Someone We Become

Homily for Friday of the Third Week in Easter

In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks words that shake His listeners: “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” The crowd argues, questions, and resists. They cannot imagine how God could come so close—so physically, so intimately—as to feed them with His very life.

But that is exactly the point. Jesus is not offering an idea, a philosophy, or a symbol. He is offering Himself. The God who created the universe desires to dwell within us, to nourish us from the inside out, to become our strength, our hope, our life.

The people in the Gospel stumble because they think too small. They try to fit God into their expectations. But Jesus invites them—and us—to trust that God’s love is far more daring than we imagine. In the Eucharist, Christ gives us a love that is not distant but embodied; not abstract but personal; not occasional but constant.

Every time we receive Him, we are reminded that God wants communion, not simply belief; transformation, not just admiration. He wants to live in us so that we can live in Him.

So the question this Gospel leaves us with is simple: Do we allow the One we receive to change us? Because the Eucharist is not just something we take—it is Someone we become.

May we approach the altar with awe, gratitude, and the courage to let Christ’s life become our own.