December 18, 2023 β’ 15 mins
Are you ready to challenge your notions of service and faith? That's exactly what we're going to do as we delve into the profound meaning behind a humble act - the washing of the feet. A tradition once considered menial and performed by the lowest individual in a household, Jesus transformed it into a powerful testament of humility and love. Walk with us as we explore Peter's initial refusal to have his feet washed, a reflection of our own battles with pride and scrupulosity. We'll also shed light on the concept of confessing sins and the role of intentionality in penance.
But there's more. This episode isn't just about washing feet - it's about the deep-seated connections between the Eucharist, service, and faith. We're going to uncover the importance of service in the context of the Eucharist, and the way Jesus drew attention to this connection in the Bread of Life discourse. Discover how the Last Supper served as a platform for Jesus to emphasize service, and how his self-reference as "I am" in the face of impending betrayal underlined the importance of service in the institution of the Eucharist. Saddle up for a journey that promises to reshape your perceptions of service, faith, and the Christian doctrine.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Father Andrew, would you like to do the intro?
Father Chris did it last time,so he did.
Do you think you're prepared?
Do you think you're ready?
I can't remember what we'reactually doing.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hi, I'm Father Andrew Hamilton, and this is the
Catholic Accent Podcast.
I'm here with Jordan Whiteco,of course, and then our other
gracious guest, FatherChristopher Ujjil.
So what are we talking abouttoday, gentlemen?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Today we're going to be talking about the washing of
the feet.
The disciples were shocked thatJesus wanted to wash their feet
.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Absolutely In Jesus' time.
The roads were so filthy andthere was no sewage system.
Right and the sketchers didn'texist.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
What did they wear Like?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
moccasins or something oh, like little
leather sandals and kind of likeFather Chris's Birkenstocks if
he bumps around the recordBirkenstocks, that's true, those
do have that look.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Jesus wished in the disciples they wished, they had
Birkenstocks, so what would ithave been to wash them back then
?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
The roads would have been filthy and dusty and really
oftentimes they're walkingthrough sewage and so when you
would arrive at someone's home,the lowest person or the slave
of the household would wash theguest's feet and because really
it was such a menial job.
And also we have to rememberwe've talked before about the
laws of purity and cleanlinessand doing Cleanliness is next to
(01:13):
godliness.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
It is.
That's what I was taught.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
It is.
You should practice that alittle more often.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Jordan.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
But so then they would wash the feet.
And here though, jesus turnsthat all upside down.
So the disciples arrive at theupper room for the celebration
of the Last Supper, and insteadof the slave washing the
disciples' feet, jesus himselftakes off his outer garment,
ties the towel around his waist,gets the basin and the pitcher
(01:41):
and kneels down and begins towash the disciples' feet himself
.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
So it was like him being humble.
He's not above getting down andwashing someone's Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Which is a great microcosm of what Jesus is
already doing, which is showingthe love of God in action in the
world.
God not staying on the outsideor the outskirts, but rather
entering intimately into theworld to be of service, to save,
to be in the midst of us.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And turning everything upside down, all
right.
So my boy, peter, at first washesitant to let Jesus wash his
feet.
But Jesus insists that if Peterwants the promise that Jesus
offers his disciples, at whichpoint he asks us to wash his
whole body.
So Peter was a little extrathere.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Even before we get to that.
I think Peter's hesitancy isseen actually earlier in
Scripture as well, with John theBaptist who basically says I'm
not even worthy to untie thesandals of the Lord and then
baptize him.
So there is this great kind ofsense of Christ's holiness and
like we don't equal up to that,and I think all of us feel that
in a certain way, that likewe're all broken and we need the
(02:45):
Lord, and for him to come to usand to serve us we should be
the ones being the servant.
And so he flips everythingupside down, as Father Chris had
said before.
But in that great humility heshows us how to lead, how to be
humble ourselves.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
And again we see Peter in his pride here too,
Like Lord, yeah, I'm reallyfilthy, so wash my feet, but if
you're going to do it, do washmy head too in my hands.
