You'll Be Changed Into Me

Book excerpt: In recent decades, Catholic books on the Eucharist have often focused narrowly on the question of the nature or essence of the Eucharist. Although the question of the nature of the Eucharist is undoubtedly important, it unfortunately has overshadowed a question that is just as important, if not more important: what does the Eucharist do? If Jesus’ body, blood, soul, and divinity are truly present in the Eucharist as Catholics believe, then we should not be surprised to learn that when Catholics receive the Eucharist they receive multiple effects, or fruits. You Will Be Changed Into Me introduces six of the most important fruits of the Eucharist. It will explore how the Jesus Event is brought to the present through Eucharistic memory; it will investigate how the Eucharist is the application of Christ’s sacrificial offering on the cross; it will demonstrate how the Eucharist radically conforms the communicant to the heart of Christ; it will review the unity in the human family that is created by the Eucharist through union with Christ; it will show how a Eucharistic life leads to a life of service; it will explain the significance of the Eucharist for the journey beyond this life.