GROSS!
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Footwashing is GROSS!
I’ve never liked feet. Feet are just…nasty. Now, I can handle feet in socks and shoes because I don’t have to look at them, but anything with an open toe is over the top. And, no, I don’t have a single, specific reason why feet freak me out. I just know that feet—whether they’re clad in flip-flops, $100 sandals, or jellies à la 1988—are dirty, dusty, and just plain yuck.
Now, you may have noticed an obvious problem with my being grossed out by feet and worshipping in a liturgical tradition. You are, of course, wondering how I feel about Holy Thursday, with its infamous pedilavium? This ritual demands bare feet: touching bare feet, looking at bare feet, and points blazing hot lights on the actions of Jesus, who apparently did not find bare feet disgusting, but loved this dusty, sweaty, and most unattractive body part....
4 comments:
This pedilavium business is once again the product of Bugnini's footprint in the 1950's stinky "reforms" of Holy Week and carried over into the Novus Ordo (pardon the puns). Some FSSP churches are very fortunate this year to have permission to do the pre-1955 Holy Week liturgy, the real thing, not the Bugnini/Gelineau contrived stuff. The pre-1955 pedilavium is not connected to the Mass, but may optionally done following vespers in cathedral churches and monasteries.
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!”
In the Eastern Church (Byzantine), this ritual resides at the cathedral being performed by the bishop for the benefit of his select clergy (or, by an Abbot for his select monastics). Perhaps the same would better serve its reenactment in the Latin Church.
Well, the apostles probably wore sandals/open-toe shoes...but even given that, I don't think flip-flops are appropriate in church, especially with their sound!!! But I guess at churches along the beach, you get used to that sound!
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