WASHING the feet (CL 30/3/08) – What does it mean?
About 2000 years ago, the washing of someone else’s feet was done not by a servant but by a slave.
The distinction between a slave and a servant was that only a slave did anything with or for someone else’s feet, never a servant.
The crowds flocked to John for baptism and in the course of his actions he said “there is one amongst you whose sandals I am not fit to loosen”.
He was saying that there is someone else so great that I, who you come to for baptism, am not even worthy to be his slave.
This would have shocked the cotton socks off of their feet, so to speak.
In wrapping a towel around his waist and washing the feet of the disciples Jesus is introducing a new level of service.
Peter voiced his misunderstanding and ordered Jesus, as a slave, to wash the rest of him.
We need to listen carefully to the conversation between Jesus and Peter. It is as important today as it was in the days of the first Christians.
Washing the hands, in general, can be thrown out with the bathwater.
For a parent to wash the hands of a child in public has no significance whatsoever.
For a child to wash the hands of a healthy parent in public may well hold significance.
From Fr (John) Kilinko’s comments (CL 30/3/08) of love and tenderness resulting from people washing each other’s hands, maybe the ceremony would be better included in a healing service/liturgy/Mass at some other time, maybe before Easter week.
I trust that washing of hands does not completely replace washing the feet.
FRED DUNN
Mount Isa, Qld
