A Humble Service

The washing of the disciples feet by Jesus (John 13:1-15) is part of our Lenten celebration. It is reenacted in the evening mass during Holy Thursday. Usually, the presiding priest takes the role of Jesus and lay persons are chosen as disciples. All throughout these years I viewed the act as a routine tradition, Jesus serving his disciples and we should be doing the same to our fellow men. But when I read Catherine McNiel’s perspective about Jesus washing of the disciple’s feet from her book “Long Days of Small Things: Motherhood as a Spiritual Discipline,” my take on the said act as a mother changed. Let me share with you below McNiel’s insights on Jesus’ humble way of serving the people in his time and how it relate to motherhood:

Catherine McNiel narrated that “the unthinkable happens: Jesus, the teacher, the Lord and Master, rises from his cushion and brings the basin and towel. Stooping before Peter, he begins a task too humble and undignified even for unwilling slaves.”

On the other hand, Peter is rightly aghast described by McNiel. “Stepping away from Jesus’ towel-clad hand, he renounces even the idea of his Lord washing his putrid feet.”

Catherine McNiel said that “Jesus continues to wash and pronounces a new reality of the Kingdom: Anyone who would associate with Jesus must accept this service. And then, having been served in such a way, they are to go out and do the same to others.”

“Maybe Jesus’ foot washing shouldn’t have been shocking, in hindsight,” said McNiel. “There was foreshadowing, certainly. Jesus crouching in the road, mixing dirt into mud with his own saliva, and giving sight to a presumed-guilty blind man. Jesus placing his hands on lepers, changing his plans to accommodate the sick and worried. He started the day with a lineup of needs that stretched never-ending: touch the sick, welcoming children, casting out demons, catching fish, feeding folks who forgot to bring their own lunch.”

In addition, Catherine McNiel stated how she sneaks away from her children, “hoping to find a hidden corner and five minutes’ peace and how Jesus made his own escapes to quiet places.” She said that “just as my kids sniff out my hiding place, so Jesus’ followers tracked him down too. He knew the irritation of being awoken from sleep to meet yet another storm.”

McNiel shared that “Jesus, Son of God and Word made flesh, taught us, showed us with his own two hands, aching back, and cracking knees. If meeting an onslaught of his children’s physical needs day after day wasn’t a waste of time for the Lord during the height of his short earthly ministry, mustn’t he value our own exhausting days serving the children he gave us? If God came to earth in the position of a servant, must he not value service?”

“Mothers serve their families in all manner of dirty and undignified positions, willingly taking on a workload so extensive and ongoing you could never hire someone to do it. To meet the unquenchable thirst of our children’s needs, we empty ourselves again and again,” McNiel said.

And yet, moreover, she continued that “it is here, at this broken, depleted moment, that motherhood is most powerfully a spiritual practice. The goal of spiritual disciplines is to bring us to this place, to the place where we have lost everything but God. In this deep emptiness we must cast ourselves upon him and wait on him, for we have nothing else, no other hope.”

Lastly, McNiel stressed that “in motherhood we are not furthest from the practices of faith as it seems, but at the center.”

May the above insights lead us to have a deeper understanding on Jesus way of caring for his disciples and the lowly. Like Jesus’ humble service of washing the disciples feet, may we mothers be more committed in serving our children, spouse and other fellow men who need us. As mothers, let us not forget to put God as the center of our lives and rely on Him especially in times when we feel that our efforts in serving our loved ones are not appreciated.

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi