School of Prayer: Maundy Thursday
The second of four short videos by the SSJE Brothers, reflecting on Maundy Thursday’s Liturgy with Foot-washing.
The second of four short videos by the SSJE Brothers, reflecting on Maundy Thursday’s Liturgy with Foot-washing.
I had a similar experience years ago, after being hit by a car, which resulted in a severely damaged knee. After a few days in hospital, a nurse offered to wash my feet for me. I have never forgotten her kindness. When I have my feet washed on Maundy Thursday (twice now), I want to run and hide through sheer embarassment that my Dean is on his knees, washing my feet. It’s a completely different experience. I was going to say, pehaps the first was through genuine need, while the second is staged, but that’s not right – it’s just a different kind of need.
After being hit and thrown by a car, in ICU for about ten days, I was all need. Surgeons worked for hours and hours. Nurses kept IVs going and my fears relieved. Yet, I was most humbled by those who cleaned me.
Two thousand years ago, the foot-washer was looked at as a nobody. Unimportant. On the bottom rungs of society’s ladder. Today the orderlies are often seen similarly. Yet, these men and women cared for me enough to tend to my basic need for healing.
Since then, I have admired body-washers, experiencing them as Jesus.