“When we serve Him faithfully, it is our work that rouses us to prayer. The abundance of His gifts, dismay over our ingratitude and the crying needs of our neighbors — all this is brought home to us in our ministry and it draws us into prayer.” – Holy Cross Constitutions, #26
An annual Holy Week tradition at Andre House of Hospitality is the washing of feet. Not the sanitized ceremony we celebrate in the liturgy of Holy Thursday, when predestined parishioners pre-clean their feet for Father to “wash” during Mass. Rather, inspired and educated by that annual liturgical rite, we reenact it in our parking lot with our homeless guests – many of whom struggle with poor footwear, inadequate hygiene, and little access to health care. Like those of the beggar named Lazarus, some of the feet that we wash smell and are covered in sores.
So, in the afternoon of Holy Thursday we prepare tubs of warm soapy water, grab our latex gloves and clean washcloths and get to work. We also provide first-aid ointments, lotion and a new pair of socks to each person. This year, I was impressed by one guest who insisted on also being allowed to help wash the feet of others.
After the event, I returned to St. John Vianney Parish to concelebrate the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, where our pastor, Fr. David Halm, CSC, went out into the pews to wash feet – much to the delight of the children, who were encouraged to move around to see what was happening. The beauty of that moment – the powerful music, the families, the warm and loving community – it touched my heart almost to the point of tears. But suddenly I was cut with contrasting images from earlier that day – the filthy and misshapen feet I washed at Andre House, the cruel isolation and anonymity of so many who live on the streets, and the pain of feeling unloved and abandoned… And I wept – in sadness for the suffering of the afflicted, but also in joy for the love and mercy that the Lord Jesus pours out upon us. And finally in gratitude for the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, who bridges that gap, who seeks out the lost, heals the sick, and who does so through the sacraments and through you and me, the Church – the Body of Christ!
The Holy Eucharist is a school of charity where we learn how to love as Christ loved us. We receive divine strength to offer ourselves with Christ. The liturgy we celebrate inspires, elevates and enlightens our everyday acts of love. At Andre House, for example, we begin each day with Holy Mass, the Lord’s Supper. And we end each day by serving supper to 600 or more hungry guests. We imitate what we receive. We are fed, and then we go feed. We live the liturgy and enact the Eucharist in our daily work as faithfully as we hope to offer it on the altar of our chapel.
“Do you know what I have done to you?” Jesus asked the disciples after washing their feet. “I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you… If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”
Fr. Brian Kennedy, C.S.C.
Published 17 September 2024
