"Wash me of my iniquities..."

[Epistemes]

Hello,

A couple of questions:

1.) Before consecration, why does the priest say, “Lord, wash me of my iniquity and cleanse me of my sins”? I know this echoes Psalm 51, but does it echo some other ancient tradition or symbol?

2.) At my parish, one priest says it inaudibly, another says it so everybody can hear him. Which is the correct method?

Thank you.

 

[benedictgal]

From what I understand, this comes from the practice of ritual purification employed by Aaron and his succors (the priests of Ancient Israel). They needed to ritually purify themselves before they could offer sacrifice to the Lord.

The Church is the New Israel and, if you were to closely examine a lot of our rituals at Mass, you will find that some of them bear a resemblence to Ancient Israel’s cultic worship of the Lord. For example, we have an altar of sacrifice, incense is used and, of course, there is the Sacrifice of the True Lamb of God. What Ancient Israel did prefigured the new Covenenant that Jesus would bring about and seal with His own Blood.

Now, regarding the inaudibilty of these words, the Roman Missal does call for them to be said quietly.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Note that the Mass derives from the Last Supper, which was a Passover meal. There is a similar washing of hands in the Passover Meal. So, I think it was probably carried over from there.

 

[benedictgal]

Note that the Mass derives from the Last Supper, which was a Passover meal. There is a similar washing of hands in the Passover Meal. So, I think it was probably carried over from there.

While you do have a point, nonetheless, the ritual purification of the priest had more to do with Temple cultic worship than the Passover meal.

I’ve been taken some sciptural classes. These are taught by my parochial vicar. He noted that if someone from Ancient Israel were to immediatly pop into Mass (via some time machine), he would recognize what we were doing, associating it, somewhat, with the cultic Temple practices he experienced.

While the Eucharistic Prayer has its context, via the institution narriative, in the Last Supper, it actually goes beyond it. It anticipates both the Death and the Resurrection of Jesus. It anticipates the sacrifice of the Lamb and His victory. Therefore, there are elements of both the Temple form of worship and the Last Supper because, if you recall, the Lambs were sacrificed at the temple before they were eaten.

 

[FrDavid96]

It has both a spiritual and literal meaning.

Spiritually, the priest is “cleansing himself” before offering the Holy Sacrifice. Yes, it does go back to the Jewish ritual purity laws.

Literally, he is washing his hands. It goes back to the days before we had nice sinks with running water and liquid soap. The priest would always wash his hands before Mass to literally get the dirt off. This is still part of the preparation rite for the priest before Mass. The hand-washing also occurs after the incensing (if that’s done) again, to cleanse the hands from soot and ashes that might be there from the incensing.