“The New Passover and the Spring Cleaning of the Soul”

Homily for Holy Thursday
April 17, 2025; St. Mary’s Cathedral
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Introduction

If you had to clear out of your house immediately, and had only a few minutes to choose which belongings to bring with you, what would you choose?  Sadly, for many people this is not a theoretical question, as so many have had to do precisely that when wildfires threatened their communities.  We are all too familiar with that here in California.

The Spring Cleaning of Passover

This scenario is not unlike the ancient people of Israel on that first Passover night, which we hear about in our first reading from the Book of Exodus.  “You shall eat like those who are in flight.”  They had to leave Egypt in a hurry, and they did not even have time for the dough to be leavened and rise.  The Jewish Passover ritual is really a comingling of two commemorations in their history: the flight from slavery in Egypt and the feast of unleavened bread.  This comprises the Passover ritual observed by devout Jews to this day. 

Having to leave in a hurry forces one to choose what is truly essential in life, and this is the spiritual meaning that unleavened bread assumed: clearing out the old leaven in the home to make room for the new was a sort of a spring cleaning which becomes symbolic of the spiritual spring cleaning of the soul.  Later in Jewish history, when the people would settle in the Promised Land and establish their kingdom and build the Temple in Jerusalem, Passover rituals would become centered there.  Thus, the Temple became a place of pilgrimage, and the feast of Passover the feast of hope, hope for the coming of the Messiah.

We, the people of the New Covenant, are celebrating ourselves a Jubilee Year of Hope this year.  And pilgrimage is very much what it means to observe a year of Jubilee, as Pope Francis notes in the decree with which he proclaims this year a Jubilee Year: “Pilgrimage is of course a fundamental element of every Jubilee event. Setting out on a journey is traditionally associated with our human quest for meaning in life.  A pilgrimage on foot is a great aid for rediscovering the value of silence, effort and simplicity of life.”  And it is precisely the virtue of hope that is the theme of this Jubilee Year: “Pilgrims in Hope.”

A Pilgrimage of Hope

Hope orients us toward the future while sustaining us in the present, it anticipates something greater, something more.  As Pope Francis says, this something greater is the destination of a pilgrimage, in which the pilgrims seek a greater sense of life.  And it is precisely in this that we discover what is essential, and so can be prepared for the good things God wants to give us in reaching that destination.

The destination, though, has already been reached.  The Messiah has come, and he has fulfilled the hope of the Passover: he has taken the place of the Paschal Lamb, freeing us from true slavery, the slavery to sin that delivers us into death; he has made his Passover from death to life; and he has left us the memorial of this passage in the Most Holy Eucharist that he established on this most holy night.  He has thus granted us passage from here to the hereafter, he has opened the door to heaven for us.  We don’t need to do the work of opening the door, something that we could never do on our own, anyway.  But we do have to step through that threshold.  And how do we do that?

Our Lord teaches and models that for us on this holy night, as we heard St. John narrate it for us in his description of Jesus’ last meal with his apostles the night before he died.  The washing of feet was the task of slaves, indeed the lowliest, most menial task of all.  It would be shocking, even scandalous, for a master to wash the feet of his guests.  As Jesus tells them, in doing so he has given them a model to follow.  And what does he command them to do?  “As I have done for you, you should also do.” 

Humility is the Key

Notice, he did not say “you should also do for me.”  He did not do this in order to get something in return.  Rather, he tells them, “If I, … the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.”  This is the supreme example of humility that he gives to us and that he calls us to live. 

The spring cleaning of the soul cannot begin without that first step of humility.  Many virtues are needed, but it all must necessarily start with that quintessential Christian virtue of humility.  We have the witness of the saints throughout the ages, and especially the early Fathers of the Church, to confirm this spiritual truth for us.  St. Basil the Great, for example, says that it is humility that guards the treasure house of virtues; and St. Macarius calls it “the ballast of the virtues.”[1]

St. Augustine, too, chimes in here, who compares this action of our Lord at the Last Supper to David slaying Goliath, asserting that, as David laid Goliath low, so Christ slayed the devil.  As he puts it, “Humility has slain pride….  For by humility he has made a way for us….  Except by humility we could not have returned to Him….  Then let not man disdain to imitate humble man; God has become humble so that the pride of the human race might at least not disdain to follow the footsteps of God.”[2]

Conclusion

One of the unique features of this Holy Thursday liturgy is the ritual reenactment of this gesture of humility on the part of our Lord.  The priest bends down low to wash the feet of his parishioners.  This is true Christian leadership, modeled after the pattern set by our Lord himself.  Let us, then, live what we pray.  May this not be an empty ritual that may perhaps be emotionally pleasing but unrelated to our lives outside the four walls of a church.  Instead, let it be an authentic expression in action of our obedience to the Lord’s command to do for others as he has done for us.  That will take us through the threshold from earthly existence to the heavenly realm.  And that is the destination of our earthly pilgrimage, the destination for which we all yearn, all those who live this earthly pilgrimage in hope.