Because Peter couldn't allowhimself, because he was seeing
the Messiah as Jesus right, andhe's finally getting to
understand this and it didn'tfit up with his idea of what the
(03:22):
Messiah would look like, and sothat's why you can see him like
kind of pushing back almost inhis own pride, and we fall into
that too, so it's typical forPeter to put his foot in his
mouth.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Excuse the pun, exotic Peter as well too, I
think he does something that weoften do today, which is some of
us might even struggle withscrupulosity, right, the small
scruples of like.
Well, we're never actually holyenough or good enough and do we
really feel cleansed wheneverwe maybe go to the sacrament of
penance of confession?
Did I say everything perfectlyand just right to get it.
(03:57):
Could I have thought of everysingle thing possible within
that sacrament and told thepriests and everything else.
But the Lord doesn't want usthere in this instability,
uncertainty of always worryingabout all of our sins.
We have to move from worryingabout sin to then worrying about
love of God and love ofneighbor, and so that's the
progression of the Spirit, whichis sins important to get rid of
, obviously, and to cast awayfrom ourselves, but that's
healed in the love of neighborand love of God.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So when you're confessing your sins, you know
you're not expected.
You're saying, you're notexpected to remember every sin
that you've made, just the factof you want to repair.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
No, I mean you have to confess your sins by kind and
number, but oftentimes thescrupulous person if they would
forget something.
We would believe that if youforget something unintentionally
, that sin that you intended toconfess, of course, is forgiven
in the sacrament.
But if you purposely hide a sinor conceal a sin or talk around
(04:52):
a sin, then you're not beinghonest with God.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Okay, yeah, that's what I was trying to get at is
you're forgetting.
You're not intentionally sayingI'm not going to tell him that?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, so like the scrupulous person might receive
absolution, leave theconfessional, get back in line,
come back in.
Father, I forgot to tell you.
Well, it wasn't intentionalforgetting.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Because I'll admit I did that the last time I went is
I was like oh, wait, one morething.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And you know, because I remembered it as I was like
getting out of here.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
All right, you're done.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
You're still taking up all my time.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Jordan, Jordan, you can have all the time I have a
dirty, dirty sinner you needJesus to wash your feet, so how
does that tie in?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
then you were talking about confession.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Just Peter saying like you have to wash all these
other parts of me, not just myfeet maybe being scrupulous,
Remember, Peter has seen theLord be baptized himself.
He's been brought into thegreat life of Christ and that's
the beauty of our redemption,which is through our baptism we
are washed clean of our sins andwe take on the very life of
Christ, and so we're changed inthat way for the better.
(05:58):
But we don't have to keepalways going back to dwelling
upon our past sins andeverything else.
And that's where Peter maybewould struggle is right, because
he is always getting likequasi-rebuke sometimes, Like he
says something good and then hemakes a mistake, and then
something good and then amistake, and that seems to
plague him.
But the Lord is trying to bringhim out of that.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
And this whole scene plays into the whole typology of
baptism.
Because when Peter says to him,you'll never wash my feet,
jesus responds unless I wash you, you have no inheritance with
me.
And that's what we believeabout baptism.
Unless we are baptized toreceive that sacramental grace,
the true life of God within usthrough the sacrament of baptism
(06:36):
, and have our original sinwashed away, we have no
inheritance with God.
We cannot enter the kingdom ofGod.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
So what would your reaction have been if Jesus said
he wanted to wash your feet,but also for you to go out and
wash other feet?
We'll get to you, father Chris,because you, I witnessed
washing feet.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
What about you, father Andrew, yeah, I probably
wouldn't enjoy it with my likesocks and loafers on Now.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
I don't really like exposing my feet to the world.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I don't think I have very pretty feet now.
So from all these years ofsoccer and everything else, so
you haven't washed feet yet.
I have not.
I've assisted in washing feetas a deacon, but not as a priest
.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Well, maybe share when we do it liturgically.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Sure.
So washing of the feet happensat the mass of the Last Supper,
the Feast of the Last Supper,the institution of the Eucharist
, that's Thursday of Holy Week.
And so you see, during theliturgy itself, during the mass,
that the priest will kind oftake off his chasable, the outer
garment, and he'll just be downto his robe and then he'll go
around and he'll wash the feetof normally 12 people throughout
(07:37):
the church.
And it's a sign then, of Jesus'own washing of the feet that we
hear of here in the Gospel ofJohn.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Now, we here know why 12 people, but why don't you
also explain?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yes, 12, of course.
