April 2007 Print

Fr. Michel Simoulin

 

The Church recommends that the celebrant of the Holy Thursday evening Mass give a brief sermon–brief–in order to explain a little the meaning of these ceremonies. I think, especially if we have prepared for Holy Week the way we should, that we have an idea of the meaning, the symbolism, of the ceremonies we are about to perform (besides the Holy Mass, of course); that is, to reproduce all that our Lord did on the evening of Holy Thursday just before–or rather, at the very moment He entered into His Passion. He intended, very precisely, to leave to His Apostles and to the Church the Sacrament–the Sacrament–of His Passion: the Holy Eucharist, the Mass, the priesthood, all that would be our greatest treasures and which, up to that moment, were held enclosed in the Heart of our Lord, and which He was about to confide to His Church in confiding them to His twelve Apostles. The first ceremony at which we are going to assist, or participate in, is the ceremony which the Church has us read in the Gospel: the ceremony of the washing of the feet.

We may be a little surprised, first of all, at our Lord's even doing this. We can understand the surprise, the astonishment, almost the scandal of St. Peter: "What! You? You, wash my feet? How can it be?"

And we may be surprised that the Church insists so much on renewing this ceremony, which, unfortunately, could even make some people smile–those, perhaps, who do not understand anything about the liturgy, whereas in fact it is a very important ceremony.

So what we need to do now is to try to understand exactly why it is that our Lord, on the point of leaving to His Apostles the memorial of His Passion, on the point of leaving them Himself, already immolated in the Holy Eucharist, insisted on placing Himself at their feet in this way, in order to wash their feet. One meaning, of course, is that our Lord is giving to His Apostles an example of humility, to teach them not to lord it over souls as masters, as dominators. That is, of course, a lesson which priests need to take from this act of humiliation on the part of our Lord, performing this menial service for His Apostles. Without a doubt, it does contain a symbol of humility.

But at the same time, I believe that there is a profounder meaning, one that comes back to what the Church teaches us in the Epistle, taken from St. Paul to the Corinthians: a call for purity: a call, an invitation, to understand how much this Sacrament is pure, how much this Sacrament is holy, and how much we need to be holy and pure to dare to draw near it. Obviously, it is not a question of waiting to be a saint before receiving the Holy Eucharist, because, on the contrary, this Sacrament is what is going to sanctify us, what is going to purify us. Yet the soul has to have a certain purity, there has to be at least no serious obstacle to our Lord's friendship. If we have been unfaithful in certain small things, it is certainly regrettable, but it should not keep us away from our Lord. On the contrary, it is in drawing near to our Lord that we allow Him to purify us. It is He, essentially, who purifies us, not by washing our feet, but interiorly, by His presence in our soul.

So this ceremony definitely invites us to purity, to consider how much this sacrament is holy, how much it is pure. Yet, I believe that it is also an invitation to purity for His Apostles, for priests. And I think that we need to pray this evening most especially for our priests; our priests, who are called to a very exceptional purity; who are called to a purity and a sanctity that are nearly angelic; for they handle those things that are purest and most sacred. The priest is at the service of the purest realities that can possibly exist here below. He is at the service, precisely, of Jesus Christ–of the sanctity, of the purity of Jesus Christ; He is at the service of the Sacrament of our Lord, of the Most Holy Sacrament of our Lord Jesus Christ; and he is at the service, also, of the purest, the most delicate reality in all creation, and which is quite simply the human soul. That is what a priest is. He is placed in permanent contact with souls, which he has a duty to purify and to help them to purify themselves. He is at the service of the purest reality of all, which is God, which is Jesus Christ, which is the Most Holy Sacrament; first of all to bring it about in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and then to give it to souls who need it in order to purify themselves.

Now we can understand why our Lord was so intent on purifying His Apostles. And yet, He Himself said: "You are already pure." Certain theologians believe, and it is a fairly common teaching, that the Apostles had been baptized by our Lord and therefore had already been purified of original sin. But there certainly remained some small attachments to the world, and that is what this washing of the feet means. Why would He wash their feet? Because even the most spiritual among us, the highest on a supernatural level, necessarily has a certain contact with the ground, at least by his feet. You have to stand on the ground, and this contact with the ground by the intermediary of the feet, can leave certain marks even in the soul itself of a being who is perhaps very pure, very holy–certain attachments to things of the earth. This, then, is certainly what our Lord meant to show: that it is necessary to purify oneself absolutely. Even if we have some contact with the things of the earth, it should leave no trace at all in our soul. The priest is devoted to helping souls to live, at least to draw near to that degree of sanctity, of purity; the priest is devoted to detaching himself completely from all human affection, from all earthly affection, from all attachment to things of the earth. The priest is uniquely the man of God, totally foreign to this world in which he lives. And if he is occupied with things of this world, it should be uniquely in order to purify them. No doubt, he has to take care of material concerns, of human concerns. But in these human concerns, what is the role of the priest? To purify all of these earthly realities in order that they become an intermediary, a means to rise up to heavenly realities. What, then, must be the purity of a priest, and how much do we need to pray for our priests!

