Pope Francis is known for his kindness and humility. His dedication to serving the people is indisputable. This Holy Thursday, Pope Francis followed the Easter tradition of washing the feet of twelve people, which exemplifies his message of brotherhood and peace. The religious significance of this ritual is that it is performed to recall how Jesus washed the feet of his twelve apostles at the Last Supper, as a sign of humility and servitude.
In the past, previous popes only washed the feet of twelve Catholic men, who were usually priests. However, Pope Francis changed it up by including women and non-Catholics in the ritual. This year, there were eight men and four women from a refugee center in Castelnuovo di Porto, outside of Rome. The center is shelter to nearly 900 asylum seekers from 25 different countries. Those chosen for this year's tradition were four Nigerian Catholics, three Eritrean Coptic women, three Muslims from Mali, Pakistan, and Syria, a Hindu Indian and a female Italian worker from the center.
In his homily, the Pope condemned anyone who manufactures weapons and profits from bloodshed. He compared them to Judas Iscariot, who was said to have betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Pope Francis condemned the Brussels terrorist attack and explained: "Behind that [other] gesture [on Tuesday in Belgium], there are manufacturers, arms dealers who want blood, not peace. They want the war, not a fraternity." He doesn't blame the entire religion of Islam or all Muslims. Rather than fueling further Islamophobia which is what the media has been doing, he completely rejects the notion of division. The Pope stresses the importance of unity and brotherhood, not only through his words but the action of washing the feet of refugees, three of whom are Muslim.
He called for a gesture of brotherhood:
"We are different, we are different, we have different cultures and religions, but we are bothers and we want to live in peace...let each, in his religious language, pray the Lord that this brotherhood be contagious in the world, that there be no 30 pieces of silver to purchase a brother's murder, that there be always brotherhood and goodness."
The timing of this event is important because, after the recent Syrian refugee crisis and terrorist attacks all over the world, we have forgotten that when one human suffers, so do the rest of us. After hearing of any terrorist attack, we send our prayers and love to the families of the victims. However, it seems that after showing our support for the victims, we lose all that love and sympathy and blame innocent people for the attack. We constantly ask Muslims to apologize for the unfortunate attacks, even though they had absolutely nothing to do with them and shouldn't be apologizing for something they weren't responsible for.
Terrorist groups like ISIS target Muslims and are the reason there are refugees from countries like Syria. It is very easy to get caught up in hatred, paranoia and in looking for a scapegoat because we are angry. However, the Pope reminds us that we need to remember that we are all brothers. We are different and "have different cultures and religions," but we want the same things in life: brotherhood and peace. There are some evil people who want to harm innocents for their own twisted reasons, but that is not representative of an entire race or religion. We are strong when we are united, so let us let "brotherhood be contagious in the world."
