Foot-washer

5th Sunday in Easter https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050326.cfm I had never seen or met a Catholic permanent deacon before I was 27 years old. My first encounter was in Oklahoma City. I had moved to that city for two years to take a teaching position. Within walking distance of my house was a predominantly Black Catholic church called Corpus Christi, which became my parish. I had not been to a Black Catholic Church before, and I was quickly stuck by the sense of community, the incredible music, and the powerful preaching. Corpus Christi had two Black deacons who had a real gift for homiletics. I privately thought of them as the crying deacon and the professor. The first deacon would preach moving homilies that, without fail, had a moment when his voice would crack and, caught up by the emotion of his testimony, he would breaking down in tears, bring the congregation along with him. The second deacon was a dentist and a professor at Oklahoma University. His homilies were as...

April 1, 2021 https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040121-Evening.cfm    Put yourself at the Last Supper.     The meal has just begun.     All of Jesus’ closest disciples are present—a rabble of people called out of fishing boats, tax collecting offices, brothels, and gangs—who followed him these three years through his long and winding road to Jerusalem.     They are family now.     Here they are seated at table during the Passover season.     It is an explosive time, fraught and tense with religious expectations and fear of a Roman garrison.     Yet the excitement of a palm waving parade into the city is still fresh.     It is good to be here and good to eat together.     And then Jesus does something shocking.       The Lord and Master strips down to his undergarments and gets on knees with a pitcher and bowl.  He signals that he is going to do the filthy, shameful wor...