RESUMEN EN ESPAÑOL

En la primera lectura de nuestra Misa de esta noche, escuchamos la historia de la primera noche de Pascua, cuando el antiguo pueblo de Israel fue liberado de la esclavitud en Egipto.  «Comerán … a toda prisa».  Tuvieron que salir de Egipto apurados, y ni siquiera tuvieron tiempo de que la masa se fermentara y se levantara.  Salir con prisa obliga a elegir lo verdaderamente esencial de la vida, y este es el significado espiritual que asumió el pan no fermentado: eliminar la levadura vieja del hogar para dar paso a la nueva era una especie de limpieza de primavera que se convierte en símbolo de la limpieza espiritual del alma.  Más adelante en la historia de Israel, cuando el pueblo se asentó en la Tierra Prometida, estableció su reino y construyó el Templo en Jerusalén, los rituales de la Pascua se centraron allí.  Así, el Templo se convirtió en un lugar de peregrinación, y la fiesta de la Pascua se hizo la fiesta de la esperanza, la esperanza en la venida del Mesías.

Nosotros, el pueblo de la Nueva Alianza, celebramos este año un Año Jubilar de la Esperanza.  Y la peregrinación es precisamente lo que significa celebrar un año jubilar, como señala el Papa Francisco en el decreto con el que proclama este año Año Jubilar: «No es casual que la peregrinación exprese un elemento fundamental de todo acontecimiento jubilar.  Ponerse en camino es un gesto típico de quienes buscan el sentido de la vida.  La peregrinación a pie favorece mucho el redescubrimiento del valor del silencio, del esfuerzo, de lo esencial».  Y es precisamente la virtud de la esperanza el tema de este Año Jubilar: «Peregrinos en la Esperanza».

La esperanza nos orienta hacia el futuro a la vez que nos sostiene en el presente, anticipa algo más grande, algo más.  Como dice el Papa Francisco, esto algo más grande es el destino de una peregrinación, en la que los peregrinos buscan un mayor sentido de la vida.  Sin embargo, el destino ya se ha alcanzado.  El Mesías ha llegado y ha cumplido la esperanza de la Pascua, concediéndonos el paso de aquí al más allá; Él nos ha abierto la puerta del cielo.  No necesitamos abrirla, algo que, de todos modos, jamás podríamos hacer solos.  Pero sí, tenemos que cruzar ese umbral.  ¿Y cómo lo hacemos?

Nuestro Señor nos enseña y nos da el ejemplo de esto en esta noche santa, como nos cuenta San Juan al describir la última cena de Jesús con sus apóstoles la noche antes de morir.  El lavatorio de pies era tarea de esclavos, de hecho, la tarea más humilde y servil de todas.  ¿Y qué les ordena Jesús a sus apóstoles al hacerlo?  «Les he dado ejemplo, para que lo que yo he hecho con ustedes, también ustedes lo hagan».  Observen que no dijo «para que también ustedes lo hagan conmigo».  No lo hizo para recibir algo a cambio.  Más bien, les dice: «si yo, que soy el Maestro y el Señor, les he lavado los pies, también ustedes deben lavarse los pies los unos a los otros».  Este es el ejemplo supremo de humildad que nos da y que nos llama a vivir.

La limpieza de primavera del alma no puede comenzar sin ese primer paso de humildad.  Para que quede claro, la Iglesia nos ofrece una característica única en esta liturgia del Jueves Santo: la recreación ritual de este gesto de humildad de nuestro Señor, en el que el sacerdote se inclina hacia abajo para lavar los pies de sus feligreses.  Este es el verdadero liderazgo cristiano, inspirado en el modelo establecido por nuestro Señor mismo.  Vivamos, pues, lo que oramos.  Que esto no sea un ritual vacío, quizás emocionalmente placentero, pero sin relación con nuestra vida fuera de las cuatro paredes de una iglesia.  Que sea, en cambio, una expresión auténtica, en acción, de nuestra obediencia al mandato del Señor de hacer por los demás lo que él ha hecho por nosotros.  Eso nos llevará a través del umbral de la existencia terrenal al reino celestial.  Y ese es el destino de nuestra peregrinación terrenal, el destino que todos anhelamos, todos los que vivimos esta peregrinación terrenal con esperanza.

[1] Cited in The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide, The Holy Gospel According to Saint John Thomas W. Mossman (trans.) (Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire: Loreto Publications, 2008) p. 518.

[2] Ibid., pp. 518-519.