As you read the account of the washing of the feet, what is it that makes you uneasy? Perhaps Jesus' one command to serve and not to be served, has remained in your mind. However, is this really all we need to recall without acting? While we are all called to serve, there is the humiliation that we must be prepared to face. To serve at the lowest level of society. Indeed, we also need to experience ourselves to be served by the Lord at the lowest level of our lives, then we are capable of rendering similar gestures to others.

The key virtue is humility. How have you experienced humility? When we serve, we need to be sure of what our motivations are. Are we serving because of God's love and care of the neighbour or is it for attention and praise? When we do get praises for our services, the danger is letting the praise turn to pride.

There are occasions where others are sincere in their gestures to serve us, but our refusal to be served can be a sign of pride, not humility. We either think too highly of ourselves or we think too lowly of others. These thoughts of depriving others to serve may not be something that we are consciously aware of because we rarely examine ourselves. Jesus reaches us at our lowest moment. Have you experienced that?