So a significant number of 12,which you can go back to the Old
Testament 12 tribes of Israelthat were scattered because of
different powers that be, anddisagreements and so forth.
But Christ seeks to bring theunity of the nations as the
Messiah, and so he chooses 12men representative of those 12
tribes of Israel that all comeback together and from there
(08:09):
that's the way that heestablishes the Magisterium, the
bishops of the church thatcontinue to keep us unified
together, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Now we had an event here at the diocese of
Greensburg where we had mayberoughly 1,000 people come
through.
Now we asked Father Chris to bein a room to wash people's feet
and I think at first he waslike am I going to have to wash
1,000 people's feet?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
over the course ofβ We'd be there for years.
He was okay with 500 when itgot up.
We wouldn't need a lot of water.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
So what was your reaction when we asked you to
wash strangers' feet, like theyweren't just your parishioners,
they were justβ oh no there werepeople from across the diocese
and that was what our firstknow-him experiential
evangelization event.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
But I think the whole purpose of that event was to
show the love of God but alsothat when we take on acts of
charity towards others, a changehappens, and so that washing is
a sign of that change whichhappens both our own
purification but also ourpassive receptivity into God's
(09:10):
love for us, because whensomeone's washing your feet,
there's really nothing you cando.
They're washing and drawing it,and it's an awkward reality
whether you're the washer or therecipient Right.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Andβ Like me at home, I'd be like all right, I know
I'm getting my feet washed, Igot to cleanβ Like I got to get
everything off.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Oh and so many people said that.
And then, towards the end ofthe day, we started picking
random people who didn't knowthey were going to have their
feet washed.
But they had to humblethemselves, right, and it ties
back to Peter Andβ.
But what's interesting is, evenwith the washing of the feet,
in this scene of Scripture,jesus reminds us that one of you
(09:47):
is not clean, the one who willbetray me, which points right to
Judas.
So even though he could dothese outward signs right, he
washed Judas's feet too, knowingthat he would betray him.
He may be clean on the outside,but inside we knew that he was
filled with malice and betrayal.
So just because we have anoutward cleanliness doesn't mean
(10:09):
that inwardly, we're or pure.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
One thing I remember too about the liturgy in which
this is done on Holy Thursday.
I remember my childhood pastor,father Brian Summers.
He would go around and wash allthe feet of the people, but at
the end of washing each person'sfeet, he would actually kiss
their feet as well, which isalways just really a great sign
of humility for me growing up,and it kind of reminds me even
(10:35):
of the woman who comes in,anoints Christ's feet, you know,
with the oil, and then evenuses her hair to wipe his feet,
dry his feet.
There's just a great humilityin that.
One thing I want to mention aswell is how are they seated
right during this time?
It's interesting, contextually,whenever I was in Jerusalem, my
guide talked about what's calleda triclinium big word but it's
(10:56):
basically just a U-shaped table.
It says they recline a table,meaning that they didn't sit
upright as we are now, but theykind of leaned back, and then
they would eat with their righthand, dipping into the dishes
together.
And so from if you take all ofthe scriptural evidence, we
could start to get anunderstanding of who's where and
why.
And so at that triclinium inthe middle would be the guest,
of course, jesus himself, andthen, beyond that, you would
(11:18):
have the person to the right ofthe guest, would kind of give
their back to Jesus as theywould eat on their elbow, and so
we hear that John is the onethat reclines upon his breast.
So we think that that personwould have been John the beloved
disciple, and normally in thatcontext the person that you most
beloved would be next to theright hand side of the guest,
and then the person behind youwas the person that you most
(11:40):
trusted to protect.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
They got your back.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
They have your back right, and so the interesting
part of that is we hear theJesus that Jesus and Judas dip
into the same dish.
So if John's to the right sideof Jesus, judas has to be to the
left side, because there wouldbe a dish in between the
person's table.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And Peter probably would have had his back.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Well, no, peter.
Actually, I believe and this iswhat my guide said the person
that would be at the completeend of the table would most
likely be the servant ofeverybody.
There'd be somebody that wouldnormally be standing and getting
up a lot, which is a sign ofbeing a servant or a slave, and
so Peter, of course, is the onewho Jesus directly tells wash
the feet.
