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 (John 13:12b-14)
In his book, The Kingdom, a strange blend of memoir, history, and fiction, Emmanuel Carrère recalls an experience he had during a L'Arche retreat he went on. During the retreat, the participants washed each others' feet. He participated in this retreat after he had ceased being a fervent and practicing Catholic. He goes on to contrast Saint John's account of Jesus washing his disciples feet with the Synoptic (i.e., Matthew, Mark, and Luke) accounts of the Last Supper, at the center of which is Jesus blessing bread and wine.
He recalls thinking to himself during the rite “that things could have happened differently: that the central sacrament of Christianity could be foot washing and not Communion.” He continues pondering this by noting that what those who participate in L’Arche retreats do for each other on occasion “could be what Christians do every day at Mass, and it wouldn’t be any more absurd – less, so in fact" (The Kingdom: A Novel, trans. John Lambert, pg 381).
This is how our Christian High Holy Days begin.
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