Bishop Barron's Holy Thursday homily on the washing of feet and the institution of the Eucharist
Bishop Robert Barron delivers a Holy Thursday evening homily at the Basilica of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Winona, Minnesota.
Summary
Bishop Robert Barron opens the Triduum — the most sacred days of the liturgical year — with a Holy Thursday homily centered on two defining images of the evening's liturgy: the washing of the feet and the institution of the Eucharist. He argues that both gestures overturn the logic of worldly power and self-aggrandizement, replacing it with the kingdom of God, which is ordered around descent, service, and self-gift. His central claim is that on the cross, Jesus did not merely wash dirty feet as a symbol of humility, but descended into human sin itself to wash what Barron calls "sin-soiled souls" — and that the Eucharist makes that sacrificial act really and substantially present at every Mass.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Opening and the Meaning of the Washing of Feet
Bishop Robert Barron: Good evening, everyone. A delight to be here in this particularly beautiful place as we commence the Triduum — the most sacred days of the year. The Church gives us two great images during this liturgy tonight. The first is the washing of the feet. The second is the institution of the Eucharist. They are very connected, and I'll get to that. But let's start with the washing of the feet. Why is that so important?
You've probably heard some version of this homily a hundred times, but I'll give you another one. There's something a little nasty about feet, isn't there? We spend so much time walking and running and standing, and our feet get a little beat up in the course of life — with cuts and bruises and bunions and calluses and so on. Now take all of that, and we have properly constructed shoes and socks, and we walk on pavement. Go back to Jesus's time. They're barefoot, or wearing sandals maybe, making their way along these dusty, muddy roads. Imagine how feet — already kind of beat up — got filthy as well.
That's why when someone came into someone's home, they'd be obliged to wash their feet. And mind you, to wash their own feet — because they said you couldn't even oblige a slave in Jesus's time to wash someone's feet. It was considered that low and that menial a task.
So we have to sense — the problem is, when we think "washing feet," we think right away of Holy Thursday, this gesture taking place in a beautiful church in the context of a liturgy. But we won't get it then. To wash someone's feet in the ancient world, in Jesus's time, was something very low. So the fact that Jesus — Jesus the Son of God, Jesus the one they recognized rightly as their Master and Messiah, Jesus the teacher, Jesus the healer, the one who raised Lazarus from the dead — Jesus at the Last Supper takes off his outer garment, wraps a towel around his waist, bends down, and washes their filthy feet. You see now why St. Peter responded the way he did.
And whenever the Gospel says St. Peter, it's talking about the Church — because Jesus said, "You're the rock, and upon this rock I'll build my Church." He represents all of us. Shocked that the Lord Jesus would do such a menial thing.
The Kingdom of God versus the Kingdom of the World
Friends, in a way, the whole revolution of the kingdom of God is contained in that gesture. Jesus knew it. And that's why — isn't it wonderful that 2,000 years later we still remember it, we still enact it liturgically, as I'll do now in just a few minutes — how it impressed itself in the memory of the Church, this gesture of Jesus, because I think it embodies what he meant by the kingdom of God.
What's the kingdom of the world? That means the way the world organizes itself. It's according to up versus down, in versus out, who's rising, who's falling, who's got power, who doesn't have power, who's respected, who isn't. And look, fellow sinners — isn't it true that most of our lives are consumed by this sort of rat race of the world? If we don't have power, we want it. If we're on the outside, we want to get inside. If someone's up above us, we want to knock them down. You see this on the playground, and you see it at the highest level of geopolitics. That's the kingdom of the world. St. Augustine would have called it the earthly kingdom — hierarchies and rivalries and competitions and who's up and who's down.
Look what Jesus does by this great gesture. He turns that on its head. "You rightly call me Lord and Master, and yet I go all the way down" — not clamoring to get up, but moving on purpose to the lowest possible level of service. That's the kingdom of God. Remember the Lord says, "Don't be like the Gentiles. Their great ones make their importance felt." No, it must not be like that with you. Rather, you take the lowest place on purpose. You become the servant of all.
To concretize this, we speak in the Catholic Church of the corporal works of mercy. I like to stress the word corporal — bodily, like things like washing feet. What are they? Feed the hungry. Give drink to the thirsty. Clothe the naked. Shelter the homeless. Visit the imprisoned. Visit the sick. Bury the dead. These very concrete acts of menial service — that's the kingdom of God. That's the order that Jesus wants among us.
