POPE FRANCIS: WE BECOME MORE LIKE JESUS EVERY TIME WE RECEIVE HIM IN HOLY COMMUNION.
When “we go to the altar in procession to receive Communion –, in reality it’s Christ who comes to meet us to assimilate us to Himself. It’s an encounter with Jesus! To be nourished by the Eucharist means to let ourselves be changed into what we receive. Saint Augustine helps us to understand it, when he talks about the light he received in hearing Christ say: “I am the food of grownups. Grow and you will eat Me. And it won’t be you that transforms me into yourself, as the food of your flesh, but you will be transformed into Me” (Confessions VII, 10, 16: PL 32, 742). Every time we go to Communion, we are more like Jesus, we are transformed more into Jesus. As the bread and the wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of the Lord, so all those that receive them with faith are transformed into a living Eucharist. To the priest who, distributing the Eucharist, says to you: “The Body of Christ,” you answer: “Amen,” namely, you recognize the grace and commitment entailed in becoming Body of Christ, because, when you receive the Eucharist you become Body of Christ. This is beautiful; it’s very beautiful. While uniting us to Christ, tearing us away from our egoisms, Communion opens us and unites us to all those that are one with Him. Behold the prodigy of Communion: we become what we receive!”
-Pope Francis, General Audience, 21st of March 2018