TRINITY viii
I SHALL presently invite you to make confession, and shall
be praying for your absolution. The washing of the disciples' feet
at the Last Supper according to St. John's Gospel fitly expresses the absolving
power of the eucharist. Baptism, St. John conveys to us, is the bath
by which the Christian people has put off uncleanness once for all; Holy
Communion is a foot-washing by which the dust of daily sin is daily washed
away. Jesus said to Peter at the supper: 'Unless I wash thee, thou
hast no part with me.' The Son of God knelt before Peter to wash
his feet; the Son of God had humbled himself to be a man, and was presently
to die for our cleansing on the altar of the cross. You will gratefully
and firmly believe that you have full cleansing in this sacrament, from
your laziness and irreligion as well as from more positive offences.
Go out carrying your cleanness before God, and when you fail, your remedy
is always here.
