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Section III:
The Upper Room
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The washing of the feet reveals that love must be expressed concretely
The washing of the feet also makes concrete the very love that motivated the Incarnation: Jesus the Master embraces the work of a slave in order to meet others’ spiritual and bodily needs here and now. He washes real feet of real people: feet hardened, worn, dirtied, and bruised. Jesus’s washing softens, renews, cleanses, and heals. His attention to the most basic needs of the Apostles teaches us that the physical dimension matters to God, and so to us. As St. James exhorts: “If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?” (Jas 2:15-16).
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The washing of the feet is hospitality that unites us with the other
In the Middle Eastern context, Jesus’s washing of the feet would have communicated a radical hospitality. The focus of the person washing feet has to be purely on the other. We can imitate Jesus only by putting aside the “garments” of our position, our expertise, our self-focus, and even our pride. In attending to the need of the other, we open ourselves to the mystery of the other. In listening, we respectfully receive the other. Jesus teaches us that the simple gift of self opens us to the gift of the other. A communion, a unity, is then created between us through hospitality.
I was edified that the Synod Members appreciated the importance of hospitality. In fact, Synod Proposition 1 (Welcome and Hospitality) received the sixth highest vote total at the Synod Assembly.
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The washing of the feet affirms the other
As noted above, Jesus’s humble washing of the feet does not depend on whether the other “deserves” this service: for Jesus even washed the feet of Judas. The washing of the feet says simply: “It is good that you are.” This is always the first movement of love. In putting aside our preferences and in attending to the person before us, we affirm that God has seen it good to love them into being, creating them in His very image and likeness. It is important that we always recognize the dignity of the other. This affirmation of the other is the first service we can offer.
(Source: archspmmainsite/Synod_Pastoral+Letter)
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