The Church repeats this ceremony of the washing of the feet only once a year, but notice how she has insisted on retaining this symbolism at every single Mass. The priest must still purify himself at every Mass–in a very symbolic manner, of course. He does not purify his feet, but his fingers. Already, before putting on the sacred vestments in the sacristy, the priest is supposed to purify his fingers, his hands; and then at the altar, again, during the Offertory, the priest is supposed to purify his fingers once more. And why this insistence on purifying his fingers? Because his fingers, his hands, are holy; because his hands are consecrated; because his hands–and I wonder if the faithful realize it sufficiently–because his hands, as the priest celebrates the Mass, his hands become the place of the Sacrifice. It is between the fingers of the priest that Jesus Christ immolates Himself. And therefore, just as the chalice is consecrated to become the place of the Sacrifice, to contain the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, likewise the hands of a priest are consecrated on the day of his ordination. It is not so much in order to be able to touch the Eucharist, to be able to give the Eucharist. Of course, that is one aspect of it, but a secondary aspect, a consequence; the essential reason for their consecration is that these hands are to become the place of the Sacrifice. They become like a living chalice, an animate chalice. Truly, these fingers become the stone of the Sacrifice. Between his poor human fingers, every day, our Lord renews His Sacrifice.

That is the reason why the hands of the priest must be very pure. They must, they ought to be, occupied only with the Sacrifice. If only the priest had but that to do, could use his consecrated hands only to hold in them our Lord Jesus Christ, only to allow Jesus Christ to renew His Sacrifice! That is the reason why the priest should be very pure, should be very holy, as far as that grace is given to him, as far as it is in his strength, to be pure. And the priest should desire the most authentic purity, the most perfect purity, the most perfect holiness. That is the reason for priestly celibacy. It is not a question of being available for his parishioners or I don't know what else. How is it possible that a priest who has been so consecrated to make of his hands the place of the Sacrifice, should use his hands for other things, for other realities, that are so distant–even if they are legitimate in themselves–but that are so distant from the reality of this Sacrifice, realized there, between his fingers, in his hands. It is also the reason why only the priest, as the minister of the Sacrifice, can be the minister of the Sacrament, because it is the same reality. The host is at the same time Sacrifice and Sacrament. It is because it was his hands that celebrated, that were the place of the Sacrifice; it is because these hands were the place of the Sacrifice, that these hands, and only these hands, can give the Sacrament to souls that desire it.

That is what a priest is, essentially. All of the priest is summarized, in a way, in his hands, his consecrated hands, consecrated for the Sacrifice. It is a reality we need to call to mind when we draw near to a priest, when we have to speak with him: how much we need to pray for our priests, for all of our priests. First, the faithful priests, of course; we have to pray for them in order that they be pure, that they be more and more pure, and we have to help them to purify themselves. What a misfortune for the faithful, on the contrary, who would cause the priest to descend, in a way, from that sanctity, from that purity, to a profane level, one that is too human; to any friendship that would be overly human. What misfortune! No, on the contrary, it is necessary to help the priest to detach himself from human realities, even the holiest, even the best, even the most legitimate. No; he is made for the things of God, and we have a duty to help him in that. If nothing else, we have a duty to pray for him.

Pray then, for the faithful priests, of course, but pray as well for the other priests. We must not forget them. It is not because they are perhaps unfaithful, it is not because they have fallen–who knows, perhaps because they have been victims of our age. How much they need our prayers; indeed, perhaps even more than the faithful priests, because they need help in order to pull out of their wretchedness, to pull out of their sin, to pull out of their infidelity. It is not because a priest does not celebrate the "right Mass," as we say, that he is a "bad" priest. Never say that! The poor priest. Who knows, who knows his mystery, his tragedy; why precisely he has come to that point, of celebrating in such a profane way, or at least in a much less sacred, much less holy way. He has not been given a rite of Mass that helps him to sanctify himself, that helps him to purify himself. We must never disdain those priests. It may be our duty to protect ourselves from them, but we must always maintain for them a great deal of esteem, because they are priests, whatever else they are. Even if they are unworthy of it, even if they have fallen, even if they live in sin, they conserve that indelible character in their heart and in their soul. Their hands remain consecrated to be the place of the Sacrifice. If only we could bring them back, perhaps to rediscover the Mass of their ordination, to rediscover the meaning of their priesthood! Pray for our priests, pray for all of our priests.

That is, I think, the most important aspect. Let us meditate well, of course, all of these great treasures, which our Lord leaves to us this evening: the Mass, the Eucharist; but let us realize that if there are no more priests, there is no more Mass. If there is no more Mass, there is no more Eucharist. What we need, then, most of all, is holy priests. Lord, grant us priests, grant us holy priests, grant us many holy priests. That is what we should ask, later on, when we are praying before the Holy Eucharist, at the altar of repose, when we are trying to keep our Lord company in His Agony. May we realize a little bit what the life of a priest really is, and may we pray, may we have at heart to pray for our priests, in order that they be priests who are truly consolers of our Lord Jesus Christ, continuers of the Sacrifice of our Lord, on the altar but also in their lives.

Let us confide our priests, then, to our Lady; our Lady who is the Mother of the priest, Queen of the Clergy. It is to her that we must confide the souls of all our priests, good or bad, faithful or unfaithful; what does it matter, they are priests, and therefore they are children of Mary, they are the favorite sons of our Lady. Pray to our Lady for our priests, in order that truly they be very holy priests. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

 

Fr. Simoulin was ordained in 1980 by Archbishop Lefebvre. After many varied posts, including pastor of St. Nicholas du Chardonnet, seminary rector, and district superior, he is now at St. Joseph des Carmes School in France. Fr. Simoulin gave this sermon, translated for Angelus Press by Miss Ann Marie Temple, on Holy Thursday, 2004, at St. Thomas Aquinas School, Romagne, France.