Pope Francis to inmates: 'I too need to be washed by the Lord' [CNA]

[CNA_News]

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/i...sday_Mass_April_2_2015_Credit_CTV_CNA.jpgRome, Italy, Apr 2, 2015 / 12:23 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Holy Thursday told inmates of a Rome prison that God’s love is personal and endless, emphasizing that he too needs forgiveness and purification.

“Today I will wash the feet of 12 of you, but among these brothers and sisters are all of you, all of you, all--all that live here. You represent them,” the Pope told inmates of the Rebibbia New Complex Prison at the April 2 Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

However, Pope Francis stressed that “I too need to be washed by the Lord, so pray during this Mass, because the Lord will also wash my dirtiness, because I will become more of a slave than you, more of a slave in the service of the people, as Jesus was.”

The Pope celebrated the traditional Holy Thursday Mass commemorating the Last Supper at Rome’s Rebibbia New Complex Prison, located in the suburbs of Rome. *

During the ceremony, which took place in the prison’s “Our Father” chapel, the Pope engaged in the traditional washing of feet. The ceremony commemorates the moment before the Last Supper when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.

Among the inmates who had their feet washed by Pope were six men incarcerated in the prison as well as six women detained in the nearby district prison for women.

In his off-the-cuff homily, Pope Francis reminded inmates that God’s love knows no bounds. He cited the gospel passage about how Jesus had loved his disciples “to the end.”

“Jesus loves us, but without limits, always, until the end,” the Pope said. “The love of God for us doesn't have limits. There is always more, always more. He never tires of loving anyone.”

Francis emphasized that Jesus gave his life for each person by name, saying that “each one of us can say, 'he gave his life for me.' Each one… His love is like this! Personal!”

The Pope then explained that in the time of Jesus, it was the job of the slaves to wash the feet of the guests who came into the house. The Church asks priests to imitate Jesus in assuming the role of the slave by washing the feet of 12 people.

Pope Francis encouraged the congregation to remember “in our heart we need to have the certainty, we need to be sure that when that when the Lord washes our feet, he washes everything, he purifies us, he makes us feel his love again.”

Before calling up the 12 prisoners whose feet he would wash, the Pope emphasized to all present that “among these brothers and sisters are all of you, all of you, all, all that live here. You represent them.”

As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, it was common for Francis to celebrate Holy Thursday Mass in a prison or in any other places for the needy like hospices and slums.

Just after his election a little over two years ago, Pope Francis broke with the papal tradition of celebrating Holy Thursday Mass at the Basilica of Saint John in Lateran and visited a youth detention center instead.

The Mass was traditionally held in the papal basilica as an opportunity for the people of Rome to meet with Rome’s bishop, the Pope.

However, in 2013 Francis accepted an offer from Italian Justice Minister, Paola Severino, to celebrate the liturgy at the Casal del Marmo juvenile detention center, where he washed the feet of 12 young men and women, including a Muslim.

Last year for Holy Thursday Pope Francis visited the St. Mary of Providence Center, a 150-bed residential rehabilitation center for disabled people in Rome. He washed the feet of 12 residents.

The venue for his 2015 Holy Thursday Mass, Rome’s overcrowded Rebibbia New Complex Prison, has an official capacity of 1,200 inmates, but at present it houses some 1,750 people across 14 sections.

The prison* has partnered with the Holy See-owned hospital Bambino Gesù in a call center work education program to help inmates reintegrate into society.

Francis’ predecessor Pope Benedict XVI visited the Rebibbia detention center December 18, 2011.

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Full article…

 

[Johann_du_Toit]

Well, visiting the imprisoned is one of the corporal works of mercy. So I guess it’s appropriate for his Holiness to pay them a visit. Hopefully the inmates will take his message to heart and repent their misdeeds.

 

[JamalChristophr]

This Pope is radical withoutout precedent in his living out of the Gospel. He’s giving us an example to follow, and I hope that many of us will be able to embark on that journey.

Whether you like Pope Francis or not, I don’t think it can be argued that this Pope is not an all together singular vicar of Christ.

It seems to me the Holy Spirit has shown himself as the God of Surprises in Pope Francis’s exercising of the Petrine Office.

 

[RosslynV]

I wonder if the Pope confessed stealing a rosary from a dead man

 

[LongingSoul]

This Pope is radical withoutout precedent in his living out of the Gospel. He’s giving us an example to follow, and I hope that many of us will be able to embark on that journey.

Whether you like Pope Francis or not, I don’t think it can be argued that this Pope is not an all together singular vicar of Christ.

It seems to me the Holy Spirit has shown himself as the God of Surprises in Pope Francis’s exercising of the Petrine Office.

Your description of Pope Francis literally makes my heart sing.:harp:

 

[zab]

I wonder if the Pope confessed stealing a rosary from a dead man

How else would you know about it?

 

[JamalChristophr]

Your description of Pope Francis literally makes my heart sing.:harp:

Thanks. Pray that we all may have the Grace to live our lives a little more like Pope Francis.

Lent may be over almost, but it’s no reason for us not to keep running the race. :knight2::hug3::yeah_me:

 

[ringil]

I notice that he also washed the feet of women. I know there has been some controversy about this. I am personally glad that he did.

 

[JamalChristophr]

I notice that he also washed the feet of women. I know there has been some controversy about this. I am personally glad that he did.

It’s good that he did. Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, and that too was considered a scandal.

 

[Darryl1958]

However, Pope Francis stressed that “I too need to be washed by the Lord, so pray during this Mass, because the Lord will also wash my dirtiness…

It is a useful countefactual to consider the idea that if we were all citizens of Germany in the 1930’s chances are 99 to 1 that we would be Nazis.

Sin is a condition of our common humanity, and a condition of our souls. With just a small tweak in our social condition, to where we get born over there rather than over here, and the evil growing in all of us flourishes and comes alive, to where even genocide and all levels of depravity become possible.

To begin to really know ourselves, we must first begin to know about evil. We must know that everyone of us, even the holiest, needs to be washed by the Lord.