Pope Francis continues to challenge us in different ways. Today I read that he is going to celebrate the Maundy Thursday evening Mass of the Lord's Supper in a youth detention centre at Casal del Marmo in Rome (picture left). It was his custom in Buenos Aires to do so every year at a prison, hospital, clinic or similar. Usually this Mass has been celebrated in the Pope's cathedral in Rome, St John Lateran, so this is another departure from previous practice.
The Mass of the Lord's Supper centres on three themes - the Eucharist, priesthood and the call to service. Its central images are bread and wine and the washing of the apostles' feet. So Francis will take his priesthood and the Eucharist to the young prisoners of Rome, and there wash their feet.
I am coming to the conclusion that Pope Francis will challenge us bot so much in our image of what a Pope is like, but rather in what we should be like. And that is a much, much bigger challenge indeed...
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