Drawing inspiration from Pope Francis’ initia-tive and in response to the Gospel command of follo-wing Jesus in servant lea-dership, the Kerala unit of the Indian Christian Wo-men’s Movement (ICWM) – an autonomous collective of women from different churches – has conducted foot-washing ritual in public spaces since 2017. On March 27, this ritual was celebrated at Snehakkoodu (nest of love), an inter-religious center for very marginalized elderly women and men in Kottayam, Kerala. For us the representatives of ICWM Kerala who washed and kissed the feet of the women residents of Snehakkoodu, it was a liberative experi-ence of witnessing equality as testified in the Gospels. In the foot washing as modeled by Jesus, we see a revolutionary symbol that can help overthrow the oppressive hierarchies that persist in our societies, particularly in the name of class, caste, gender, and religion.
In addition, foot-washing in a public space like Snehakkoodu facilitates going beyond mere inclusion of wo-men in this ritual to representing Jesus who took a bold stand against power structures that are repressive and discrimina-tory. Like Jesus who subverted the established social hierar-chies of his time and overturned the tyrannical structures of power, we are led to do likewise for realizing the kinship politics of the Gospels.
We see that to realize the liberative significance of foot-washing as modeled by Jesus, it is crucial that we go beyond commemorating it as a mere Maundy Thursday ritual in the Church.
Only by becoming inclusive, egalitarian, and subversive like Jesus can we respond to the challenge posed by the question “Do you know what I have done? (Jn 13: 12).