“You will never wash my feet”

THAT was the spontaneous response of Peter when Christ started to wash the feet of his apostles during the Last Supper. He could not believe that the master would lower himself as to wash the feet of his followers. But Christ insisted, and later told the apostles:

“Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” (Jn 13,12-15)

We have to realize then that there’s no other way to imitate Christ and to effectively achieve sanctity and actively participate in his continuing work of redemption. We have to learn to lower ourselves to be able to serve.

All throughout the economy of salvation, this business of lowering oneself is consistently highlighted. First, God created us when he gains nothing from us. When we sinned, God was ready to forgive us and to undertake a very complicated plan to save us.

We have to be wary of our tendency to get self-absorbed, the very opposite of what we are supposed to be—to think always of the others and to serve them unstintingly.

That tendency is actually the stupidest thing we can get enmeshed in. But it’s kind of automatic in us to get self-absorbed. We have to be more aware of this disturbing reality and do something about it non-stop.

Obviously, we also need to think of ourselves. Our problem is that the distinction between what is proper and improper in this act is often lost to many of us.

An array of factors can account for this. There are wrong attitudes and dispositions. There are also hostile or at least uncooperative environments that precisely coddle self-absorption.

Many people are not thinking properly, let alone, praying. Rather, they allow themselves to be driven by their often-blind feelings and emotions. As a result, they find it harder to go beyond their merely personal interests.

To be able to serve others, we need to lower ourselves. St. Paul has this relevant point to say:

“Do nothing out of contentiousness or out of vainglory, but in humility let each one regard the others as his superiors, each one looking not to his own interests but to those of others.” (Phil 2,3-4)

We have to learn to look at others as better than us. But how jarring this idea is to most people nowadays! Everyone wants to be better, if not the best of all. If he happens to acknowledge others to be better, it is often out of envy. Thus, the thinking-of-others crashes into thinking-of-oneself.

We have to do everything to acquire, develop and enrich this attitude of wanting to serve and not to be served, inspiring and inculcating it in others as much as we can, for it is what is truly proper of us all.

We can make use of our daily events to cultivate this attitude. For example, as soon as we wake up from sleep in the morning, perhaps the first thing we have to do is address ourselves to God and say “Serviam” (I serve). It’s the most logical thing to do, given who God is and who we are in relation to him.