Avoiding What Matters

Gospel: Matthew 23: 23-26

Take note of the cleric and layfolk who take great pains to wash the communion vessels, noting how important care for the body and blood of the Lord is in the tradition.  Note also their utter horror when a communion host falls to the ground.  The care and attention to the host and in purifying the area where it fell are again predicated on care for the Eucharistic species and the body of the Lord.  To be sure there are rules in the Church about such matters.

Now consider the utter neglect for and open hostility to the poor and marginalized; the migrant, immigrant, and refugee;  the imprisoned, foreigner, and people of other religions or none at all.  The very folk who have such attention and care for "the body of the Lord" in the Eucharistic species will create endless reams of apologetic on why it is perfectly acceptable to harbor and exhibit animus and indifference toward untold numbers of people in our world.

The real body of the Lord is our neighbor, all human beings who are made in God's image and likeness, who are temples of the Holy Spirit, bearing the person of Christ himself in their very being.  We will be judged on how we care for this body of Christ on earth - the hungry and thirsty, the sick and imprisoned, the naked and homeless, the stranger.  These are the weightier matters of the Law.  Would that we had as much concern for these as we do on the washing of cups and bowls.