42116 Reflection - Dirty Feet

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/042116.cfm

Acts 13:13-25

John 13:16-20

A few months ago I got one of those fitness bands that automatically measures both your sleep and your activity. The package had no warning label and no one told me what authority my band had been given. Nevertheless, it has determined that I should take ten thousand steps every day. Walkers and runners and hikers probably get ten thousand steps a day. Generally, I've found that, unless I deliberately walk or hike, I will probably get only three thousand or so.

People living at other periods of history or in other places on the earth today probably get, or got, their ten thousand steps or even more every single day of their lives. In Jesus time, walking was the primary method of getting from one place to another. We find Jesus walking all the time in the gospels. In only a couple of instances is he traveling by boat and in only one scene do we find him riding on a donkey. 

People who walk a lot get dirty feet. People who walk a lot in sandals get even dirtier feet. And people who walk a lot in sandals in dry, dusty climates get dirtier feet still. In the months of April, May and into the middle part of June, the people of Palestine are relentlessly affected by the annual hot and sandy, dry and dusty Khamseen winds which have their origin in the Arabian Desert. Consequently, when the people wear or wore sandals they got really dirty feet. That's the reason that foot-washing was a courtesy extended to guests received in one's home during the time of and in the centuries both before and after Jesus. 

Through the years, I have heard many speak on the symbolism inherent in Jesus' action of washing the feet of his disciples. I have also been frequently reminded of his words that followed this washing: "I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you." (John 13:15) What I can't recall is anyone speaking on the symbolism of dirty feet. Of necessity, I took that as a challenge. 

We're always going somewhere; and, as I mentioned earlier, I can get at least three thousand steps in a normal day just walking around the house. (When I was younger, people recorded even more steps because the TV remote hadn't yet been invented.) But, as a general rule, these kinds of steps, the one's traveling familiar territory, don't require much foot-washing --- the pathways have become hard and compressed by the frequent passage of feet. So it is as well with our spiritual lives.

My spiritual journey is guaranteed to be dull if it finds an eternal plateau in this life. It is guaranteed to be listless if it finds permanence and surety in the doctrines I learned in childhood. It is guaranteed to be boring if the God I knew in childhood and the Jesus I met once long ago are the same today in spite of the passing years. 

     If my Spiritual journey means walking from my chair to the bookcase to retrieve my Bible,

     If my Spiritual journey simply takes me from my home to church for Sunday Mass,

     If my spiritual journey involves repetitively walking in my mind to remind myself of Bible stories, or the Apostles creed, or the moral lessons learned in my youth,

     If my Spiritual journey takes me to visit the same Jesus I knew in my childhood, 

Spiritually walking in these and so many other ways may easily get me two, three, or even four thousand steps; but It won't get the ten thousand I need and I certainly won't get my feet dirty. 

If my spiritual journey doesn't, from time to time, take me to strange and exotic places then my feet probably won't get very dirty. If my spiritual journey doesn't occasionally escort me to locales where my notion of God must be reconsidered, then my feet probably won't get dirty. If my spiritual journey doesn't take me into dry, hot and dusty locations where I must be alone with God, then my feet won't get very dirty. 

In this morning's readings we found Paul on a journey. He had been in Pathos; he would later go to Athens, to Perga, to Jerusalem, to Antioch, to Corinth and Thessalonica and Ephesus and Phillipia  and Rome. And, although he would preach the Gospel in every place he went, this was not his spiritual journey. When Paul was a child in Tarsus, a small village in Asia Minor, his parents, his community and his culture loaded his pack with what they thought would serve him well on his journey. It was filled with his Jewish roots, and the belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was packed with his cultural heritage so that he would embrace the tenants and practices of the Pharisees. Above all, his pack overflowed with his dedication, which led to his active persecution of those Jewish heretics called Christians. But these were all preparations for his journey. Ultimately the preparations led him to travel the road to Damascus where the Jesus he had previously known was revealed as a fraud and the Jesus of the passion and death and resurrection was introduced to him. That's when his true spiritual journey began. Paul's spiritual journey would continue throughout the rest of his life; and the journey would require far more than a mere ten thousand steps a day. To some degree, scholars can follow his journey as his intimate relationship with Jesus continued to grow throughout his life and was recorded in his letters to the various churches. 

My own spiritual journey began when I made the mistake of asking God to take charge of giving direction to my life. Little did I know where that request would lead, beginning with the abrupt way in which he presented an unexpected road. After all, I had already determined for myself that I was on the path he desired. Hey! I was only asking for improvements, not a totally new me.

The subsequent journeys.  has been such that the mountains and valleys where I now live could easily stand as representative symbols for my passage. And, as with all journeys, the 'ups' have been difficult, sometimes even painful. And, as with all spiritual journeys, the 'downs' have been essential because God had another peak for me to climb. There have been lots of steps taken along the way, many of which proved false or worthless or worse. (Listening to directions was never my strong point.) And I would also have to admit that I didn't always get in my ten thousand. Still, some parts were peaceful. Some parts were intense. Some were awe-inspiring. Some were even exciting.  Some were pleasant. And some just required persistence. The journey continues today. The peaceful and the intense, the awe-inspiring and the exciting, the pleasant and the persistence still go on. It's never been dull. There's always been more of the Father and his Son and the Spirit to know.

At the beginning I said that I couldn't recall ever hearing anyone talk about the symbolism of the dirty feet. I think I have my answer. Dirty feet symbolize passage on trails, both the false and the true, the dead-end and the long way around. Dirty feet symbolize the relentless endeavor to know God, the anxious pursuit of ultimate love, and, ironically, the occasional standing still, steadfast in dirt and grime and sand, while just letting his love wash over you.