Stinkin Like Low Tide

You have to follow my thinking process, here.  I was reading Sunday's Gospel Luke 7: 36-50.  This reading tells the story of the woman washing Jesus' feet, drying them with her hair, and perfuming them.  This washing of the feet reminded me of a few weeks ago.  Hubby and I were at the beach.  I went for a walk.  It was low tide, and I haven't walked and explored the beach, since last year.

You know how it is.  I poked in ebb pools, lifted periwinkles, watched sea anemones, slushed, splashed, and smushed, in the low tide mud.

I had a ball!

I had picked up so many interesting shells and rocks that my pants were hanging off my hips.

When I arrived back to the car, hubby was none too pleased.  I smelled like low tide.  "Wash your feet off."  He said.

So, I walked back down to the water and let a few waves wash my feet off.  But going back to the car, they got all dirty again.

Hubby was not amused.  He told me to sit down with my feet out of the car, and he'd wash my feet.

I thought he was fooling.

He wasn't.  He did.

It reminded me of Pope Francis I washing the feet of prisoners.  I just had to take a picture.  (Dick emulating Pope Francis I).

Washing Feet

Zenit today was giving instructions for priests that don't have the physical ability to perform this liturgical service. This brought to mind, John 12, where Mary washed the feet of Jesus.  It always struck me odd that Mary used her hair to dry His feet.  She was organized enough to make plans to get into this dinner, approach the men somehow, buy certain oil, wash Jesus' feet, etc., but she forgot a towel!

Doesn't that seem bizarre to you?

Now there's plenty of times when you use a rest room and find out after you've washed your hands, that there are no towels.  Have you ever used your hair to dry your hands?  No, you air dry them, or use your clothes.  Using your hair isn't even a consideration.

I think it must be a symbolic gesture, otherwise it's just not done.  But what it symbolizes, I don't know.