Basically, you're going to bethe servant of the servants of
(12:17):
God, which is a title that weactually still give to the Pope,
the Peter of the modern day,pope Francis, and so it's
interesting whenever you put allthat into context, where
everybody lines up, and howmeaningful it becomes when you
could actually see it foryourself.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So you mentioned John and the washing of the feet
story in the gospel Johnreplaces the story of the
institution of the Eucharist andother Gospels.
Why does he?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
do that.
He seems to highlight here theimportance of service, that the
Eucharist itself, of course, isa great gift, is the fountain
from all the other graces flowwithin the life of the church,
but that those gifts are then tobe propelling us into mission
to serve others.
And so he's not saying that theinstitution of the Eucharist
didn't happen within hisnarrative, but he's highlighting
(13:01):
this sense of service thatJesus has, and he tells his
closest band of apostles, theretogether, that they're supposed
to then go out and give thislove to others in their service.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Well, and in the Bread of Life discourse that he
gives, that's really where hetalks about the what we would
say is the normal institutionnarrative.
And so his bread of lifediscourse is what's propelling
the reality of the sacrament ofthe Eucharist, of the body and
blood of Christ, and the idea ofservice in the washing of the
feet, as Father said, is what'sputting the two together.
(13:33):
Because we can't have thesacrifice without service,
because even in the OldTestament it was called service
to the temple.
The priests were serving in thetemple and offering sacrifice.
And so all of us today, asChristians and our common
priesthood through baptism, wehave to serve the Lord in the
church and in the world, and sothat idea of service is pivotal,
(13:53):
because you can't have onewithout the other.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
In that Bread of Life Discourses in John 6, where
Jesus specifically says that youmust eat my flesh and drink my
blood to have life within you,that the bread and the wine are
becoming in that way the actualsacrament of the Eucharist and
that we must receive that tohave life within us.
And even then people are like,wow, that's a tough teaching.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yeah, and people leave him.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
But these ones stay together.
And Peter says actually at thattime, whenever Jesus says to
him, will you go as well?
And he says, Lord, where shallwe go?
You have the words ofeverlasting life.
So you can see how thatconnects with Peter there.
Then to later on in the Gospelof John, at the actual Last
Supper.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
And then, following the washing of the feet, what's
so important, too, is that wehear Jesus use the name of God
again for himself, and he'sspeaking about the betrayal
that's going to happen.
And then he says but thesethings must happen so that you
believe I am.
And so, right then and there,any faithful Jew would have
(14:55):
known immediately that he'sreferring to himself as God.
Father Andrew, would you like to do the intro?
Father Chris did it last time,so he did.
Do you think you're prepared?
Do you think you're ready?
I can't remember what we'reactually doing.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hi, I'm Father Andrew Hamilton, and this is the
Catholic Accent Podcast.
I'm here with Jordan Whiteco,of course, and then our other
gracious guest, FatherChristopher Ujjil.
So what are we talking abouttoday, gentlemen?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Today we're going to be talking about the washing of
the feet.
The disciples were shocked thatJesus wanted to wash their feet
.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Absolutely In Jesus' time.
The roads were so filthy andthere was no sewage system.
Right and the sketchers didn'texist.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
What did they wear Like?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
moccasins or something oh, like little
leather sandals and kind of likeFather Chris's Birkenstocks if
he bumps around the recordBirkenstocks, that's true, those
do have that look.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Jesus wished in the disciples they wished, they had
Birkenstocks, so what would ithave been to wash them back then
?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
The roads would have been filthy and dusty and really
oftentimes they're walkingthrough sewage and so when you
would arrive at someone's home,the lowest person or the slave
of the household would wash theguest's feet and because really
it was such a menial job.
And also we have to rememberwe've talked before about the
laws of purity and cleanlinessand doing Cleanliness is next to
(01:13):
godliness.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
It is.
That's what I was taught.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
It is.
You should practice that alittle more often.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Jordan.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
But so then they would wash the feet.
And here though, jesus turnsthat all upside down.
