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| Our Humble God by Howard Banks |
On Holy Thursday night at the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, we hear in the gospel how Jesus washed the feet of his friends and commanded them to do likewise:
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...
Pause for Prayer on Holy Thursday
Jesus, you're waiting to wash my feet
at the end of a long day’s work
at home, at the office,
at the plant or on the road...
And you're waiting to wash my feet
if they haven’t moved much all
day long
because they throb with the pain of arthritis...
or because the sticks I call my legs
just don’t move as well
as they used to...
Jesus, you're waiting to wash my feet
no matter how bad they smell or how ugly they are,
regardless of aging toenails or corns or bunions.
Jesus, you're waiting to wash my feet
because they’re my feet - and you love them...
You wait because you love me
- from the tip of my toes to the top of my head...
Jesus, you're waiting to wash away
whatever has stained my heart
You wait to wash away my sins, especially the ones
that embarrass and shame me....
Jesus, you're waiting to wash away
the fears and anxieties I carry
by the bushel and backpack
'til I'm bent over with worry’s weight
hunching and burdening my shoulders...
Jesus, you're waiting to wash away
the bad dreams that haunt my sleep
and the desires that derail me
as I try to lead a good life...
Jesus, you're waiting to wash away
the prejudice that keeps me
from loving and washing the feet
of others who aren’t just
like me...
Jesus, you're waiting to wash my hands clean
of the selfishness and greed
that lead me to treat others
unfairly,
unjustly, dishonestly...
Jesus, you're waiting to wash my hands
of their violence,
of any harm
they’ve threatened,
of any damage they've done...
Jesus, you're waiting to wash away
whatever comes between you and me,
whatever comes between me and my neighbor,
whatever comes between me
and becoming the person you call me to be...
Jesus, you're waiting to wash my feet
because they’re my feet - and you love them
and because you love me
even, and especially,
when I don't love myself...
And as you wash my feet, Lord,
help me learn to wash the feet
of all I meet and know...
Jesus waits to wash my feet
because he loves me
from the tip of my toes
to the top of my head...
Amen.
Today's Pause for Prayer offers three versions of Where Charity and Love Prevail, a hymn sung every year at the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper.
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Where charity and love prevail,
there God is ever found;
Brought here together by Christ’s love,
by love are we thus bound.
With grateful joy and holy fear
His charity we learn;
Let us with heart and mind and soul
now love him in return.
Forgive we now each other’s faults
as we our faults confess;
And let us love each other well
in Christian holiness.
Let strife among us be unknown,
let all contention cease;
Be his the glory that we seek,
be ours his holy peace.
Let us recall that in our midst
dwells God’s begotten Son;
As members of his body joined,
we are in Christ made one.
No race or creed can love exclude,
if honored be God’s name;
Our family embraces all
whose Father is the same.
A remarkable choral setting with the composer at the keyboard:
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And another musical setting, in Latin, from Taize:
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Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est
(Where there are charity and love, there is God)
(Where there are charity and love, there is God)
Ubi caritas, Deus ibi est.
(Where there is love, there is God)
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