Hope you are enjoying a great Easter week! I successfully pulled off co-hosting Easter dinner with my dad. We had 19 people for dinner. For those of you keeping track, I’ve now hosted Thanksgiving dinner and Easter dinner in less than a year. Who knew I was such a domestic diva! 😉
I even made Mom’s famous lamb cake even though her cake mold didn’t come with any instructions! See my Facebook page for video.
In case you missed it, I was honored to write the Gospel reflection for Holy Thursday over at the CatholicMom.com website. Here’s what I wrote:
A number of years ago, I taught at a Catholic school where I also ran the student council. This school had a beautiful tradition for Holy Thursday. Every year, the student council members would “play the role” of the twelve disciples and have their feet washed. However, instead of the priest or deacon washing all twelve sets of feet, he would wash only the feet of the student council president. Then the president would turn and wash the feet of the vice-president, and so on down the line until each student council member had washed the feet of the next officer or homeroom representative.
Every year, I got the same reaction from the kids: “Huh? We have to do what? I don’t want anyone touching my feet!” I would smile at them and tell them they were doing this to show that they were not just student leaders, but actually student servants meant to be of service to their classmates. But the truth is, I’m not sure which freaked them out more: washing someone else’s feet or having someone else wash their feet.
Let’s be frank, it can be rather humbling to have someone touch your dirty, smelly, and/or funny-shaped feet. We’re an independent kind of society. If our feet need to be cleaned, we can do it ourselves, thank you very much. But that’s not what Jesus is calling us to do. He’s calling us to be humble servants and to let ourselves be washed clean by the good news He has to offer. We need him to wash our feet as much as the apostles did—and that takes some humility.
