{"id":24752,"date":"2013-03-21T10:40:05","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T15:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/?p=24752"},"modified":"2013-03-21T10:40:05","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T15:40:05","slug":"the-last-supper-tradition-and-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2013\/03\/21\/the-last-supper-tradition-and-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Supper: Tradition and traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"f1lps\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An important liturgical event may soon take place: The pope could wash the feet of both male and female inmates<\/a> next Thursday when he goes to to a juvenile facility. \u00a0This would constitute some kind of authoritative statement on the longstanding argument about whether the feet of men alone should be washed on Holy Thursday. \u00a0The current rubric reads: \u201cThe men who have been chosen (viri selecti<\/i>) are led by the ministers to chairs prepared at a suitable place.\u201d \u00a0This has been interpreted to mean that only men should have their feet washed. \u00a0Yet Pope Francis may wash the feet of women.<\/p>\n

Actions such as this have caused great concern to many Catholics who are very protective of what they think of as \u201cTradition.\u201d \u00a0In regard to what they mean by this word, they, like Donald S. Prudlo at Crisis magazine,<\/a> refuse to accept Congar\u2019s distinction between Tradition and tradition: \u201cOne should not blithely accept Fr. Congar\u2019s exceptionally damaging dichotomy between \u2018Tradition\u2019 and \u2018traditions; that has been drummed into our heads.\u00a0 For it is those despised \u2018traditions\u2019 which held, protected, and undergirded the \u2018Tradition\u2019; through the centuries.\u201d \u00a0Yet why did Congar raise such a distinction? (And to be fair, he did not \u201cdespise\u201d traditions). \u00a0He raised the distinction because things that have often long been thought to be Tradition turned out to be traditions. \u00a0That is simply a historical fact in the history of the Church, and to ignore it does no one any good. \u00a0It is to fall into the category of those accused by Jesus in Mark 7:8, \u201cYou disregard God\u2019s commandment but cling to human tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

So in lieu of what Pope Francis may do, two points often thought to be about Tradition must be made about the Last Supper of Jesus:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Jesus may have washed the feet of women, and so can we<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. The Last Supper was not the first Mass<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The first is simply a real possibility, and I don\u2019t wish to go into it too much. \u00a0There were probably women at the Last Supper, and that\u2019s not a big deal. \u00a0The point of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples who were present had nothing to do with anything but making a profoundly kenotic point about the meaning of the Incarnation and love of one another. \u00a0Women are included in that love, and so their feet can be washed.<\/p>\n

    Second, because many cling to the Tradition that the Last Supper was the first Mass, they think that the priesthood was formally instituted at this moment, and so women could not have been there. \u00a0But I would argue that this is a tradition, not Tradition. \u00a0Yes, the Last Supper was the generative moment that would be later interpreted by the Church as Jesus promise to be with his Church in the Eucharistic celebration. \u00a0But that is very different from being the first Mass. \u00a0At the Last Supper there was as yet no sacrifice. \u00a0There was no death on the cross. \u00a0There was no sending of the Spirit. \u00a0There was no resurrection. \u00a0There was no confirmation of the mission of the Son by the Father. \u00a0Robert Daly argues that in\u00a0Dominicae cenae<\/em>, John Paul II goes beyond Trent in making this claim:<\/p>\n

    Dominicae cenae\u00a0<\/em>follows Trent in viewing the Last Supper as the moment when Christ instituted the Eucharist and, at the same time, the sacrament of the priesthood. \u00a0But the pope also goes beyond Trent in teaching that the Last Supper was the first Mass. \u00a0This view was once favoured by Catholic theologians; but most now argue that the Church was constituted in the Easter-event, and that the sacraments are also Easter realities grounded on the sending of the Holy Spirit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    The tradition at Trent was that St. Peter recited the same Eucharist prayer that they did! \u00a0That was a tradition, not Tradition. \u00a0Keeping the two carefully distinct is important. \u00a0Of course, we don\u2019t always know which is which, and that is where discernment, prayer, trust in the magisterium and trust in the
    \n<\/a> Holy Spirit come into play. \u00a0But if Pope Francis washes the feet of women, I hope that we will recognize the washing of the feet of men only as being what it was: tradition not Tradition.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    An important liturgical event may soon take place: The pope could wash the feet of both male and female inmates next Thursday when he goes to to a juvenile facility. \u00a0This would constitute some kind of authoritative statement on the longstanding argument about whether the feet of men alone should be washed on Holy Thursday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2956,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Last Supper: Tradition and traditions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An important liturgical event may soon take place: The pope could wash the feet of both male and female inmates next Thursday when he goes to to a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2013\/03\/21\/the-last-supper-tradition-and-traditions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Last Supper: 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