God. So he got up from the table, removed his garment, and taking a towel, wrapped it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash
the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel he was wearing. When he came to Simon Peter, Simon asked him, “Why, Lord, do you want to wash my feet?” Jesus said, “What I am doing you cannot understand now, but afterwards you will understand it.” Peter replied, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him,
“If I do not wash you, you can have no part with me.” Then Simon Peter said, “Lord, wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus replied,
“Whoever has taken a bath does not need to wash (except the feet), for he is clean all over. You are clean, though not all of you.” Jesus knew who was to betray him;
because of this he said, “Not all of you are clean.” When Jesus had finished washing their feet, he put on his garment again, went back to the table, and said to them,
“Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet,
you also must wash one another’s feet. I have given you an example, that as I have done, you also may do.
Reflection:
When COVID-19 pandemic forced the churches all over the
world to close down for months, many cradle catholics were
traumatized by the inability to celebrate the Eucharist. However,
it was also a graced moment for many to live the “authenticity of
the Eucharist” (as Pope John Paul II puts it in his apostolic letter
Mane Nobiscum Domine, #28), by practicing the other integral
half of the Eucharist—the Liturgy of the Towel—by caring for those
affected by the pandemic. If John, who leaned on the heart
of Christ at the eucharistic table and felt his heartbeat, chose
to present the washing of the feet at the very context where
the synoptic gospels presented the institution of the Eucharist,
he was only affirming that the Liturgy that begins at the table
must end with the towel at the feet of the other.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2022