So the disciples arrive at theupper room for the celebration
of the Last Supper, and insteadof the slave washing the
disciples' feet, jesus himselftakes off his outer garment,
ties the towel around his waist,gets the basin and the pitcher
(01:41):
and kneels down and begins towash the disciples' feet himself
.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
So it was like him being humble.
He's not above getting down andwashing someone's Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Which is a great microcosm of what Jesus is
already doing, which is showingthe love of God in action in the
world.
God not staying on the outsideor the outskirts, but rather
entering intimately into theworld to be of service, to save,
to be in the midst of us.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And turning everything upside down, all
right.
So my boy, peter, at first washesitant to let Jesus wash his
feet.
But Jesus insists that if Peterwants the promise that Jesus
offers his disciples, at whichpoint he asks us to wash his
whole body.
So Peter was a little extrathere.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Even before we get to that.
I think Peter's hesitancy isseen actually earlier in
Scripture as well, with John theBaptist who basically says I'm
not even worthy to untie thesandals of the Lord and then
baptize him.
So there is this great kind ofsense of Christ's holiness and
like we don't equal up to that,and I think all of us feel that
in a certain way, that likewe're all broken and we need the
(02:45):
Lord, and for him to come to usand to serve us we should be
the ones being the servant.
And so he flips everythingupside down, as Father Chris had
said before.
But in that great humility heshows us how to lead, how to be
humble ourselves.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
And again we see Peter in his pride here too,
Like Lord, yeah, I'm reallyfilthy, so wash my feet, but if
you're going to do it, do washmy head too in my hands.
Because Peter couldn't allowhimself, because he was seeing
the Messiah as Jesus right, andhe's finally getting to
understand this and it didn'tfit up with his idea of what the
(03:22):
Messiah would look like, and sothat's why you can see him like
kind of pushing back almost inhis own pride, and we fall into
that too, so it's typical forPeter to put his foot in his
mouth.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Excuse the pun, exotic Peter as well too, I
think he does something that weoften do today, which is some of
us might even struggle withscrupulosity, right, the small
scruples of like.
Well, we're never actually holyenough or good enough and do we
really feel cleansed wheneverwe maybe go to the sacrament of
penance of confession?
Did I say everything perfectlyand just right to get it.
(03:57):
Could I have thought of everysingle thing possible within
that sacrament and told thepriests and everything else.
But the Lord doesn't want usthere in this instability,
uncertainty of always worryingabout all of our sins.
We have to move from worryingabout sin to then worrying about
love of God and love ofneighbor, and so that's the
progression of the Spirit, whichis sins important to get rid of
, obviously, and to cast awayfrom ourselves, but that's
healed in the love of neighborand love of God.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So when you're confessing your sins, you know
you're not expected.
You're saying, you're notexpected to remember every sin
that you've made, just the factof you want to repair.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
No, I mean you have to confess your sins by kind and
number, but oftentimes thescrupulous person if they would
forget something.
We would believe that if youforget something unintentionally
, that sin that you intended toconfess, of course, is forgiven
in the sacrament.
But if you purposely hide a sinor conceal a sin or talk around
(04:52):
a sin, then you're not beinghonest with God.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Okay, yeah, that's what I was trying to get at is
you're forgetting.
You're not intentionally sayingI'm not going to tell him that?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, so like the scrupulous person might receive
absolution, leave theconfessional, get back in line,
come back in.
Father, I forgot to tell you.
Well, it wasn't intentionalforgetting.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Because I'll admit I did that the last time I went is
I was like oh, wait, one morething.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And you know, because I remembered it as I was like
getting out of here.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
All right, you're done.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
You're still taking up all my time.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Jordan, Jordan, you can have all the time I have a
dirty, dirty sinner you needJesus to wash your feet, so how
does that tie in?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
then you were talking about confession.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Just Peter saying like you have to wash all these
other parts of me, not just myfeet maybe being scrupulous,
Remember, Peter has seen theLord be baptized himself.
He's been brought into thegreat life of Christ and that's
the beauty of our redemption,which is through our baptism we
are washed clean of our sins andwe take on the very life of
Christ, and so we're changed inthat way for the better.
(05:58):
But we don't have to keepalways going back to dwelling
upon our past sins andeverything else.
And that's where Peter maybewould struggle is right, because
he is always getting likequasi-rebuke sometimes, Like he
says something good and then hemakes a mistake, and then
something good and then amistake, and that seems to
plague him.
