The foot washing by the Pope is one of the traditional rites of the Catholic Church. Church on a Maundy Thursday. Francis continued this tradition by washing the feet of young people in a detention center in Rome. What is the Pope trying to say with that? Humility?
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The secular media just says something
Pope Francis continues the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church by washing other people’s feet on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. The pontiff did the same last Maundy Thursday in a juvenile detention center in Rome. There he washed and kissed the feet of 12 inmates, such as ZDF. The editors also want to know the explanation for this traditional ritual. “Traditionally, the pope and priests wash the feet of other believers on this day – this is considered a sign of humility,” said ZDF (Public TV station Germany).
How does the Catholic Church?
Since the editors of the public as well as private radio stations cannot exactly be considered to be solid in the Bible, it is interesting how the Roman Catholic circles justify the Pope’s washing of feet. That’s what it says in the Catholic internet portal (Germany): “The gesture of washing feet shows people how they should be. That we have to help each other, one to the other.”
What does the Vatican itself say about this?
On this point, the former Pope Benedict XI. something had to say. In his sermon on Maundy Thursday, March 20, 2008, he said: “The gospel of the washing of feet invites us to do this, that we allow ourselves to be washed again and again by this pure water, made fit for the table for God and for our fellow human beings.”
Benedict understood the washing of the feet in two aspects: “The washing that Jesus gives to his disciples is initially simply his deed – a gift of purity, of the divine ability that he gives them. But the gift then becomes an example, an assignment, to do the same thing for one another.” The Fathers designated this duality of aspects of the washing of the feet by the words sacramentum and exemplum.”
So the pope is not referring to the gospel, but to what the “church fathers” once said. So here the purely traditional aspect counts.
More oddities
Then Benedict preached the following: “When the Lord told Peter that he could have no part in him without the washing of his feet, Peter ardently demanded that his head and hands also be washed. Then comes the mysterious word of Jesus: ‘Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.’ (John 13:10). Jesus alludes to a bath that the disciples had already taken; all that is now required for table fellowship is washing the feet. But of course there is a deeper meaning behind it. What is meant? We don’t know for sure. In any case, let us note that the washing of the feet, for the purpose of the whole chapter, does not mean any particular sacrament, but the sacramentum of Christ as a whole – his ministry of salvation, his descent to the cross, his love to the end, which purifies us and makes us godly might.“
There is another aspect in these statements that cannot be found in the Bible and only the teachings of the Catholic Church. Church represents, so points in the completely wrong direction. Jesus Christ’s love is in fact incomprehensibly inexhaustible for us, but what cleanses us from our sins is his shed blood! That is from the cath. Church repeatedly concealed or denied.
Colossians 1:13-14 says it clearly: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:“
What is actually in the gospel?
The following is found in John 13:8-10: “Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.”
Jesus Christ explained what foot washing is all about in John 13:12-15: “So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.”
Jesus Christ hereby confirms that he is our Lord and Master. He wanted to be an example for us to do it exactly as He did it. The washing of feet is mutual cleansing, i.e. the forgiveness of mutual transgressions (not sins! Only God can forgive sins).
What does the Pope actually symbolize?
With the washing of feet, as Jesus Christ did, the pontiff poses as nothing more than “God’s representative” on earth. According to Pope Leo XIII. even as a god on earth.
“But since We take the place of Almighty God on this earth“, so Pope Leo XIII. in “Praeclara Gratulationis Puplicae”, 1894.
Not humility, but pride
The pope as the “vicarius christi” and also as “vicarius filii dei”. This self-image is one of the foundations of the successor organization to the “Roman Empire”. The Pope’s foot washing is anything but a sign of humility, but of indescribable pride. The Pope is signaling that he is above the washed, that he is “Lord and Master”. This is all the more clear when the pontifex’s wash the feet of e.g. Buddhists and Muslims.
Pope Francis the world’s most respected “leader”
“Pope Francis is the world’s most respected international leader with a global approval rating of 56%”, so in ANS. The pope has the greatest reputation as a “world leader” in Croatia with 83%, in Colombia with 80%, in the Philippines with 80%, in Armenia with 79% and in Italy with 76% approval. This is definitely still expandable and certainly also aimed at. It will also happen that Rome will take over the leadership of the world. The Bible clearly foretells this.
Bible verses from King James Version
