A while ago I was praying in the Cenacle with the disciples, and in the prayer I was present at the washing of the feet. Well, Jesus came to me and knelt before me. To me it was a revelation, something even more important than the cross. We say the crucifixion is the ultimate expression of God’s love. Yet I was more affected by God’s, well, groveling at my feet…. We speak so glibly, facilely, about how much God loves us. But then God gives us the experience in prayer. He makes himself our slave, kneels at our feet, to win our love. I know that if I were there, he would have done that. The gift of prayer is the gift of emotional insight into what God means for us in his Son.
And that scene says everything for me. “You’ve seen what I did, and you appreciated it,” Jesus says in St. John. “Now do the same for others.” It must have meant so much to John. In one of his letters he even says that if you say you love God but don’t love your neighbor, then you are a liar.
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