Vatican City, Apr 12, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Among thousands of pilgrims gathered on Holy Thursday in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Pope Benedict XVI presided over the Mass of the Last Supper, in which he made a moving call to contemplate the love of God, a love that knows no bounds.
After the reading of the Gospel of the Last Supper, and performing the washing of the feet of twelve men, the Pope said that “God loves his creature, man; He loves it also when it falls and doesn’t abandon it. He loves it until the end.”
In the gesture of “washing the feet” we see the “God’s holiness, which is not only an incandescent power before which we must pull back terrified, but is also the power of love and because of this is a purifying and healing power. God descends becoming slave; he washes our feet so that we can be at the table,” the Pope said.
Moreover, the Bishop of Rome related the washing of the feet with the redemption brought by Christ, “The bath in which we cleanse ourselves is his love readied to face death. Only love has this purifying strength that wipes away filth end elevates us to God’s heights. The bath that purifies us is He himself who gives Himself totally to us, as far as the depth of His suffering and death. He is continually this love that cleanses.”