“If therefore the master and teacher have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet … as I have done for you, you should also do” (John 13:14-15)
These sacred words of Scripture were acted out in Holy Thursday services around the world. This year, Pope Francis celebrated the Mass of Our Lord’s Supper in Rome’s Rebibbia Prison, washing the feet of 12 men and women inmates. Last year, he washed feet at a rehabilitation facility for the elderly and those with disabilities. The year before, Francis performed the Holy Thursday ritual at a juvenile detention center.
“Foot washing” takes place in our parishes every day. Dozens of “foot washers” at St. Rita Parish in Nanakuli, Sacred Heart Parish in Waianae and the St. Francis sisters retreat center at Our Lady of Keaau prepare and serve food for hundreds of homeless persons on Oahu’s leeward coast. “Foot washers” on Oahu’s windward side gather with women from prison to help a family affected by incarceration rebuild their burned-out home. Others help kupuna maintain their homes or join support groups for persons affected by cancer or families with persons with disabilities. Behind the scenes, others are advocating for more affordable housing for the most vulnerable.
All over Hawaii, parishioners are “washing feet” in food pantries and community gardens that provide nourishing sustainable food to the hungry. From April through July, workshops on all the islands will gather parishioners to share their “food ministries and connect with community partners responding to Pope Francis’ call for one human family, food for all.” The first gathering is April 25 in Hawi.
On Holy Thursday, thousands brought their Catholic Relief Service Rice Bowls full of donations and prayers to their parishes and schools to help CRS fight world hunger in places like Micronesia, recently hit hard by Typhoon Maysak.
We are so blessed to believe in a God who sent his Son to be born and die so vulnerably and leave us his Risen Presence in the food of the Eucharist to deepen our hunger for God and to increase our hunger to serve the vulnerable all around us. It is no accident Holy Thursday celebrates the founding of the Eucharist with a ritual of service — the washing of feet.
The diocesan video on sacraments reminds us: “Every Eucharist gathers us to give thanks as One Ohana, nourishes us in a Sacred Meal as One Ohana, and sends us forth to serve as One Ohana.”
In the approaching Holy Year of Mercy and this year’s focus on the family, we pray our “foot washing” ministries multiply like the eucharistic miracle of the loaves and fishes so that more and more families share their time, talent and treasure with the vulnerable and witness to Jesus as Pope Francis and Bishop Larry Silva continually call us to do.
Mahalo for your “foot washing,” past, present and future.
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
