foot washing beyond my tradition...

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday with Holy Week following fast on its heels. Where did the winter go? When we began Lent it was cold, dark, and snowy in these parts but now the sun is out and mud season has arrived. In our wetlands the "peepers" are going at it with abandon, I've seen signs of new life on the tips of some trees, and a few friends have posted pictures of wee flowers peeking out through the soil. I haven't seen our daffodils yet but it's just a matter of time.

In a few hours I'll be back with our beginning ukulele class. Earlier today I visited via Zoom with the house leaders and assistants at L'Arche Ottawa to share with them a brief overview of what to expect at Holy Thursday's foot washing ritual. Two truths popped up for me:

+ First, only a few within this cadre have shared and/or participated in this ritual that is foundational within L'Arche. In the early days of the international L'Arche community, this would have been unheard of; but given the secularization that has become normative throughout so much of the world - and the inclusion of other spiritualities within L'Arche - it is the new standard rather than the exception. This requires both a new sensitivity to the experience and wisdom of our diverse and young crew of international assasitants as well as a willingness for the old school to reframe what's important for us all in this ritual. I have always been - and always will be - one from a Western Christian worldview. Holy Thursday, therefore, carries a profound history for me: it not only initiates the Triduum which closes on Easter Sunday but reconnects me to the anguish of Jesus and the Cross. To know and believe that Jesus once performed this ritual for his followers as a way of embodied prayer - a model for how we are to live as servants for one another - is ripe with multiple layers of importance for me. But not so for those outside my tradition. It was useful and invigorating for me to try to describe the meaning of this sacramental ritual using non-religious language.

+ Second, there is a universal message in the ritual of foot washing that resonates with tradition but moves beyond it, too. There are three, interrelated meanings to this simple ritual: 1) It models and incarnates a solidarity of humility; 2) It evokes both vulnerability and trust; and 3) It teaches us to practice a horizontal leadership rather than one rooted in hierarchy. Each of these spiritual truths are grounded in L'Arche tradition. And each resonate with those who seek to embrace compassion. That's what gives a sacrament symbolic power: it offers shape and form to a deep spiritual truth that is true beyond discrete religious traditions. To kneel before another holding their naked foot in your hands opens us to our shared vulnerability that requires tender respect. There is a unique sensuality to this ritual, too that becomes a shared truth as the foot-washing is passed around a quiet circle of friends. And L'Arche encourages the one whose foot has been washed to then offer a simple blessing to the foot washer. In this, there is no high or low, but an integrated circle of shared vulnerability and love.

We will be doing this ritual - as well as our Stations of the Cross - virtually again given covid protocols. Two years ago, when covid was still new and bewildering, we shared a foot washing ceremony with our grandchildren in Brooklyn. They took it very seriously as they washed one another's feet and then Anna washed the feet of her dolls while their parents entered the rite, too. Last year, we created a power point at L'Arche Ottawa with quiet music. This year, we'll have trained leaders in each home in addition to a shared opening and closing via Zoom. My prayer for those who have never experienced this sacrament sounds like this poem from Carrie Newcomer:

I'm learning to sit with not knowing.

Even when my restless miind begins jumping

From a worried

What next?

To a frightened

What if?

To a hard edged and impatient,

Why aren't you already there?

I'm learning to sit and listen

to pat myself on the knee,

Lay my hand on mly heart,

Take a deep breath,

And laugh at myself.

To befriend my mistakes,

Especially the ones

That show me how

O most need to change.

I'm learning to sit with whatever comes

(Even though I'm a planner.)

Because so much of this life

Can't be measured or predicted.

Because wonder and suffering visit

When we least expect

And rarely in equal measure.

I'm learning to sit with

What I might never know

Might never learn,

Might never heal.

I'm learning to sit with

What might waltz in and surprise me,

Might crash into my days

With unspeakable sorrow

Or unctaintable delight.

I'm learning to sit with not knowing. 

For me, it is on to Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week: may its deeper wisdom and love ring true beyond the confines of my small world.

credits:
1) https://www.pinterest.it/pin/416090453055957445/
2) http://jyotiartashram.blogspot.com/2007/10/jesus-washing-feet-of-peter.html