Tractates on the Gospel of John 55–111

Tractate 56

TRACTATE 56 On John 13.6–10 hen the lord was washing the feet of his disciples , “He comes to Simon Peter, and Peter says to him, ‘Lord, do you wash my feet?’” For who would not tremble in fear to have his feet washed by the Son of God? Therefore, although for a servant to contradict the Lord, for a man [to contradict] God, was an act of great audacity , yet Peter preferred to do this than to allow his feet to be washed by his Lord and God. (2) Nor ought we to think that Peter among the others dreaded and refused this, while the others willingly and dispassionately allowed it to be done to them before him. For these words of the Gospel are rather easily so understood because when it was said, “He began to wash the feet of his disciples and to dry them with the towel he had tied around himself,”1 then it was conjoined, “He comes to Simon Peter,” as if he had already washed some and after them had come to the first. For who would not know that the first of the Apostles was the most blessed Peter? But one must not so understand that after some he came to him, but that he began from him. (3) Therefore, when he began to wash the feet of his disciples , he came to him from whom he began, that is, to Peter. And then Peter trembled in fear at what each of them would also have trembled at, and he said, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” What is “you”? What is “my”? These words must be pondered rather than spoken, lest perhaps what the mind conceives from these words, to whatever extent it is worthy, the tongue may not even explain. 1. Cf. Jn 13.5. 9 ST. AUGUSTINE 10 2. But “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I do you do not know now, but you will know later.’” And yet that one, terrified by the depth of the Lord’s deed, does not allow what he does not know the reason for to be done, but he still does not wish to see the humbled Christ down at his feet; he cannot bear it. “You shall not ever,” he says, “wash my feet.” What is “ever”? I shall never bear this, I shall never allow it, I shall never permit it. For what never happens, of course, does not ever happen. (2) Then the Savior, terrifying the sick resisting man with a risk to his salvation, says, “If I do not wash you, you will have no part with me.” So it was said, “If I do not wash you,” when the question was about feet alone, just as it is usually said, “You are stepping on me,” when only the foot is stepped on. But he, confused by his love and his fear, and dreading more that Christ be denied to him than that he be humbled down at his feet, says, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and head.” Since you so threaten that my limbs must be washed by you, I not only do not withhold my lowest [limbs] but I also yield up my main ones. Lest you say that no part is to be taken by me with you, I deny no part of my body to be washed by you. 3. “Jesus says to him, ‘The man who has bathed has no need to wash except for his feet;2 he is wholly clean.’” At this someone may perhaps be disturbed and say, “Why, if he is wholly clean, what need has he even to wash his feet?” But the Lord knew what he was saying even if our weakness does not penetrate his secrets. Nevertheless, as far as he deigns to instruct and to teach us from his law, according to my capacity , according to my little measure, even I, with his help, may answer something about the profundity of this question; and first I shall show most easily that this expression is not self-contradictory. For who cannot most correctly say thus: “he is wholly clean besides the feet”? But he speaks more elegantly if he says, “is wholly clean except for the feet,” which 2. Some important codices omit the words “except for his feet.” See Comeau, Saint Augustin, exégète du quatrième évangile, 72–73; R. E. Brown, The Anchor Bible 29A...