nunblog

Yesterday's post seems to have been swallowed up in cyberspace. Oh, well! In it, I attempted to draw your attention to the Twitter posts ("tweets") of Patti Hanley, who is in the Press Corps for the Papal Visit. The tweets let you follow the events minute-by-minute.
Today's Gospel is particularly appropriate: "After Jesus washed their feet, he said, '...No slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it...whoever receives the one I send receives me'."
Even though in the lectionary, the words "after Jesus washed their feet" are in parenthesis, as if just to situate the "real" lesson, I think the preface is critical. Only after we, like Jesus, have "taken the form of a servant" can the rest of the passage apply to us as followers of Jesus--and even more in the case of those called to leadership in the Church. Pope, bishop, priest, sister, baptized disciple: only after we have washed the feet of those among us are we credible messengers of the one who sends us.