Friday, April 18, 2014

Wash one another's feet.


This is an extraordinarily clear picture of a dove outside my window.  Peace!?  (Click on it to enlarge it)
I had planned to use the powerful picture of Pope Francis washing the feet of imprisoned young people last Holy Thursday, that the Jesuits have been using as part of their vocation appeal.  I could not get it to show up properly on the blog.  I gave up, but today I thought I might at least include part of my reflections from yesterday.
This Holy Thursday Francis went to a home for elderly and disabled and washed the feet of twelve people: 9 Italians, a Muslim from Libya, a young man from Cape Verde, and an Ethiopian woman, some of them with feet that were swollen and disfigured.  He washed and dried and kissed their feet and explained that Jesus had made a gesture, the job of a slave, a servant, and left us this inheritance.  "We need," the Pope said, "to be servants to one another."  Seeing  this on TV or the internet is an enormous challenge to search out the forgotten ones.
Jesus wants to touch the hurting people of our world.  He can do it now only through us and only if we take to heart his command, "You also ought to wash one another's feet."

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