Swift, tired, true, headstrong, tender, merciless –

your feet have more persona than your head:

born for earth that you may be freed for sky –

Does anything that serves you serve like this?

So why should someone say, ‘Not my feet, Lord –

far rather wash my hands or face than these.’

But you’ll never be the true disciple

unless he does this for you. It will serve

for eternity, this washing of feet.

And in a thousand lifetimes still to come

my feet will take me where I can best serve.

What else could so exalt the world than this?

The golden nimbus round the head means less

than feet that press the earth with shining light.

And still and all there’s the one who steals away

to put himself in servitude this night

to darkness. Better not to have been born.

Ranald Macdonald (1955-2014), Holy Thursday, 31st March 2013.