The Basin and the Towel

On the last Saturday of each month, the priests and religious of Malakal come together for a morning of prayerful reflection. I think this is the practice in several Southern Sudan dioceses. The reflection in Malakal this month was led by an elderly– meaning that he is older than I am – Mill Hill Missionary priest, born in the USA, Fr Peter Major. 

In his presentation, Peter several times referred to the danger of becoming ‘puffed up’ with our own importance. He described it as a special danger for priests, and others in positions of leadership, that people treat us too well with too much reverence and we begin to have an exaggerated sense of our own importance. Peter’s words brought to my mind the beautiful hymn by Michael Card on his ‘Poiema’ Album, ‘The Basin and the Towel’. He sings:

While they bicker about who’s best… their saviour-servant must show them how…
Day after day we must take up the basin and the towel’ 

As we enter Holy Week, it is worth thinking not only about the suffering Christ but the servant Christ, the Christ who washed the feet of his disciples at the last Supper. We shall commemorate this as part of the Holy Thursday liturgy. Day after day, in being a follower of Christ, we must set out to serve others, not to be masters over them.   

In an interesting comment, Fr Peter described many mothers as being better ‘models’ of priesthood than many men who are actually priests. A mother gives all her energy to looking [...]