But the Lord is trying to bringhim out of that.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
And this whole scene plays into the whole typology of
baptism.
Because when Peter says to him,you'll never wash my feet,
jesus responds unless I wash you, you have no inheritance with
me.
And that's what we believeabout baptism.
Unless we are baptized toreceive that sacramental grace,
the true life of God within usthrough the sacrament of baptism
(06:36):
, and have our original sinwashed away, we have no
inheritance with God.
We cannot enter the kingdom ofGod.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
So what would your reaction have been if Jesus said
he wanted to wash your feet,but also for you to go out and
wash other feet?
We'll get to you, father Chris,because you, I witnessed
washing feet.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
What about you, father Andrew, yeah, I probably
wouldn't enjoy it with my likesocks and loafers on Now.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
I don't really like exposing my feet to the world.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I don't think I have very pretty feet now.
So from all these years ofsoccer and everything else, so
you haven't washed feet yet.
I have not.
I've assisted in washing feetas a deacon, but not as a priest
.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Well, maybe share when we do it liturgically.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Sure.
So washing of the feet happensat the mass of the Last Supper,
the Feast of the Last Supper,the institution of the Eucharist
, that's Thursday of Holy Week.
And so you see, during theliturgy itself, during the mass,
that the priest will kind oftake off his chasable, the outer
garment, and he'll just be downto his robe and then he'll go
around and he'll wash the feetof normally 12 people throughout
(07:37):
the church.
And it's a sign then, of Jesus'own washing of the feet that we
hear of here in the Gospel ofJohn.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Now, we here know why 12 people, but why don't you
also explain?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yes, 12, of course.
So a significant number of 12,which you can go back to the Old
Testament 12 tribes of Israelthat were scattered because of
different powers that be, anddisagreements and so forth.
But Christ seeks to bring theunity of the nations as the
Messiah, and so he chooses 12men representative of those 12
tribes of Israel that all comeback together and from there
(08:09):
that's the way that heestablishes the Magisterium, the
bishops of the church thatcontinue to keep us unified
together, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Now we had an event here at the diocese of
Greensburg where we had mayberoughly 1,000 people come
through.
Now we asked Father Chris to bein a room to wash people's feet
and I think at first he waslike am I going to have to wash
1,000 people's feet?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
over the course ofβ We'd be there for years.
He was okay with 500 when itgot up.
We wouldn't need a lot of water.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
So what was your reaction when we asked you to
wash strangers' feet, like theyweren't just your parishioners,
they were justβ oh no there werepeople from across the diocese
and that was what our firstknow-him experiential
evangelization event.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
But I think the whole purpose of that event was to
show the love of God but alsothat when we take on acts of
charity towards others, a changehappens, and so that washing is
a sign of that change whichhappens both our own
purification but also ourpassive receptivity into God's
(09:10):
love for us, because whensomeone's washing your feet,
there's really nothing you cando.
They're washing and drawing it,and it's an awkward reality
whether you're the washer or therecipient Right.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Andβ Like me at home, I'd be like all right, I know
I'm getting my feet washed, Igot to cleanβ Like I got to get
everything off.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Oh and so many people said that.
And then, towards the end ofthe day, we started picking
random people who didn't knowthey were going to have their
feet washed.
But they had to humblethemselves, right, and it ties
back to Peter Andβ.
But what's interesting is, evenwith the washing of the feet,
in this scene of Scripture,jesus reminds us that one of you
(09:47):
is not clean, the one who willbetray me, which points right to
Judas.
So even though he could dothese outward signs right, he
washed Judas's feet too, knowingthat he would betray him.
He may be clean on the outside,but inside we knew that he was
filled with malice and betrayal.
So just because we have anoutward cleanliness doesn't mean
(10:09):
that inwardly, we're or pure.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
One thing I remember too about the liturgy in which
this is done on Holy Thursday.
I remember my childhood pastor,father Brian Summers.
He would go around and wash allthe feet of the people, but at
the end of washing each person'sfeet, he would actually kiss
their feet as well, which isalways just really a great sign
of humility for me growing up,and it kind of reminds me even
(10:35):
of the woman who comes in,anoints Christ's feet, you know,
with the oil, and then evenuses her hair to wipe his feet,
dry his feet.
