Maundy Thursday
Today is the first day of Triduum. It is Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday. For Catholics we will listen to the Gospel of Jesus sharing meal with his friends and then washing their feet. The liturgical color- or, more practically, the color that decorates the altar, vestements etc is white today. White is also the color worn during the Easter Season, Christmas Season, at Funerals and other large celebrations (and funerals).
I is easy during the ritual washing and sharing of his last meal to make it all about sadness. There is a great sadness coming. There is great betrayal. But I like to think about the utter humanity that Jesus expresses in breaking bread with folks and washing their feet.
I don't know about you but being washed seems to me for the very young and the very old. Beyond my experiences as a child I can barely recall times of being washed by another. Sean has washed my hair a time or two as a romantic gesture and the other time was after my c-section with Junia where i couldn't see my wound (when you are fat like me it is kind of invisible and you need another set of eyes and thus careful seeing hands) so Sean helped me to caretake this. Each of those experiences have been one of tremendous trust and vulnerability. One romantic- and loving. One caretaking and compassionate- and loving.
I have been involved in RCIA for much of my ministry and each year, during the Triduum the folks I worked with balked at the idea of having their feet washed. In a church that is full of rules- unspoken and aloud. It seemed like taking off your shoes and barefootedly approaching the priest to have your feet washed was weird. It is wierd because it is a performance of vulnerability. We are discomforted by the vulnerability and power dynamics.
These are each
I am not sure what Jesus meant exactly when he washed the disciples feet. He didn't stand up and give a sermon on it. But he did give us a life before it and a couple of days after. In light of my experience I cannot help but think that Jesus was doing something very intimate. Jesus was proclaiming that the love he offered his friends was intimate, vulnerable, and honest. The he accepted them
I is easy during the ritual washing and sharing of his last meal to make it all about sadness. There is a great sadness coming. There is great betrayal. But I like to think about the utter humanity that Jesus expresses in breaking bread with folks and washing their feet.
I don't know about you but being washed seems to me for the very young and the very old. Beyond my experiences as a child I can barely recall times of being washed by another. Sean has washed my hair a time or two as a romantic gesture and the other time was after my c-section with Junia where i couldn't see my wound (when you are fat like me it is kind of invisible and you need another set of eyes and thus careful seeing hands) so Sean helped me to caretake this. Each of those experiences have been one of tremendous trust and vulnerability. One romantic- and loving. One caretaking and compassionate- and loving.
I have been involved in RCIA for much of my ministry and each year, during the Triduum the folks I worked with balked at the idea of having their feet washed. In a church that is full of rules- unspoken and aloud. It seemed like taking off your shoes and barefootedly approaching the priest to have your feet washed was weird. It is wierd because it is a performance of vulnerability. We are discomforted by the vulnerability and power dynamics.
These are each
I am not sure what Jesus meant exactly when he washed the disciples feet. He didn't stand up and give a sermon on it. But he did give us a life before it and a couple of days after. In light of my experience I cannot help but think that Jesus was doing something very intimate. Jesus was proclaiming that the love he offered his friends was intimate, vulnerable, and honest. The he accepted them
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