DO YOU KNOW WHAT I HAVE DONE TO YOU?
T
his word of Jesus from St
John’s Gospel was the guiding
word for this year’s World Day
of Prayer. It recalls the service that
Jesus did for his disciples by
washing their feet. While all other
Evangelists emphasise in their
description of the Last Supper the
breaking of the bread and the giving
of wine, John tells another, quite
awful story. The Master himself
washes the feet of his disciples after
the meal. . It remains unclear, if the
Evangelist wanted to emphasise by
this timing the symbolic meaning of
this act, or if the disciples could not
agree before the meal who-as the
most inferior among them- should be
responsible for this service.
At the lifetime of Jesus, the itinerant
preacher from Nazareth, the
washing of the feet belonged to daily
hygienic routine, since the sandals
usually worn did not protect from
mud and dust. But the washing of
feet was not a service selfunderstood.
Ancient Jewish customs reflect the
ambivalence of this act between
lowly service and its erotic nature.
For this reason only the lowest
ranking of the non-Jewish male
slaves could wash the Master’s feet.
If there were no male slaves
available, the wife of the Master had
to do it. So when Jesus started to do
it, the disciples were truly ashamed
and Peter protests very strongly. But
Jesus tells the disciples that he
wanted to give them an example
which they need to follow. “you will
be blessed if you do them”.
The ancient church followed this
example only half-heartedly. Until
the 4th century the ritual washing of
feet was sometimes part of the
baptism ceremony, yet after a while
the liturgy was slim-lined and this
practice was forgotten. From the
10th century onward sometimes it reappeared as a custom during Holy
Week, but only since 1955 it was
integrated into the liturgy of the Mass
on Maundy Thursday for the Catholic
Church by Pope Pius XII. In practice,
however, only the feet of 12 carefully
selected deserving men would be
washed. This is why it was quite
spectacular that Pope Francis,
shortly after his election in 2013,
went to the Roman prison for
juvenile offenders at Casal del
Marmo and watered and kissed the
feet of ten male and two female
inmates. One of the women was a
Muslim, which offended conservative
Catholics even more. The Pope
defended his action by saying:”
Those who are always on the top of
society must serve all others.” He
had practiced the washing of feet
already as archbishop of Buenos
Aires by going into hospitals. prisons
and old people’s homes.
These days the washing of feet is
experiencing a renaissance among
theologians. It is being discussed as
complementing the Sacrament of the
Eucharist, “a primary experience of
religion” (Christian Grethlein) , an
experience which can be physically
felt, touching and lasting, which can
be understood without the use of
words.
StOM Page 7