It is really a shame that the washing of the feet from John’s Gospel did not become a sacrament in the church. This act epitomizes what Jesus then and the Risen Christ now is all about. Christianity and indeed all religion should be about service. It should be about alleviating human misery. The Eucharist we eat and during this day demands that we bring the unction of healing to a suffering world. The Good Friday Ecumenical Walk in Melbourne, Florida will do just this. We will find the Risen Christ in the veterans, the homeless, the hungry, the immigrants, and those who serve as government officials. Our walk will take us to the fringes where people struggle daily just to survive. We hope our visit, our singing, and our praying will be a ray of hope amid the darkness of suffering and poverty.

I sense that the Holy Spirit is alive and well and is bringing a new focus to catholic Christianity which in reality affects all Christianity. Pope benedict XVI canonized the trouble making mystic Hildegard of Bingen and Matt Fox wonders whether he really understood what Hildegard was all about. I am beginning to wonder whether the Cardinals knew what Francis I would be all about.

I am going to stop writing and simply insert Francis I’s Holy Thursday homily. He is speaking to priests but, then again, we all share in the priesthood of Christ. His homily will help us grow in our experience of the Risen Christ (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130328_messa-crismale_en.html)