Sermon for Holy Thursday: On the Effects of Baptism, Holy Communion, and the Washing of the Feet. If I Wash Thee Not Thou Shalt Have No Part with Me. —john Xiii. 8

These, my brethren, are days which we ought to spend holily ; they are days full of piety and grace, capable of exciting to penance the souls of even the most abandoned sinners. So great indeed is the power of the mysteries commemorated at this time that it can pierce even hearts of stone, yea, can even soften breasts of iron. For to this day we behold the effects of Christ’s passion, not only in the manifestations of sympathy by the celestial spheres, but also in the quaking of the earth, in the rending of the rocks, in the opening of the sepulchres by the confession of sin (Matt. xxvii. 51, 52). Now, amongst spiritual aliments, as amongst corporeal, there are some which yield their relish easily and at once, and some which require to be first masticated. That is to say, there are certain truths and moral lessons which, as being sufficiently evident to all, do not need elucidation, and certain others which demand the most diligent inquiry to penetrate the obscurity that surrounds them. No mother will reach her child an unbroken nut, but will first break the shell and offer him the meat. So ought I, my dearest brethren, if only I had the power, to make manifest to your minds whatever is wrapped in mystery. But as that is impossibic, let us beg of

ON THE EFFECTS OF BAPTISM 155 wisdom as a good mother to break these nuts, both for me and for you, these nuts, I mean, which are the fruit of that priestly rod, of that “rod of power ” which the Lord hath “‘sent forth out of Sion” (Ps. cix. 2). There are many mysteries or sacraments which might be discussed with profit, but the shortness of the time will not allow the investigation of all. Perhaps, too, it would overtax the powers of some amongst , you. Therefore, I shall confine my remarks to three sacraments, which are particularly relevant to the present time, and concerning them I shall communicate to you whatsoever the Lord may vouchsafe to inspire me with.

By a sacrament is understood a sacred sign or a sacred mystery.* Many things are done solely for their own sakes and without any ulterior significance ; many other things are done for the purpose of designating what lies beyond themselves, and such are called and are truly signs. To take a familiar example : suppose a person offers a ring to another, intending nothing more than to make a present of the ring: his action has no significance. But suppose the ring is given as a title to an inheritance : it is now a sign, so that the recipient can say : “‘ The ring, it is true, has not much intrinsic value, but it represents the property which I covet.” In this way, therefore, the Lord, on the eve of His passion, took care to invest His followers with a title to His grace, so that a visible sign might become the channel for the communication of invisible grace to our souls. This indeed is the end for which all the sacraments have been instituted; this is the purpose of the Eucharistic Communion, of the washing of the feet,* and of holy baptism, the first of the sacraments of Christ, in which “ we have been planted together in the likeness of His death ” (Rom. vi. 5), and which, in its triple immersion,t bears a resemblance to the triduum which we are now celebrating. As in sensible things there are different signs—thus, to keep to the example I have taken, there are various kinds of investiture differing one from another according to the variety of the offices or dignities, wherewith men are invested, a book being used in the investiture of canons, a crozier in the investiture of abbots, and a ring with the crozier in the investiture of bishops—so in things spiritual “‘ diversities of graces” (x Cor. xii. 4) are communicated in different sacraments. What then is the grace with which we are invested by baptism? It is manifestly the purgation of our sins. “ Who can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed” (Job xiv. 4) save only God Who alone is clean and Who alone is inaccessible to sin? The grace of this sacrament was dispensed under the Old Law by means of circumcision wherein the rust of original guilt, derived from our first parents, was scraped away with the knife of stone (Jos. v. 3). But at the coming of Christ, Who is a Lamb full of sweetness and kindness, Whose very yoke is sweet and His burden light (Matt. xi. 30),

. 348. t Mode of baptism still common in St, Bernard’s time,

ON THE EFFECTS OF BAPTISM 157 a most welcome change took place, for, instead of the former painful remedy, water with the unction of the Holy Spirit began to be used to wash out the inherited stain.

