John 13:1-9
“It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that
the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having
loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the
devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray
Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his
power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got
up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his
waist. After that, he poured
water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the
towel that was wrapped around him. He
came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus
replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will
understand.’ ‘No,’ said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus
answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’ ‘Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, ‘not just
my feet but my hands and my head as well!’ ”
***********************************
Imagine the Son of God, the One who was present at the
creation of the universe, who knows all things, who knows you inside and out, kneeling
humbly before you and washing your feet.
In spite of your faults and flaws, your sins and shortfalls, He believes
you are worthy of His service.
Is there anything we do today which has a similar magnitude
of the contrast between earned superiority and purposeful diminishment? It would be like witnessing the Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court bussing tables at a local diner. By no means
was Jesus in any position to be forced into this role of servant.
But yet, when He could be focused on running to another city
or country to avoid persecution and death, He was there with His friends. Instead of using His infinite power to
annihilate the forces of evil oppressing His work, He welcomes the role of
being a sacrifice.
If you have the opportunity to participate in a Maundy
Thursday service which has the foot washing ceremony, I encourage you to
go. It is a moving and beautiful
experience, based merely on the act you are performing. But more importantly, it allows you to
picture yourself in the place which Jesus put himself, at His friends’ feet,
blessing them with his servant heart.
Dearest Lord,
You sent Your Son to be with us, to
be like us in almost every way. Even
though He is our King of Glory, He served us in the simplest and lowliest of
ways.
Thank you, God, for the time Jesus
spent with us on the earth. Thank you
for His miracles, His healing, His sacrifice.
In some small way, give us a spirit
to serve as He served and love as He loved.
All things, we ask and offer in His
name,
Amen.
Not only did Pope Francis wash the feet of 12 detainees at a juvenile detention center rather than St. Peters Basilica but two of the detainees were WOMEN!
ReplyDeletePope washes feet of young detainees in ritual
Thursday 3/28/13
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis washed the feet of a dozen inmates at a juvenile detention center in a Holy Thursday ritual that he celebrated for years as archbishop and is continuing now that he is pope. Two of the 12 were young women, an unusual choice given that the rite re-enacts Jesus' washing of the feet of his male disciples.
The Mass was held in the Casal del Marmo facility in Rome, where 46 young men and women currently are detained. Many of them are Gypsies or North African migrants, and the Vatican said the 12 selected for the rite weren't necessarily Catholic.
Because the inmates were mostly minors — the facility houses inmates aged 14-21 — the Vatican and Italian Justice Ministry limited media access inside. But Vatican Radio carried the Mass live, and Francis told the detainees that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion in a gesture of love and service.
"If the Lord has washed his disciples' feet, you should do the same to one another," Francis said in his homily. "I have given you the example so that you may do the same."
As archbishop of Buenos Aires, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio would celebrate the ritual foot-washing in jails, hospitals or hospices — part of his ministry to the poorest and most marginalized of society. It's a message that he is continuing now that he is pope, saying he wants a church "for the poor."
Previous popes would carry out the foot-washing ritual on Holy Thursday in Rome's grand St. John Lateran basilica and the 12 people chosen for the ritual were priests to represent the 12 disciples.
That Francis would include women in this re-enactment is symbolically noteworthy given the Vatican's prohibition on female priests.