Caput LVI. De coena Domini et rebus in ea gestis.
Approaching the Lord's Table
The reader is urged to overcome shyness and fear through love and devotion, and even from the crumbs of the Lord's table to offer charity with humble, tearful hunger.
Let love overcome your shyness; let devotion drive out your fear — so that at the very least you may offer a beggar some charity from the crumbs of that table.✦ Or stand at a distance, and like a poor person gazing at someone rich, stretch out your hand to receive something — let your hunger show itself in tears.
Washing the Disciples' Feet
Christ rises from supper and washes the disciples' feet, even Judas', and the reader is urged to offer his own feet last of all, since only what he washes is shared with him.
When after the meal he rose and wrapped a linen cloth around himself, and poured water into a basin — consider what majesty, what power this is, that washes and wipes the feet of men: what kindness, that touches with sacred hands even the feet of the one who would betray him.✦ Watch and wait, and offer him your feet to wash last of all — because whoever he himself has not washed will have no share with him.✦
The Beloved Disciple on Jesus' Breast
The reader is held back from leaving to contemplate the beloved disciple reclining on Jesus' chest, and is assured of that person's blessedness.
Why are you in such a hurry to leave now? Hold on just a moment. Do you see who that is, I ask you — the one reclining on his chest, resting his head in his lap?✦ Happy is that person — whoever he may be.
John's Fountain of Sweetness
John is identified as the beloved disciple, and the reader is invited to draw from the treasures of his grace, virginity, and intimate knowledge of Christ's divinity and humanity.
Look—I see it: his name is John. O John, what sweetness is there, what grace and tenderness, what light and devotion I might draw from that fountain—tell me. Surely there are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; there, the fountain of mercy, the dwelling of devotion, and the honeycomb of eternal tenderness. How is all this yours, John? Are you more exalted than Peter, holier than Andrew, more pleasing than all the other apostles? This is the special privilege of virginity: because you are a virgin, you were chosen by the Lord and loved before you went away with your mother. Then rejoice in mercy, virgin, draw closer, and do not delay claiming for yourself some share of this sweetness. If you cannot reach the higher things, turn to John's breast, where the wine of gladness inebriates him in the knowledge of divinity; then run to the breasts of his humanity and press out the milk by which you may be nourished.
Christ's Prayer for the Disciples
As Christ commits the disciples to the Father in his high priestly prayer, the reader is urged to bow his head and join in the petition to be kept in God's name and to be with Christ where he is.
Amid these things, as he committed the disciples to the Father in that most holy prayer, he may have said: Father, protect them in your name. Bow your head, so that you too may deserve to be heard. I want them to be with me where I am (John 17:11, 24).✦ 17:11, 24).✦
Read the original Latin
Vincat verecundiam amor, timorem excludat affectus: ut saltem de micis mensae illius eleemosynam praebeat mendicanti. Vel a longe sta, et quasi pauper intendens in divitem, ut aliquid accipias extende manum, famem lacrymis prode. Cum jam surgens a coena linteo se praecinxit, posuitque aquam in pelvim, cogita quae majestas, quae potestas hominum pedes abluit et extergit: quae benignitas proditoris vestigia sacris manibus tangit. Specta et exspecta, et ultima omnium tuos ei praebe abluendos: quia quem ipse non lavit, non habebit partem cum eo. Quid modo festinas exire? Sustine paululum. Videsne quisnam ille est, rogo te, qui supra pectus ejus recumbit, et in sinu ejus caput reclinat? Felix quicumque ille est.
O ecce video, Joannes est nomen ejus. O Joannes, quid ibi dulcedinis, quid gratiae et suavitatis, quid luminis et devotionis ab illo hauriam fonte, dicito. Ibi certe omnes thesauri sapientiae et scientiae; ibi fons misericordiae, domicilium pietatis, et favus aeternae suavitatis. Unde tibi, o Joannes omnia ista? Numquid tu sublimior Petro, Andrea sanctior, caeteris omnibus Apostolis gratior? Speciale hoc virginitatis privilegium, quia virgo es electus a Domino, antequam ires cum matre dilectus. Jam misericordiae exsulta, virgo, accede propius, et aliquam tibi hujus dulcedinis portionem vindicare non differas. Si ad potiora non potes, dimitte Joanni pectus, ubi eum vinum laetitiae in divinitatis cognitione inebriet: tu currens ad ubera humanitatis, lac exprime, quo nutriaris.
Inter haec sacratissima illa oratione discipulos commendans Patri dixerit, Pater, serva eos in nomine tuo; inclina tuum caput, ut et tu merearis audire, Volo ut ubi sum ego, et illi sint mecum (Joan. XVII, 11, 24).
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.15.27 — She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.
- ↩John.13.4-John.13.5 — So he rose from supper, laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around himself. John.13.5 — Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, wiping them with the towel tied around him.
- ↩John.13.8 — Peter said to him, 'You will never wash my feet!' Jesus answered him, 'If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.'
- ↩John.13.23-John.13.25 — One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining at Jesus' side. John.13.24 — So Simon Peter motioned to him and said to him, 'Tell us who it is he is speaking about.' John.13.25 — So after reclining back against Jesus' chest, that one says to him, 'Lord, who is it?'
- ↩John.17.11 — And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given to me, so that they may be one, just as we are one.
- ↩John.17.11 — And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given to me, so that they may be one, just as we are one.
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