So say the prayers, whether it feels like anyone’s listening or not. Jesus did. Say the prayers, if only to remember that you’re not the only one who’s ever felt like everything that matters is unsolved in their heart. Say the prayers as a way to be still, expand your soul to hold a little more life and hurt and, maybe even to pass back into this world something a little less like violence, and a little more like love.
When Jesus stood up and wrapped a towel around himself, in essence, he taught them, ‘Do not be afraid to stoop down and offer the most humble service imaginable to one another. It is no more than I have done for you.’
Spectacle seems the right word for the scene. Overwhelm seems the right word for the feeling.
To taste and see and smell that we’re loved like that can change us. It can heal us. It can raise dead parts of us into new life. And it can make us into people whose lives and loves keep expanding just like these gospel stories do, until they include more and more of the world around us and more and more of the worlds within us.