washing dirty feets

we went out to 2 villages this week to give our last ¨charlas¨or lessons of the year. one was in san sebastian. the lesson was on the last supper -the disciples and Jesus last time together before his death. there in the upper room Jesus washed the disciples feet as a symbol of loving and serving them in a simple, humble and powerful way. there he gave them the command to love others as he had loved them.
we shared this story with the women and then had a foot washing with the women. the power of the story really struck me in how amazingly humble Jesus was to get down and wash gross, dirty, stinky feet. you could tell it was hard for the women to have their feet washed, it´s uncomfortable to have someone touch your filthy feet. but i wonder if we have to accept it in order to ever really wash others´feet...to accept that love that Jesus has for us, compassion to be okay with the fact he knows we have such dirty feet and yet he loves and accepts us. but then we are called to wash other´s feet - to reach out and know and love others. it seems easier in the exercise of the foot washing to wash others feet...the external dirt...but are we willing to accept the dirt that makes every person feel unloveable and insecure - not stand in judgement but love the gross and the stinky -just as we are loved?