Foot-washing Ritual is Humble Calling
By Carla Hinton
Religion Editor, The Oklahoman
“Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then wash your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.”
— Jesus in John 13: 13-15
It is a ritual that epitomizes humility.
As priests and other clergy in the metro area wash the feet of their parishioners during Holy Week, they harken back to another time and place.
The Gospel of John shares that Jesus washed the feet of His disciples who met with Him for the last supper, before He was betrayed and arrested.
It was an act of profound humbleness, so much so that the apostle Peter initially balked that His Lord would deign to take on such a task.
Foot-washing was a sign of hospitality and welcome in Jesus’ time. Visitors to a person’s home would extend their feet, often dirty from walking in dusty streets, toiling in fields or sand-covered areas near water.
That Jesus sought to wash His follower’s feet was His way of showing servant leadership but also evoking the spiritual reality of His cleansing of their souls.
“He is the Master. He is the leader, yet He has not come to lord it over. He has come to service,” the Rev. Stephen Hamilton, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Kingfisher, said of Jesus’ action chronicled in John 13.
The priest said he will wash the feet of 12 of his parishioners during a Maundy Thursday Mass, just as Catholic priests the world over — and the pope — will do, as well. Read more »
Filed under: Church, Parish on March 17th, 2008 | Comments Off
It is our sad duty to report that Reverend James Henry Ross, former pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Church (1975-1997) has passed away at the age of 85.