love is

*St. Luke's account of the celebration gives the whole of the Saviour's solemn announcement of His farewell to the Mosaic rites: "I say to you, that from this time I will not eat [the paschal lamb] till it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. And having taken the chalice, He gave thanks and said: Take and divide it among you. For I say to you that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine till the Kingdom of God come." This Evangelist thus gives the twofold farewell of our Saviour to the Mosaic law, and puts it in its exact place right after the paschal supper. St. Matthew and St. Mark omit His farewell to the paschal lamb, giving only His reference to "the fruit of the vine," the paschal cup; and they place the words after their account of the Eucharistic supper. St. Luke's narrative is thus the fuller and more careful one, and by its union of the Saviour's reference to the paschal lamb with that to the paschal cup we are made certain that this Evangelist's account gives this utterance its proper place, which was not after the Eucharistic supper. The other two Evangelists gave the Master's reference to "the fruit of the vine" at the end of their narrative of the events of the evening as a sort of addendum. The words "the fruit of the vine" could not have referred to the Eucharistic cup.

sometimes fond of making public exhibitions of its
interior affection. It can do this without risk of
vanity; for it glories too much in the applause of its
beloved to be moved from its loyalty by the applause
of standers by. Hence our Saviour's
insistence on the public ceremony
of washing His disciples' feet.

We are struck with the contrast between the Redeemer's love and the traitor's baseness, as carefully brought out by St. John, for it is entirely certain that Judas was present; he was proof against the reproachful glances and the caresses, perhaps the whispered appeal, of the Master incident to the washing of his feet. We notice, too, the singular aptness of the Master's quotation from the fortieth psalm, as if on washing the heel of Judas He had physically felt it spurning and kicking Him in the brutal assault attending His betrayal and arrest in the later hours of that same night.

The example of humility here. given, emphasized by St. John in the words, "knowing that the Father had given Him all things into His hands, and that He came from God and goeth to God," and yet cleans the feet of twelve dull peasants, is one of the most moving in all the Gopel. It struck deep into the soul of Peter, whose hasty nature (soon to be tamed by a rude lesson) revolted

Before the festival day of the pasch, Jesus knowing that his hour was come, that he should pass out of this world to the Father having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And when supper was done (the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him), knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands, and that he came from God, and goeth to God: he riseth from supper, and layeth aside his garments, and having taken a towel, girded himself. After that, he putteth water into a basın, and began to wash the feet of his disciples, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. He cometh therefore to Simon Peter. And Peter said to him: Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered, and said to him: What I do, thou knowest_not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter said to him: Thou shalt never wash my feet: Jesus answered him: If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me. Simon Peter saith to him: Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him: He that is washed, needeth not but to wash his feet, but is clean wholly. And you are clean, but not all. For he knew who he was that would betray him; therefore he said: You are not all clean. Then after he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, being sat down again, he said to them: Know you what I have done to you? You call me Master, and Lord and you say well, for so I am. If then I, 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 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. speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me, shall lift up his heel against me.