There's just a great humilityin that.
One thing I want to mention aswell is how are they seated
right during this time?
It's interesting, contextually,whenever I was in Jerusalem, my
guide talked about what's calleda triclinium big word but it's
(10:56):
basically just a U-shaped table.
It says they recline a table,meaning that they didn't sit
upright as we are now, but theykind of leaned back, and then
they would eat with their righthand, dipping into the dishes
together.
And so from if you take all ofthe scriptural evidence, we
could start to get anunderstanding of who's where and
why.
And so at that triclinium inthe middle would be the guest,
of course, jesus himself, andthen, beyond that, you would
(11:18):
have the person to the right ofthe guest, would kind of give
their back to Jesus as theywould eat on their elbow, and so
we hear that John is the onethat reclines upon his breast.
So we think that that personwould have been John the beloved
disciple, and normally in thatcontext the person that you most
beloved would be next to theright hand side of the guest,
and then the person behind youwas the person that you most
(11:40):
trusted to protect.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
They got your back.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
They have your back right, and so the interesting
part of that is we hear theJesus that Jesus and Judas dip
into the same dish.
So if John's to the right sideof Jesus, judas has to be to the
left side, because there wouldbe a dish in between the
person's table.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And Peter probably would have had his back.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Well, no, peter.
Actually, I believe and this iswhat my guide said the person
that would be at the completeend of the table would most
likely be the servant ofeverybody.
There'd be somebody that wouldnormally be standing and getting
up a lot, which is a sign ofbeing a servant or a slave, and
so Peter, of course, is the onewho Jesus directly tells wash
the feet.
Basically, you're going to bethe servant of the servants of
(12:17):
God, which is a title that weactually still give to the Pope,
the Peter of the modern day,pope Francis, and so it's
interesting whenever you put allthat into context, where
everybody lines up, and howmeaningful it becomes when you
could actually see it foryourself.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So you mentioned John and the washing of the feet
story in the gospel Johnreplaces the story of the
institution of the Eucharist andother Gospels.
Why does he?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
do that.
He seems to highlight here theimportance of service, that the
Eucharist itself, of course, isa great gift, is the fountain
from all the other graces flowwithin the life of the church,
but that those gifts are then tobe propelling us into mission
to serve others.
And so he's not saying that theinstitution of the Eucharist
didn't happen within hisnarrative, but he's highlighting
(13:01):
this sense of service thatJesus has, and he tells his
closest band of apostles, theretogether, that they're supposed
to then go out and give thislove to others in their service.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Well, and in the Bread of Life discourse that he
gives, that's really where hetalks about the what we would
say is the normal institutionnarrative.
And so his bread of lifediscourse is what's propelling
the reality of the sacrament ofthe Eucharist, of the body and
blood of Christ, and the idea ofservice in the washing of the
feet, as Father said, is what'sputting the two together.
(13:33):
Because we can't have thesacrifice without service,
because even in the OldTestament it was called service
to the temple.
The priests were serving in thetemple and offering sacrifice.
And so all of us today, asChristians and our common
priesthood through baptism, wehave to serve the Lord in the
church and in the world, and sothat idea of service is pivotal,
(13:53):
because you can't have onewithout the other.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
In that Bread of Life Discourses in John 6, where
Jesus specifically says that youmust eat my flesh and drink my
blood to have life within you,that the bread and the wine are
becoming in that way the actualsacrament of the Eucharist and
that we must receive that tohave life within us.
And even then people are like,wow, that's a tough teaching.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yeah, and people leave him.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
But these ones stay together.
And Peter says actually at thattime, whenever Jesus says to
him, will you go as well?
And he says, Lord, where shallwe go?
You have the words ofeverlasting life.
So you can see how thatconnects with Peter there.
Then to later on in the Gospelof John, at the actual Last
Supper.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
And then, following the washing of the feet, what's
so important, too, is that wehear Jesus use the name of God
again for himself, and he'sspeaking about the betrayal
that's going to happen.
And then he says but thesethings must happen so that you
believe I am.
And so, right then and there,any faithful Jew would have
(14:55):
known immediately that he'sreferring to himself as God.
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