But perhaps some of you will say to me: “If the sin which we all contracted from our first parents has been washed away in baptism, how is it that we still find within us the passion of concupiscence and so strong an inclination to evil?” It is true indeed that this “ law of sin ’’ (Rom. viii. 2) has been inherited by us from the authors of our race. For we all owe our existence to a sinful will and hence it happens that our own wills are corrupt and, as it were, full of ulcers. This is the explanation of those evil desires and those carnal motions which we so often experience in spite of ourselves. I have frequently reminded -you, brethren, and you ought never to forget that we were all of us involved in the fall of the first man. We fell upon mud and stones so that we have been not only begrimed but also bruised and badly shaken. Now, dirt can be quickly washed away, but to heal a wound many remedies are required. So we have been already cleansed in the sacrament of baptism whereby “ the hand-writing of the decree ” of our condemnation has been blotted out (Col. ii. 14). Moreover, the grace of this sacrament protects us in such a manner that concupiscence can no-longer do us any hurt, provided we refuse our consent to its suggestions ; and thus it clears away the corrupted matter—if I may be allowed the expression—of our inveterate ulcer by removing the condemnation and “‘ the answer of death ” (2 Cor. i. 9) whereof it was the source. But who shall be able to bridle such intractable motions ? Who can bear the prurience of this sore? Have confidence, my brethren, because herein also grace is our helper ; and in order to give us perfect security, we have made over to us by a solemn act the Sacrament of the Lord’s Body and most precious Blood. This Sacrament produces two effects in us: it weakens the force of concupiscence in thelesser things and keeps us from consenting in more serious matters. If any of you is not now assailed so often or so violently by the passion of anger, or of envy, or of lust, or by other such domestic enemies, let him return thanks to the Body and Blood of Christ, because the power of the Sacrament has been efficacious in him, and let him rejoice that his most malignant ulcer is beginning to heal.

But what ought we to do, brethren, considering that so long as we live in this “ body of sin”’ (Rom. vi. 6), in this wicked world, we cannot be altogether without sin? Ought we to despair? God forbid! Listen to the Evangelist, “ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity ” (x John i. 8,). And that we may have no doubt concerning the remission of our daily venial faults, the ceremony of the washing of the feet has been instituted as a special sacrament for that purpose. Perhaps you would like to hear how I can be sure that the washing of the feet is a sacrament instituted for the remission of our venial faults? Especially as the Lord Himself, after giving a promise to Peter in the words, “ What 1 do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter” (John xiii. 7), said nothing at all about a sacrament, but only, “ I have given you

ON THE EFFECTS OF BAPTISM 159 an example, that as I have done to you so you do also ” (ibid. r). Nevertheless, He had many things to say to them which they could not bear then (John xvi. 12). Therefore He would not, on the one hand, leave them altogether in a state of anxious doubt and incertitude, nor did He wish, on the other hand, to reveal to them what they could not comprehend. Now do you desire me to prove jthat {in washing the disciples’ feet the Lord not only gave us an example but also instituted a sacrament? Attend to what He said to Peter, “ If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with Me ” (John xiii. 8). From these words it is manifest that there was something necessary for salvation concealed in this ceremony, since without it not even Peter could have part in the kingdom of Christ and of God. For see how Peter trembled with affright at the awful sound of that threatening sentence, see how he acknowledged that the ceremony contained a mystery of salvation by his answer, “‘ Lord, not only my feet but also my hands and my head” (ibid. 9). But how do we know that this sacramental ablution has been instituted to cleanse us from those sins which are not unto death (x John v. 16) and which we cannot altogether avoid so long as we live in the flesh? It is evident from the fact that when Peter offered his hands and head as well as his feet to bewashed, he received the answer, “ He that is washed needeth not but to wash his feet ” (John xiii. 9, 10). For “he that is washed ” is he who has no mortal sin on his soul, whose head and hands, that is to say, whose intention, actions, and conversation are clean ; although his feet, that is, the affections of his soul, cannot be entirely pure whilst he walks through the dusty ways of this world. For it must needs be that his spirit shall occasionally indulge to excess—though but for a moment—in curiosity, pleasure, or vanity, as it is written, “ In many things we all offend” (James iii. 2).

Nevertheless, no one ought to regard such sins as negligible or to underrate their malice. For it is impossible for the soul to enter heaven until they have been removed, and impossible to remove them otherwise than by the power and through the merits of Jesus Christ. Let no one, I say, lull himself to sleep in a dangerous security, “inclining his heart to evil words, to make excuses in sins” (Ps. xl. 4), because, as the Lord said to Peter, unless He washes such sins away, we shall not have part with Him.* However, we must not be over anxious on this account. For He will readily, aye, and gladly forgive us our daily faults on condition that we acknowledge them. Indifference and immoderate fear are equally blameworthy with regard to these faults which are in a sense inevitable. Hence it is that in the prayer which Christ composed for our use, He causes us to implore the pardon of them day by day. Speaking of concupiscence, I said that although the Redeemer has prevented it from working our ruin, according to the testimony of St. Paul, “ There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus’’ (Rom. viii. 1), He

ON THE EFFECTS OF BAPTISM 161 nevertheless allows it to live in us still and to trouble us gravely in order to keep us humble, and to teach us how much we owe to divine grace, so that we may always have recourse to its assistance. It is in the same way He deals with us as regards these venial transgressions, which by a particular dispensation of His loving-kindness He does not altogether prevent, but rather makes use of them to instruct us. For He wants us to‘learn from the experience of our powerlessness to avoid the lighter faults that it is not by our own strength we are preserved from the graver; so that we may be always solicitous, always fearful of losing that grace which we perceive to be so necessary to-us.*