Did You Get The Call!

This week I received an invitation from the Sisters of the Good Shepherd to participate in an international committee on community life.  The Sisters have made it a priority to explore how they might renew their way of living community that will be a deeper expression of their life giving mission and consistent with the nature of the covenant relationship between God and all of creation…his people.  This is a humbling proposition to consider.   They said that they want the work of this committee to be a reflection of St. John’s Gospel Chapter 13.  So in my consideration of this invitation I went to the Gospels and  found the story of the Last Supper where Jesus is said to have washed the feet of his disciples.  That was not what I was expecting!  I kinda thought the reading might be about a prayerful relationship with God or something about being faithful to the Word of God.  But instead the reading showed how Jesus, the Master, became the servant to his disciples by washing their feet, how he exhorted them to be a servant to others and to love one another in a manner that emulated his love for them,  He said,  “you must love one another as I have loved you.”    All of this was in the metaphorical context of, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

There is a lot to reflect on here, but my immediate thoughts turned to a song recently written by a cherished friend who is no longer with us except through his memory and music.  Bob Carty wrote the following lyrics “You Washed Our Feet” on his Desert Eyes album.  Making this old story alive in today’s world is about the challenge which the sisters are embracing with great courage.  Now I am excited about being a part of this journey.  I will share these lyrics so that perhaps we might reflect on them together and prepare to look at community life in new ways:

YOU WASHED OUR FEET

It was a table long ago. 
You got up, put down your robe
A towel on your waist you tied, 
a water basin at your side
You knelt to those who follow you, 
Took off their dusty shoes
You touched our skin, our sin. 
You washed our feet.

You clean the flesh I cannot feel. 
You tend the wounds that never heal
You push my chair when legs can’t walk. 
You are my voice when I can’t talk.

You carried me down flights of stairs, 
when all the world was in despair
When buildings crumbled at our feet, 
and dust and rubble in the street.
You washed our feet

If I have washed you, so you, the other
If I have knelt before you, so you, one another

You stand alone at the barricade, 
in lingering tear gas and pepper spray
You offer roses to police. 
The crowd cries war, you whisper peace
You washed our feet

You spoke the truth in Salvador.
You spoke of God to the dogs of war
You looked into their lying eyes. 
You lift the host before you die
You washed our feet

Bob so beautifully pictured love of neighbour in service to vulnerable persons, the tragedy of 911, the civil unrest in many cities and the struggle for Justice for the poor of El Salvador by Oscar Romero. Is this how we might wash one another’s feet, how we really kneel before them?   Perhaps this is the heart’s desire of our courageous sisters around the world working in many countries where social unrest, religious persecution, extreme poverty and neglect and the denial of the rights of women and children is rampant.  How do we all unite as one people of Faith to bring the servant message of our Creator to one another everyday of our lives.  Is this the basis of our call?

What does this say to you?  What new eyes do we need to put on to see one another through a different, life-giving lens?   In what way is the essential spirit of community expressed where you work?  Is your team a microcosm of community?  Are your clients the people whose feet you wash?  Are we meant to model love for others through relationships founded on real compassion and dignity?  How can we nurture this call in one another in our daily lives both at work and home?