Washing Feet....The most dramatic symbolism of the year. Yet, maybe the least understood.
Nowhere else do we strip off the layers of influence, status, or power as we do on this night. But we still get caught up with the "fancy" stuff of the liturgy.
I remember a few years ago when I was the chaplain at St. John Vianney High School, and we were running a KAIROS retreat during the Triduum. I asked that all of the students on the retreat get their feet washed by me as part of the regular retreat. I will never forget the look on those young faces when I knelt to wash their feet, kiss their feet, and then dry them off. They looked disgusted, confused and shocked! Then, I heard confessions like none other! I heard all about problems with parents, other adults, friends and siblings like no other.
Getting your feet washed is a powerful symbol. It wakes you up in a powerful way.
It awakens us to all sort of new feelings and emotions.
Jesus intended it to be a powerful action...to turn us upside down. To charge us to look at ourselves as "Jesus himself"....
Imagine being a "servant" like Jesus, willing to "wash feet" at all times...
That's what Holy Thursday is all about...
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