According to Pope Benedict XVI the “infinite love” of a sky god is responsible for “purifying” men and women and making them “worthy to feast” at the banquet of the “Eucharist”, a Christian death ritual where believes stand waiting line to symbolically eat the flesh and blood of their messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.

It was previously thought that Jesus, died some 2000 years ago, but the pope disagrees. “Jesus kneels before us and performs the action of a slave, washing our dirty feet so that we can be admitted to the table of God,” said the pope during his April 13 homily at Rome’s Basilica of St. John Lateran.

The pope sitting on a chair wearing no shoes with his feet in the air continued “See? He’s right there! Washing me feet like I said! Wash Jesus, wash!”

During the Holy Thursday Mass, Pope Benedict also washed the feet of 12 laymen who were chosen to represent the lay movements and communities active in the Diocese of Rome. One by one, the pope poured water from a golden pitcher onto the foot of each man, both young and old, and then used a white towel to scrub each foot dry. While washing the feet of strangers he seemed to be in conversation with himself while looking to his left saying “Not like that, Jesus, like THIS!”

In choosing laypeople, Pope Benedict reversed a 20-year Vatican tradition of washing the feet of priests during the Holy Thursday evening Mass.

“God is not a God who is far off, too distant and too grand to be concerned with our trivialities,” he said while licking a toe.

“God created human beings out of love and his love continually purifies and heals them”, the pope said.

“Only love has that purifying force that cleanses away our dirt and raises us to the heights of God,” he said.

Especially through baptism and confession, “the sacraments of purification,” he said, Jesus “continually kneels at our feet and performs the duties of a slave. Isn’t that right, Jesus?”

While Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples is a story of self-giving love, it also contains the story of Judas, who betrayed Jesus, the pope said.

Judas’ action, he said, demonstrates that “the love of the Lord knows no limits, but man can limit it,” refusing to recognize the need for purification, to accept the love of God and salvation through Jesus.

The foot-washing ritual also is a call to imitate Christ, serving one another, forgiving each other and walking on water, he said.

Earlier in the day, Pope Benedict celebrated the chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, leading some 1,500 priests, 60 bishops, 36 cardinals, 3 midget and a hobbit in the renewal of the promises they made at their ordinations and urging them to deepen their friendship with Jesus. Some present at the ceremony are currently under investigation for deepening their friendships with members of their congregation.

“The nucleus of the priesthood is to be friends of Jesus Christ. Only in that way can we truly speak ‘in the person of Christ,’” he said.

The pope asked the priests, bishops and cardinals to remember their ordination day, particularly the moment when a bishop laid hands on their heads and then anointed their hands with oil and Ky.

“The human hand,” he said, “is the symbol of a person’s ability to act, to create and possess.”

“Through the imposition of the bishop’s hands, Jesus transmits his “divine touch,” claiming the new priest for himself,” the pope said.

Pope Benedict said that when the new priest’s hands are anointed with blessed oil (made from the blood of fairies), the bishop is designating those hands not to exercise power or to gather possessions but to become instruments of outreach, giving, creativity and “sweet sweet love”.

The pope said all priests have had an experience similar to St. Peter’s when Jesus called him to walk toward him on the water; “suddenly he realized that the water could not support him and he was about to drown. That idiot!”

At those moments, he said, the priest must do what St. Peter did: Swim.

During the morning Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope blessed the chrism and the oils used in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, ordination and the anointing of the sick and tired.

The oils were carried to the altar by catechumens, sick people and confirmation candidates from Rome parishes and deacons about to be ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Rome.