Muslims & Convicts & Girls’ Toes, Oh My!

Last updated on: May 2, 2016 at 10:58 am by Joanne McPortland

Muslims & Convicts & Girls’ Toes, Oh My! 2016-05-02T10:58:50-06:00 Joanne McPortland

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Stop it. Stop it right this minute.

Stop looking at the coverage of Pope Francis’s visit to the Casal del Marmo juvenile detention facility to celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and then going into full Three Stooges Slapfest Mode on social media about it.

Stop charging the Holy Father with heresy for deviating from a liturgical instruction (reserving the washing of feet on Holy Thursday to males) that can technically only be dispensed with by Rome. The Holy Father IS Rome. No heresy for you.

And stop waiting to see traditionalists’ heads explode over this “footwashing equality” (why isn’t there a Facebook profile graphic yet?), indulging in that vicious dark joy, that arcane pleasure that Pope Francis warned us about only yesterday.

You’re making me sick, all of you. The rite is not a right or a privilege or a sacred cow, it’s a sign of our obedience to the Mandatum, Christ’s command to “love one another as I have loved you,” celebrated during the Holy Thursday Mass devoted to the institution of Eucharist, “this great sacrament of unity.”

The Holy Father is not caving to feminists or going soft on Islam or yanking the Church into the twenty-first century or telling traditional Catholics what they can do with their liturgical instructions. He is following the example of Jesus’ servant leadership to the letter, doing as we also should do.

If you don’t know that, it’s because the Father of Lies, who lives for merde like this in a Week like this, is happyhappyjoyjoy to lead you into heresy and watch your head explode. For Christ’s sake, stop letting him win.

There’s still time, in the US anyway, to get yourself to the Missa in Coena Domini in your parish or cathedral. If the Mandatum is celebrated, don’t waste a single minute—whether in glee or in horror—checking out the genders, vocations, socioeconomic status, or criminal records of the feet being washed. Look to the One on the cross, and repeat after Peter:

“Master, not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”

Then, united ubi caritas et amor, repeat after Peter’s Vicar, and bring the caress of Christ to someone who needs it most. Leave Satan to his foot fetishing, and have a Blessed Triduum!

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