God's infinite love purifies, pope says at Holy Thursday Mass

Published: 2006-04-13

ROME (CNS) -- The infinite love of God purifies men and women and makes them worthy to feast at the banquet of the Eucharist, Pope Benedict XVI said, celebrating the Mass of the Lord's Supper. Jesus "kneels before us and performs the action of a slave, washing our dirty feet so that we can be admitted to the table of God," the pope said during his April 13 homily at Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran. During the Holy Thursday Mass, Pope Benedict washed the feet of 12 laymen who were chosen to represent the lay movements and communities active in the Diocese of Rome. One by one, the pope poured water from a golden pitcher onto the foot of each man, both young and old, and then used a white towel to scrub each foot dry. In choosing laypeople, Pope Benedict reversed a 20-year Vatican tradition of washing the feet of priests during the Holy Thursday evening Mass.

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