Take off your shoes

School after school, Church after church, Temple after temple, Shrine after shrine, there were thousands of shoes/sandals outside the doors. Wow! Why? Many of the children ran around in the remote rural villages without shoes perhaps because they didn’t have footwear but because the ground was sacred. Where the animals sojourned is sacred ground. Where the people plowed the fields for beautiful sun flowers was sacred. Where the mother milked the water buffalo for sustenance was sacred. Where the children were born and lived in humble two room houses was sacred. Where the blood of martyrs fertilized the land like Gandhi and Thomas the Apostle became sacred ground.

And so I was prepared when I finally entered the sacred shrine of St. Thomas the Apostle tomb, the “shoe caretaker” stopped me at the entrance and pointed to my shoes. I immediately knew to remove them for I am AGAIN on sacred ground. Thus, I descended into the tomb chapel of St. Thomas Apostle in my bare feet, vested for holy mass and for the first time presided at mass in my bare feet over the tomb of St. Thomas. Wow! I will never again be afraid to take off my shoes when I find holy ground. The Indian people have clearly taught this as normal practice for the Christian and any believer.

Interestingly and miraculously I left for India worried about my feet. I’ve had several problems with neuropathy and needing regular therapy. My feet hurt walking onto the plane when we left for India.
Since arriving in India I NEVER experienced any problems with my feet. I walked miles, climbed hundreds of steps in ancient forts and temples. I suspect that I didn’t need so much therapy as holy ground where I could remove my shoes. Wow! It works to remove your shoes and honor the holy ground of the Lord your God. India offered that holy ground with holy people that regularly removed their shoes.

The more I took off my shoes I felt one with the poor. I felt one with the famous Gandhi often seen sitting meditative without shoes. I felt one with the church and the priesthood that often celebrated mass without shoes. I felt one with the Saints as I removed my shoes on a sleeper train car when I was in the presence of St. Alphonsa’s family (the first native born India saint). Who would have thought that I would be assigned to a small compartment on a train with thousands of people that were the family of St. Alphonsa. They were at Mass that day in the Cathedral where I was concelebrated? I knew it was a small world on the south side of Chicago but in southeast India? Wow!

Then it really hit me when we visited one of our large schools and blessed the new school and kitchen. All the children gathered in the hall to greet our group and they all removed their shoes outside the hall. I thought, this is not a shrine, a temple, a church. It’s a hall. Why remove their shoes except to keep the floor clean? And then we were presented as holy visitors from God. I never felt so honored and loved by these simple children of God. They placed flowers over us and danced before us.

India taught me so much. I often remove my shoes as I’m doing holy things. Surely I will remember the day I’m called home to the throne of God to remove my shoes for I am on eternal sacred ground.