Bending down to wash and anoint someone’s feet. What story do our feet tell about us? How we live? How do we love? How do we touch the earth?
Indeed, what amazing gifts might must be ours if we could kneel and honor the humanity in another? I imagine we might just start to see the holy there as well. — Janet Hunt
My Grandmother Washes Her Feet
in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears (excerpt) — Mohja Kahf My grandmother puts her feet in the sink of the bathroom at Sears to wash them in the ritual washing for prayer, wudu, because she has to pray in the store or miss the mandatory prayer time for Muslims She does it with great poise, balancing herself with one plump matronly arm against the automated hot-air hand dryer, after having removed her support knee-highs and laid them aside, folded in thirds, and given me her purse and her packages to hold so she can accomplish this august ritual and given me her purse and her packages to hold
so she can accomplish this august ritual
and get back to the ritual of shopping for housewares
Respectable Sears matrons shake their heads and frown
as they notice what my grandmother is doing,
an affront to American porcelain,
a contamination of American Standards
by something foreign and unhygienic
requiring civic action and possible use of disinfectant spray
They fluster about and flutter their hands and I can see
a clash of civilizations brewing in the Sears bathroom …
Standing between the door and the mirror, I can see
at multiple angles, my grandmother and the other shoppers,
all of them decent and goodhearted women, diligent
in cleanliness, grooming, and decorum …
On Feet: Walking and Washing
I would say that there exist a thousand unbreakable links between each
of us and everything else, and that our dignity and our chances are one.
The farthest star and the mud at our feet are a family; and there is no
decency or sense in honoring one thing, or a few things, and then
closing the list. The pine tree, the leopard, the Platte River, and
ourselves – we are at risk together, or we are on our way to a
sustainable world together. We are each other’s destiny. — Mary Oliver
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair … ― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. — Abraham Lincoln
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the
feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and
want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what
love looks like. — Saint Augustine
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer
yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know
what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go. — Dr. Seuss
When food comes you open your mouth; when sleep comes you close your
eyes. As you wash your face you find your nose, when you take off your
shoes you feel your feet. At that time, if you miss what’s being said,
take a torch and make a special search deep in the night. How can you
attain union? — Joshu
The greatest form of praise is the sound of consecrated feet seeking out the lost and helpless. — Billy Graham
Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of
what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be
curious. — Stephen Hawking
This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to
fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step
without feet. — Rumi
… Walking meditation is really to enjoy the walking — walking not in
order to arrive, just for walking. The purpose is to be in the present
moment and enjoy each step you make. Therefore you have to shake off all
worries and anxieties, not thinking of the future, not thinking of the
past, just enjoying the present moment. … We walk all the time, but
usually it is more like running. Our hurried steps print anxiety and
sorrow on the Earth. If we can take one step in peace, we can take two,
three, four, and then five steps for the peace and happiness of
humankind. … If we can transform our walking path into a field for
meditation, our feet will take every step in full awareness. Our
breathing will be in harmony with our steps, and our mind will naturally
be at ease. Every step we take will reinforce our peace and joy and
cause a stream of calm energy to flow through us. — Thich Nhat Hanh
From our feet, we can tell how the rest of our body is doing. The way we
follow the Lord reveals how our heart is faring. The wounds on our
feet, our sprains and our weariness, are signs of how we have followed
Him, of the paths we have taken in seeking the lost sheep and in leading
the flock to green pastures and still waters. The Lord washes us and
cleanses us of all the dirt our feet have accumulated in following Him.
This is something holy. Do not let your feet remain dirty. Like battle
wounds, the Lord kisses them and washes away the grime of our labors. — Pope Francis
Extravagant Love: Washing and Anointing
… we don’t separate a self from its environment, and cleaning expresses
our respect for and sense of wholeness with the world that surrounds us.
— Shoukei Matsumoto
A monk asked Joshu, “I have just entered the monastery: please give me
some guidance.” Joshu said, “Have you had breakfast yet?”
The monk said, “Yes I have eaten.” Joshu continues, “Then go wash your bowl.”
— Joshu, Buddhist Koan
In this text, Mary continues the theme of extravagance in the form of costly gestures involving expensive ointment. … Now is no time for frugality. This extravagance on earth is participating with the work of heaven. — Lynn Miller
Do you see this person that you are judging? Do you see her humanity, her profound child of God-ness, her generosity, her capacity for compassion? — Joy Perkett
Sounds
like a horrible idea to me, trying to get closer to God. Half the
time, I wish God would leave me alone. Getting closer to God might mean
getting told to love someone I don’t even like, or give away even more
of my money.It might mean letting some idea or dream that is dear to me
get ripped away. — Nadia Bolz-Weber
So Mary might have given Jesus this stunning gift of extravagance as a
thank-you or as a prophetic witness as to what would soon be. Perhaps
her motivation was a mixture of both. But what if another reason Mary
poured it all out that day was simply because she knew deep down that
her gift would make a holy difference to Jesus. Her gift, her generous
offering, could remind him who he was and how much he was loved. — Shannon J. Kershner
What
amazing and wonderful thing can she do, what can she say not with words
but with her whole self: Mary takes the best she has to give and in an
hour of need, as death looms over this little band of disciples, Mary
takes the best and breaks it open over the feet of Jesus, the one she
loves, the one she is about to lose…even if only for awhile…but we
suspect she does not know that, yet. — Kathryn Matthews
Then again, we might ask whom God might work through next. And if you
ask that question, then invite your people to look at those sitting near
them. For God may be about to use each of them in a surprising way to
care for their neighbor, to offer a listening ear, to do their work with
faithfulness and courage, to stand up for those who are less fortunate,
to resist peer pressure at school and offer an alternative to those
watching. Who knows? What we do know is that God is regularly about the
business of surprising us with where God shows up, whom God uses, and
what God accomplishes. — David Lose
Mary’s extravagant love for Jesus makes it possible for Jesus to show
extravagant love in what follows — washing the feet of his disciples,
handing himself over to be arrested in the garden, carrying his own
cross, dying, rising, and ascending. Mary loves Jesus into his future as
the fulfillment of, “for God so loved the world.” — Karoline Lewis
Jesus’ commandment to love one another is not a commandment to feel
affection, but a commandment to act in a loving way, even when we would
rather do otherwise. — Elisabeth Johnson
Remembering her may help them leave him alone while he finishes delivering his message. At home in Bethany, the storm clouds are still piling up against the door when Mary gives the forecast: it will be bad, very bad, but that’s no reason for Jesus’ friends to lock their hearts and head to the cellar. Whatever they need, there will be enough to go around. Whatever they spend, there will be plenty left over. There is no reason to fear running out–of nard or of life either one–for where God is concerned, there is always more than we can ask or imagine–gifts from our lavish, lavish Lord. — Barbara Brown Taylor