With undoubted signs of affection, washing the feet of each young person, drying and kissing them, shaking hands with them and conversing with some of them, the Holy Father Francis proceeded this Holy Thursday to wash the feet of twelve inmates of different nationalities from the Casal del Marco Penal Institute for Minors, located on the outskirts of Rome. In the morning he had celebrated the Holy Chrism MassIn his speech, he stated, among other things, that "a divided presbyterate does not work", referring to the priests.
This is the same Penitentiary Center He visited a few days after his election as Pope in 2013, to which he has now returned, visualizing in this way the commandment of love that the Church celebrates since the Last Supper with Jesus, who washed the feet of the disciples. There are about 50 young people at the center, and some of them were able to converse for a moment with the Pontiff, in the context of an almost family-like celebration.
The chaplain of the center, Father Nicolò Ceccolini, told the official Vatican news agency that it was "a long-awaited visit, also for the Muslims who are celebrating Ramadan these days. Waiting for the Pontiff is a "motley community" of boys and girls of different ages and ethnicities, interned in the center for various offenses: "For us they are all equal, they should be looked at not only for what they have done but with a deep look".
Last year, the Holy Father went to the New Prison Complex in Civitavecchia, where he spent about three hours greeting the authorities, embracing the inmates who greeted him with choirs and shouts, celebrated Mass in the chapel and washed the feet of the inmates, of different ages and nationalities, all of whom were moved with emotion.
On this occasion, the Holy Mass of the Lord's Supper lasted barely an hour. Afterwards, the director of the Casal del Marmo center, also moved, told the Holy Father that "he disarms us with his gentleness and brings us back to what is essential. "His smile," said the director, "is a caress that gives us strength and encourages us to always go forward together". Loud applause accompanied the Pope's exit from the chapel, which was also attended by the center's administrative and police personnel. The Holy Father gave them some rosaries and chocolate eggs.
"Jesus is not afraid, he wants to accompany us."
In the brief homily, Pope Francis pointed out that in Jesus' time "it was the slaves who washed the feet. It was slave work. They were astonished, it was hard for them to understand," alluding to St. Peter's behavior. "But he does it to make them understand the message of the next day: that he would die as a slave, to pay the debt of all of us," he explained.
The Pontiff added: "It is so nice to help one another. They are human gestures, universal, helping each other. They are born of a noble heart. And Jesus, with this celebration, wants this, to teach us the nobility of the heart".
"Each one of us can think: if only the Pope knew the things I carry inside me... Jesus knows them, and he loves us as we are. He washes the feet of each one of us, all of us. Jesus is never afraid of our weaknesses. Because He has already paid. He only wants to accompany us. He wants to take us by the hand, so that life is not so hard for us".
"Today I will make the same gesture of washing your feet," Pope Francis continued. "But this is not a folkloric thing. This is a gesture that announces how we have to be with others. In society we see that there are so many people who take advantage of others... How many injustices, how many people without work, or have work but are paid half, poorly paid... Or people who don't have money to buy medicine, how many families who live badly..."
"Jesus never abandons".
"None of us can say: I am not like this. If I am not like this, it is by the grace of God," the Holy Father noted. "Each one of us can slip. And this attitude that each of us can slip is what gives us dignity. Listen to this word: the dignity of being sinners. Jesus wants us this way. And that is why he wanted to wash feet. For I have come to save you, to serve you, Jesus tells us".
"Now I will do the same, remembering what Jesus has taught us," Francis stressed. "Help each other. Help each other. And in this way life is more beautiful, and we can go forward in this way. In the washing of the feet, think that Jesus has washed my feet. Jesus has saved me. I have this problem, but Jesus is at your side. Jesus never abandons, never. Think about this," the Pope concluded.
The new commandment
"At the Last Supper, Jesus gives us four priceless gifts: he gives us the Eucharist, he washes the feet of his disciples, he gives us the priesthood and the new commandment," Joseph Evans recalled in Omnes. "The last gift is the new commandment. At the Last Supper, Jesus said: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.".
The Holy Father will preside at the Good Friday celebration in St. Peter's Basilica at 5:00 p.m., with Cardinal Mauro Gambetti as celebrant at the altar.
