The Coronavirus pandemic seems to be the pole upon which our world is spinning! Its effects are felt in every facet of life and devastatingly in so many cases – death. Not only are actual lives taken by the disease, but the livelihood of so many people is also being taken. Inasmuch as it seems to follow patterns in certain populations, even these patterns are not cast in stone. Anyone and everyone is susceptible to the disease. And everyone is also subjected to the ravages of the disease as it plays out in education, economy, politics, society, etc.
Not only environmental, health and safety related questions come to the forefront in the pandemic scene, but also the inequalities resulting from class, social and racial structures are also being drawn in sharp relief against the backdrop of the pandemic and its effects. There are many issues that arise that make many uncomfortable if not angry.
When Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet, he said to them:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master
nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.
If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.
In today’s Gospel (JN 13: 16-20), Jesus has just finished washing the disciples’ feet. And, if you recall, Peter had protested to this action initially, but then allowed Jesus to wash his feet when he learned that he would not be able to fully participate in the community if he was not washed. I would imagine all of the disciples felt at least uncomfortable, and in fact probably found it quite repugnant. This person, whom they were following, their master, is washing their feet.
The pioneer spiritual teacher and philosopher, Beatrice Bruteau, considers this foot-washing enacted by Jesus on Holy Thursday as nothing short of a revolution, specifically within the realm of consciousness.[i] In her essay, “The Living One,” she points out that Jesus is establishing a new communion consciousness that dismantles and destroys the lord/servant model – the dominance paradigm of human society. This communion consciousness is an act of living that breaks with the deadness of the past and engages persons who mutually affirm each other, and this mutual affirmation is the shared life of agape love that spontaneously creates the future. This is the Resurrection life that cannot be found in the deadness of the past, but creates the future through the agency of radiant mutually loving persons.[ii]
Bruteau points out that, because we have no taste for the integral reality of the present moment, we don’t know where to look for it, and we have the experience of emptiness. This emptiness is due to the fact that newness does not fall into any category – indeed, this creative novelty dissolves categories.[iii] The Living Moment is always fresh and new! It is clean like feet that have been washed and are now ready to walk on new ground of freedom!
Dare we look at our current situation as a type of foot-washing – potentially a cleaning of our consciousness that can be remarkably New? Could the emptiness we may be feeling in the constant stripping of our lives as they are affected by the pandemic be an invitation into the Easter event – the Resurrection life?! What in our lives is dying or dead? What are the structures of isolation in our lives and in our world? What are we trying to hold on to? What can we let go of? Do we really want to believe that our future is only determined by a reconfiguration of our past? How radical will we allow the Risen Christ to be? Is Christ the Living One and if so, will we participate in this living?[iv]
If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.
Jesus as the Christ, the Living One – is inviting us into full participation of the agape love marked by communion consciousness, which does not cling to the categories of past, but flows in creative waters that affirm all of us as what Bruteau calls vital lovers, who constantly create new life.[v] As Jesus points out, there is a difference between understanding this and then actually doing it. It will require a shift in consciousness, a washing that may wash away what feels to be the ground that we walk upon.
Shifts in consciousness, even if they are realized as something of value, require a tremendous amount of courage and fortitude. The pay-off could be that, if we honestly do the difficult work within the emptiness that we may feel in this washing, we can let the paradigm of domination die, and emerge in mutual newness as the Living One! It is already arising!
…when it happens you may believe that I AM
[i] Beatrice Bruteau, THE GRAND OPTION (University of Notre Dame: 2001), 128.
[ii] Ibid., 137-140.
[iii] Ibid., 135.
[iv] Ibid, 128-129. When Bruteau speaks of the Living One, she is speaking of an archetype of the Trinity, wherein the reality of a person is a process of what she calls interpersonhood. What this signifies is that the mutually affirming in agape love literally creates the person since the love is directed not at the person’s past (descriptions, personality, history), but directed rather to where that person is living NOW, at the point where that person is in the act of creating the next moment of life. This is the essence of forgiveness – an act of making the future!
[v] Ibid., 143.