No Shoes RequiredRead Time 9 min

This Sunday at Holy Mass, we will hear a selection from the book of Exodus describing God’s call of Moses before leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Here it is in part:

“Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, ‘I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned.’ When the Lord saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ He answered, ‘Here I am.’ God said, ‘Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.’” (Exodus 3:1-5).

Moses removed his sandals out of veneration because he was standing on a holy place. He also took off his sandals as a sign of humility before God. Taking off his sandals also represents a spiritual detachment from created things to be in direct contact with the God who saves. Each church we walk into is holy ground. Churches are buildings that are set aside to be the Domus Dei (House of God). We know Jesus is present in the assembly, minister, word and in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. I wonder if we should ever walk around with shoes on in church, for the God who saves us is in our churches in a substantial way.

On Good Friday for the Adoration of the Cross, the priest is encouraged to remove his chasuble and shoes before he genuflects and adores the implement of our salvation. The priest is about to step on holy ground. Perhaps, if appropriate, others could approach the cross with their shoes off too. It is a good idea to keep in mind that it is Easter Sunday morning that makes Friday afternoon in Holy Week “Good.” This Cross is a sign and symbol of our faith, for upon it hung the Savior of the world for our offenses, reconciling us to God, and a tomb that lies in its shadow is empty.

We know the truth of Calvary as the one and only Mass of the New Covenant sealed in the Blood of Jesus, and the Mass we participate in on Sunday at our local parish is Calvary re-presented in an unbloody manner. At Mass, the Priest and Victim are the same Priest and Victim of Calvary; however, the state of that Priest and Victim is not the same as on Calvary. We are asked to contemplate the corpse of Calvary and the gloried body of Easter Sunday as complementary. In Holy Communion, we sacramentally do not receive a dead Jesus, but we receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of him who is alive and risen from the dead and has ascended to the Father.

We also know with the eyes of faith that the Eucharistic prayer at Holy Mass recalls the action of Jesus on the night before his death in the upper room before his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, betrayal and arrest. He gave his disciples his Body and Blood in the form of bread and wine. At the anamnesis (or the remembering that makes present), the people recall the saving Death and Resurrection of the Lord. The priest prays that the Holy Spirit come upon the people and that, receiving Christ’s Body and Blood, they may become a living offering to God as we are reminded of the Mandatum of Holy Thursday to do as the Savior did and wash the feet of others (which requires they take off their shoes).

Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann writes in his book “For the Life of the World” that “The only real fall of man is his non-eucharistic life in a non-eucharistic world.” What a rich and challenging statement! It presents a deep and multifaceted understanding of the Eucharist while articulating what it means to live what we believe about the Eucharist and urging us to be hungry for communion with God.

As First Holy Communion season approaches and catechumens will be one with us in the “Breaking of the Bread” at the Easter Vigil, we are also reminded of the necessity for our own frequent worthy reception of the Holy Communion. Hopefully, as part of our Lenten reflection, we are aware of the ways in which we are in need of a renewal of our own baptismal call and what the Eucharist means for us in combating our own thanklessness, combating the trials of a world that fails to recognize the source of all that is good, and battling the devil.

The Anima Christi (Soul of Christ) prayer is generally believed to have been composed by St. Ignatius of Loyola, although it may have predated him; nonetheless, it seems to be an important prayer to him, and he puts it at the beginning of his “Spiritual Exercises.” It is a fitting prayer after receiving Holy Communion or as part of one’s thanksgiving after Mass. Here it is:

Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ, save me. Blood of Christ, inebriate me. Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me. O Good Jesus, hear me. Within your wounds hide me. Permit me not to be separated from you. From the wicked foe, defend me. At the hour of my death, call me and bid me come to you, that with your saints I may praise you for ever and ever. Amen.

This Lent, may we continue to hide ourselves in the glorious wounds of our crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ, which make our sacrifices in imitation of our Blessed Lord not only possible but pleasing and acceptable to God. Maybe we ought pray this prayer without our shoes on.