John 13:8
Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.”
There is a sort of wrong-headed humility which fancies that it best to “not trouble God too much”. Peter seems to have suffered from it from time to time, such as in today’s gospel when he thought it beneath Christ’s dignity to take the place of a slave and so tried to refuse his offer to wash feet. But Jesus, who knew where he was from and knew where he was going, had no worries about his dignity. He was in complete possession of it at all times. Peter, however, was burdened with the concerns about dignity that only an insecure man can have. And so, in refusing Christ, he was really refusing the call to wash feet himself. It was precisely this that Christ pointed out, reminding Peter that the place of a disciple was to take his master’s part and do as his master does. Today, let us humbly receive the grace of Christ that we might humbly give it away.
