The feet will get dirty and dusty again. Just like eating regular food. Hunger awaits a few short hours later. But as the feet get dusty and smelly again, and as the stomach growls at our brain for more food, what remains and stays consistent is the act of service. An act of humility and love. When our Lord washed the feet of his Apostles that night in the Upper Room, that act of humble service from the Master to his Disciples was, to borrow phrases from the first reading, a memorial feast and a perpetual institution. Long before Jesus showed them how, there were many acts of humble service performed, from one person to another, or one group to another,. The two sets of brothers alone - Peter & Andrew, James & John – they were not fighting each other all the time like some families will. My brothers and I used to fight over a wiffle ball game. These two sets of brothers – all fishermen – obviously helped one another, and their fathers, in ways of love and concern, especially with some profit at stake. This was before Jesus called them from their boats to come follow him. But with Christ, this perpetual institution of humble service to others in seen in a very different light through the action of Jesus washing their feet. The everlasting institution of humble Christian service is now centered in what we celebrate this Holy Thursday; the Body & Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. To receive the Eucharist, to receive Christ Jesus in real terms, and then not be a humble servant; to spouses, to family, friends, strangers whose names we don’t know, is to perform some level of unworthiness in our reception of the Eucharist. What the Lord makes perpetual and a memorial feast is the reception of him tied into being a humble servant. Which is why it all happens on the same night. It sounds ideal on paper, because it is. It’s the perfect relationship in this life, if there is one. It’s a pure imitation of Christ. To live our reception of him as Catholics to perpetually be the sustenance that beckons us to love one another. That goes to the heart of what Jesus is teaching and commanding them in this scene where he wraps a towel around his waist. And, of course, the Eucharist, and the opportunity to even receive the Lord, is perpetually connected to priesthood. To Holy Orders. This is all God’s doing, his work, his plan, his way of loving one another. So, this act of Jesus washing the feet of the Apostles had nothing to do with dusty feet. Jesus refers to Judas in this Gospel as not being clean. He’s not referring to any dust on any part of his body. He’s unclean in betrayal, which is the real filth. The Lord also does not refer to some cultural expectation of the time. Washing the feet of a guest who comes to your home for dinner was expected so they didn’t get the carpet dirty. But our Lord takes this cultural expectation and raises it to a perpetual institution of humble service in our reception of the Eucharist. Washing of the feet symbolizes today our coming forward to receive his Body & Blood, then remembering hours and days later that what we say and do is to remain worthy of that reception. And there’s no better example than Jesus washing their feet on this night, and then saying the next day, “Father, forgive them, they not what they do.” The Eucharist himself, performing the humble service of mercy in his worst moment of agony.