Commentary on Prayer of Azariah

Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

"If therefore," he adds, "I, your Lord and master, have washed your feet, you also must wash one another's feet. I have, in fact, given you an example, so that you may do as I have done." This, blessed Peter, is what you did not ascertain when you did not want the Lord to wash your feet. This is what he promised to you that you would come to know afterwards, when your Lord and master terrified you into submission so that you let him wash your feet. We have learned humility from the Highest; let us do offer to one another, and with humility, what he the highest did in his humility. This is a great example of humility. And do this to one another, even in the outward gesture, when they treat one another with hospitality; for this exercise of humility is generally prevalent and finds effective expression in the very deed that makes it discernible. It is for this that the apostle, when he commends to us the ideal of the widow, emphasizes this quality: "She practices hospitality by washing the feet of the saints." And wherever the custom of physically washing the feet does not exist among the faithful, what they do not do with their hands they do spiritually, if they are in the number…

See also

• More works by Augustine of Hippo

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