The Eucharist is, simply, Jesus.

“I am the food of those fully grown. Grow and you shall feed on Me. But you will not change Me into your own substance, as you do with the food of your body. Instead, you shall be changed into Me.”

I have shared these words from St. Augustine’s Confessions (VII.10) before, but they are worth recalling as a simple but deep summary of the meaning of the Eucharist for us: “you shall be changed into Me.”

Augustine understood these words in a moment of prayer, spoken to him by Jesus as part of his long search for truth. What Augustine found was not ideas and concepts and theories, but a living Person, the Word made flesh, Truth itself. And that Word comes not only to the mind, but to the body in the mystery of the Eucharist. That most

basic need of life – to eat – is the path Jesus uses to enter our souls.

You shall be changed into Me. This is the inner meaning of our sharing in the Eucharist, to enter into such a perfect Communion of life that we not only consume the Body of Christ, we become the Body of Christ, the Church.

In a time marked with public violence, the dismissal of the value and dignity of human lives, the upending of families and communities in political turmoil, and so much more, does the Eucharist make a difference?

The Church has celebrated the Eucharist from the very beginning, and Eucharistic devotion is already evident in the New Testament. Those were also very often times of persecution, turmoil, division, a mixture of fear and hope. To gather for Mass was at times to risk arrest or martyrdom. Why did our ancestors take that risk?

Because they believed in the power of the Cross and Resurrection, the hope of eternal life, the nearness of the One who had conquered fear and death. Far from a pious ritual, it was a declaration in a troubled world that God, who will judge the living and dead, is among us and will not abandon the world to chaos.

This hope is grounded in the freedom of each person to allow God to refashion our human brokenness and willfulness by the presence of Christ’s love: “you will be changed into Me.” The sorrows and troubles of the world are real and serious. But Jesus is also here, in this world, in our midst. Hope – the strength to persevere in the face of adversities – is born of this reality. We receive the Lord not only for ourselves, but so we carry that Presence as members of his Body into the needs of the world.

The Eucharist is, simply, Jesus. It is not a “what” but a “who” – not an object but a Person, present in redeeming love and mercy. Just as the baby in a manger or an accused criminal on a cross did not look like we would expect God’s appearance to be, so the appearance of bread and wine do not obviously reveal to human eyes the presence of God. But it is truly Jesus.

When the risen Jesus appeared to the Apostles on the lakeshore, he invited them: “Come, eat your meal. So, he says to us: “Come to Me, come to this sacred Communion that makes you live now in joyful hope and will join you to Me in perfect peace forever. You shall be changed into Me. Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord; Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.””