This feast originated in the 13th century out of a pious desire to have a feast which focused only on the precious body and blood of Jesus, unlike the mass of the last supper which has two focal points, the institution of the Eucharist and a model of service / leadership for the church. This religious tradition led to practices such as eucharistic processions and eucharistic adoration, which we do in the parish every first Tuesday evening.
The Church will always and should always experience a tension between worshiping the Body and Blood of Christ on the altar and serving that same broken body in the poor and the marginalised. In a perfect world there would be a clear synergistic relationship between the two.
The worship of the broken body and precious blood on the altar should make us think of all of those for whom he suffered, it should increase in us a deep empathy for the suffering, it should deepen our commitment to practical action. Eucharistic devotion should move us to action.
In serving the poor we approach more closely the wounds of Christ, in pouring out ourselves in service we are reminded that our strength alone is not enough, and in the faces of the suffering we see the face of Christ. Our action returns us once more to Christ, he whom we worship broken on the altar.
A devotion to the eucharist without an equal devotion to loving action is a sterile piety. A passion for social justice which is not rooted in love of Christ is “do-goodism” dressed up in lace. The Church cannot be true to its identity if we emphasise one to the detriment of the other. We must worship Christ in the sacrament of the altar as well as serve him in the broken bodies of our brothers and sisters.
