cast into everlasting fire with the devils! To be rejected and cursed by Jesus, and separated for ever from God, who is the source of all happiness, would be such a terrible disaster, that we cannot even picture it to ourselves!
Do you wish to escape this awful fate? Then judge yourself severely now in the holy tribunal of Penance. Accuse yourself sincerely and with a contrite heart both of the sins you have committed, and of the good which you have omitted to do, and make a very firm resolution of amendment. The Sacrament of Penance is the tribunal of God’s mercy. If you present yourself at that tribunal often and with a good preparation, you will not be rejected when you appear before God’s Tribunal at the Last Day.
Chapter LXIV.
THE LAST SUPPER: THE WASHING OF THE FEET.
[Mat. 26, 17 — 19. Mark 14, 12 - 16. Luke 22, 14 — 18. John 13, 1 — 20.]
ON the first day of the Azymes[1], or unleavened bread, when the Paschal lamb was to be sacrificed, the disciples[2] went to Jesus and said to Him: “Where wilt Thou that we prepare for Thee to eat the Pasch?”[3] He said to Peter and John: “Go ye into the city[4], and there shall meet you a man carrying a pitcher of water: follow him. And wheresoever he shall go in, say to the master of the house: ‘The Master saith: Where is My refectory[5], where I may eat the Pasch with My disciples?’ He will show you a large dining-room, furnished[6], and there prepare ye for us.”
- ↑ The Azymes. The Paschal feast was also called the feast of unleavened bread, because on it only unleavened bread might be eaten (Old Test. XXXIII). The “first day of unleavened bread” was the day preceding the Pasch , i. e. a Thursday, because in that year the Pasch fell on a Friday. On the eve of the feast the head of every family had to kill, or have killed, a lamb in the outer court of the temple. In the evening it was roasted whole and eaten.
- ↑ The disciples. Who, being the spiritual sons of our Lord, formed with Him a family.
- ↑ The Pasch. The Paschal lamb.
- ↑ The city. Jesus was at that time at Bethania (Mat. 26, 6), but the pasch had to be eaten in Jerusalem.
- ↑ My refectory (Mark 14, 14). i. e. the room which is already prepared for Me (Fig. 83, p. 630). Our Lord speaks as if He had previously made arrangements with this man to eat the Pasch at his house.
- ↑ Furnished. With cushions. It was the custom among the Jews to eat the Pasch reclining on cushions, and clad in festal garments. The Scribes and doctors of the law had decided that the command to eat the pasch standing, and girt ready for a journey, only applied to the time of Israel's servitude.