The Institution of the Eucharist and the Real Presence
So there's the first image: the washing of feet. The second is the institution of the Holy Eucharist. Vatican II calls the Eucharist the source and summit of the Christian life. The Eucharist — the real presence of Jesus. We say in the other sacraments, as Thomas Aquinas tells us, the power of Christ is present — the virtus Christi, the power of Christ, is present in baptism and confirmation and confession and so on. But in the Eucharist, Aquinas says, Christus est praesens — Christ himself is present. Not just his power, not just his influence — Christ himself is there.
Why do we believe that? Because of who he is. If Jesus were just one more human figure, one more prophet, one more teacher, well then he's trading in vague symbolism. I could assemble little symbols and signs that remind us of Jesus — sure, any of us could do that. But that's not what the Eucharist is: a mere sign or symbol. Because Jesus is not a mere human being. He's God and man. And that means what he says is.
Remember in the book of Genesis: God says, "Let there be light" — and there was light. "Let the earth come forth" — and so it happened. "Let animals teem upon the earth" — and so it took place. What God says is. Who is Jesus? Not just one more prophet, but that same Word that made the universe, now become flesh. Doesn't St. John tell us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us? Therefore, what Jesus says is. "My son, your sins are forgiven" — and by God, they're forgiven. "Little girl, get up" — remember when he raises the little girl? Talitha koum, he says in his Aramaic: "Little girl, get up." And by God, she gets up. "Lazarus, come out" — and by God, the dead man came out. What Jesus says is.
And so the night before he died — and every Mass represents this moment — the night before he died, Jesus took bread: "This is my body." He took the Passover cup of wine: "This is the chalice of my blood." Therefore, everybody from the beginning of the Church till today, we've said Jesus is really, truly, and substantially present under these signs of bread and wine. We affirm it tonight with great joy.
The Eucharist as Sacrificial Self-Offering
But I want to add just a little nuance, to link it to the washing of the feet. Jesus doesn't just say "This is my body" and leave it at that. He says, "This is my body, which will be given up for you." He doesn't just say "This is my blood," but "This is my blood, which will be poured out for you."
What is he speaking there? Think of our first reading. He's speaking the language of temple sacrifice — in the temple, for centuries, the sacrifice of animals: bodies offered, blood poured out as a sacrifice to the Lord. What is he saying? In his cross, when his body is offered in sacrifice and his blood is poured out, all the sacrifices of Israel are gathered together and brought to fulfillment.
So what is really present at the Eucharist? Jesus — yes, indeed. But more precisely: Jesus offering himself, Jesus pouring out his blood for us in sacrifice, in love.
Receiving the Eucharist and Becoming What You Eat
And now watch this, everybody. As we celebrate the Eucharist — in a very special way tonight, when you come forward to receive — we should all be a little trepidatious. Why do I say that? Because you become what you eat. It's true at the physical level, isn't it? You become what you eat. The same is true spiritually. When you eat the body and drink the blood of Jesus, you take into yourself the sacrificial love of Christ.
The kingdom of the world is predicated upon the principle of aggrandizing yourself. I just need more of the goods of the world — more money, more influence, more prestige, more people to like me. More, more, more. Fill myself up. If the Bible has one message, everybody, it's that that doesn't work. That is, in fact, a key to unhappiness. What makes you happy is when you make your life a gift — not filling up the ego, but emptying the self out in love. That's what the Eucharist means. And when we eat his body and drink his blood, we become conformed to him.
The Two Gestures Converge on the Cross
One more connection, and then I'll bring it to a close. There is a link — an important one — between the washing of the feet and the institution of the Eucharist. What happens on that cross when Jesus offers his body and sheds his blood? It's not just our feet that are washed in that act, but our sin-soiled souls that are washed.
Did Jesus go down to a very low, menial place physically — under the dirty feet of his disciples? Yes, he did, to signal the centrality of service. But on the cross, something even more dramatic, even stranger and more radical: he went down, down, down into our sin, so that by his mercy and by his self-sacrifice he could wash away our sin-soiled souls.
You see now how in these two gestures — the washing of the feet, the gift of the Eucharist — the whole Christian life is summed up. It's not about clamoring to the top. No. It's going to the bottom in loving service. Not about filling up the ego. It's about giving the self away in love. That's the Christian life.