Wash your feet like God

Consideration for Holy Thursday B1 year

He loved us to the end – with this sentence we begin the celebration of the Paschal Triduum, that is, the passage of Jesus from death to life. When I think about my dying, this death occurs first at the end of my earthly life, when my heart stops beating, my brain stops functioning, and my body becomes stiff. However, before this death occurs, I still experience my pain and suffering, my relatives, friends or complete strangers, about whom I learn from the media. This image of pervasive pain is overwhelming, affecting both our body and psyche. It seems like a slow dying.

“He got up from supper and folded his garments. And taking the linen cloth, he girded himself around him. ” – in this sentence written by John we can see a symbolic representation of the incarnation of the Son of God. Christ takes off the garments of his divinity and puts on the garb of a slave, a servant. Then she talks to Peter, who does not want to have his feet washed. The Apostle knows that this activity is assigned to the work of slaves, and not of a free man, moreover a Teacher. Jesus explains that accepting this ministry is the only way to have full communion with Him. Jesus’ actions and words help us understand what will happen the next day on the cross. Jesus will make his final ministry out of love for his friends. He will give his life so that we may receive it. Whoever does not accept this ministry of the cross cannot have communion with the glorified Jesus.

Peter understood Jesus’ words about sharing in His glory in his own way and asks him to wash him completely. However, this is not needed, it is enough to wash the feet. Why exactly them? The legs are closest to the ground, they tread on it, they are most vulnerable to injuries and infections, blisters and corns. The purity of the legs is freedom from the earth, freedom from the world with its criteria and measures. For a Christian washed by Christ, it no longer matters, because Christ becomes the only criterion. Faith requires a disciple of Jesus to believe not only the words but the deeds of Jesus, especially his death out of love. This death gives us freedom and leads to the victory of Easter.

The symbolic act of washing the feet foreshadows the meaning of Jesus’ death. On the cross, God bends down to man full of love and raises him to the glory of heaven. God bows down to the dust of death. Legs are a symbol of our relationship with the world, our dependence on what the world is governed by, its intrigues, politics, lusts and egoism. Through Jesus’ loving death on the cross, God touches our feet to free them from the bondage of the world, from the wounds the world inflicts on us.

The evangelist, describing the washing of the feet, not only gives an example and symbolically represents the meaning of Jesus’ death on the cross, but also shows this gesture as a moral indication for the community of believers. If Christ, the Teacher and the Lord did this, we should also wash our feet. Washing feet is not only a mutual service of Christians. Following the example of Jesus, we are to lean towards our sisters and brothers, we are to touch their “dirty feet”, which they themselves do not approve of, to help them cleanse them through love – whoever feels loved feels clean. A clean person stops tormenting himself with his past, with a sense of guilt, the love of Jesus helps to free himself from contempting himself. Jesus invites us to touch each other’s wounds, and whoever touches a gash will also get dirty with it. Without this touch, however, you cannot wash your feet, you cannot anoint them with oil. Jesus wants a community of a new quality, a community of friends, sisters and brothers who do not abhor the wounds of their loved ones, but boldly touch them, so that the brother or sister feels clean, free and notices their beauty.

Unfortunately, one foot wash is not enough. All the time, living in the world, we encounter this activity, we experience it. Pebbles fall into our sandals and hurt, the dust continues to settle on our feet. Therefore, the Christian community must be ready to wash the same feet many times and heal similar wounds. Are we doomed to do so? It seems so, but the deed of Jesus shows us that washing the feet of sisters and brothers is a school of service, which is mutual love, following the example of Jesus. The Christian community is not a group of those who no longer have wounds and know how to love, but those who learn to do it every day – both by washing the feet of others and by giving their own to be washed, which requires humility and trust.

Lenten Retreat 2014

Retreat Considerations

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