"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them." – Kahlil Gibran
Today is International Nurses Day so let me begin by thanking the multitude of former students who are serving as nurses throughout China and to nurses everywhere for the great work they do!
I was up late last night for some Zoom meetings! The meetings went into the early morning. I was still able to get up early enough this morning, for my morning walk. I got the day started with my morning walk, morning prayers, mass and then breakfast.
We got a late night notice that there would be one more round of nucleic acid swab testing this morning. Peter and I went down for the test right after mass which was a good move as we were finished by 6:30 a.m.
We are now free to come and go from our residential complex whenever we want. A very good feeling!!
It was good to get out this afternoon. A chance to enjoy the kite flying in the park......
..... and I also got a chance to play with Peter. We missed each other the past few months.
I was OK’d earlier this week to do a few more retreats this summer and after a meeting this afternoon it looks like I will be doing a few more. I also got permission to travel to Guizhou later this month for some work with Hansen Disease patients and to check on a building project there that I have raised the funds for.
Wang Wei has been volunteering for the past 60 some days to help with the Covid-19 outbreak in Jilin City. She has been helping to do the daily testing in many different communities. Today was her last day (hopefully) and it is only appropriate that we give her a little space on today's blog. The first picture is the free Wang Wei and the other two pictures are Wang Wei in service for the past 60 some days representing the Maryknoll China Teachers Program.
My Tigers are hurting and I don't think all the nurses in the world can cure what they are hurting from. They lost another game to Oakland 9-0 and they now have the second worst record in MLB. Only the Cincinnati Reds have worse record than Detroit.
Today’s Gospel and some comments:
Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfil the scripture, ‘The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I tell you this now, before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he. Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.” John 13:16-20
We now have reached a turning-point in John's gospel. Jesus’ public ministry is finished, and he is entering the phase of his passion and death. A scholar wrote, "In the first part of the gospel, which here closes, Jesus lives in complete obedience to the Father; in the second part he will die in the same obedience."
We are at the Last Supper, and he has just washed the disciples’ feet. This reversed the normal practice: it was a courtesy for a disciple to wash a rabbi’s feet. Particularly because of the moment in which it was done, this was a very compelling teaching. Like the Eucharist, it was to be remembered forever. In John’s gospel there is no account of the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. Instead there is the washing of feet. When Jesus sat down again he said, in approximately similar words, “Do this in memory of me.” It is the Eucharist overflowing into practice.
The feet are the lowliest part of the body in a literal sense, and the farthest away from the head. They are willing to go where hands would disdain to go; and when we touch something with our foot we haven't really established any personal contact with it. Yes, the feet are the most disowned part of the body. Yet they are our most fundamental and on-going contact with reality. And they are not the insensitive clods that they may appear to be: they are so highly sensitive that a foot-massage affects the whole body.
“If I do this for you,” he said, “so should you for one another.” The washing of feet stands symbolically for every lowly service we can perform for one another. The persons at the receiving end of such services can sometimes seem insensitive and ungrateful... but, as with feet, there can be sensitivity where we least expect it.