07/06/2026
Homily of Sunday, 7th June: The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
Very. Rev. Fr. Prof. Anthony E. Onyeocha
Question- having received Holy Communion for many, many years now, permit me to ask: What effect has it on me? Or better still how does it transform my life for good?
Remark: Your question is very honest and important: “Having received Holy Communion for many years, what effect has it had On me? How does it truly transform my life for good?”
This is exactly the kind of reflection the Church wants us to make on the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The Eucharist is not meant to change God’s attitude toward you-it is meant to change you. But the change is often gradual, Interior, and sometimes not immediately visible, so we can easily miss it. We take 7 reasons:
1. The Eucharist is meant to make you more like Christ.
Every Holy Communion is a real encounter with Jesus. Over time, this encounter is meant to shape your mind, your heart, and your actions. If received with faith, it slowly forms in you the “mind of Christ”: patience instead of anger, mercy instead of judgment, humility instead of pride, and love instead of selfishness.
2. It strengthens your struggle against sin.
Even if you still fall, you should notice this: you do not fall as easily as before, or you are more aware when you fall. That inner resistance to evil, that discomfort with sin, is already a fruit of grace working in you.
3. It deepens your capacity to love
One of the clearest effects of long-term Eucharistic life is growth in love-especially forgiveness, compassion, and patience with difficult people. If you are becoming less violent in speech, less quick to condemn, more willing to reconcile, that is not just personality it is grace at work.
4. It quietly shapes your conscience
The Eucharist educates the conscience over time. It makes certain actions feel “not right anymore,” even if the world accepts them. It creates an inner sensitivity to truth, justice, and holiness.
5. It gives strength in hidden battles
Many effects of Holy Communion are not emotional or dramatic. They are seen in your ability to keep going: to remain faithful in marriage, in priesthood, in work, in temptation, in suffering. The Eucharist often works as quiet strength, not excitement.
6. It calls you constantly to conversion
At the same time, repeated Communion also raises a serious question: Am I allowing Christ to fully transform me, or am I receiving Him without change? If after many years there is no growth in prayer, no struggle against sin, no deeper love, then the problem is not with the Eucharist-it is with our openness to it.
7. The real measure is visible fruit
The true question is not only “Have I received Communion?” but am I more forgiving now than before? Am I more truthful, more pure, more generous?
Is my faith stronger in trials? Do I love the Church more deeply? Do I hate sin more seriously?
These are the 7 signs that Christ is truly living in you.
Final reflection
Holy Communion is like rain falling on soll. The rain is always life-giving, but it only produces fruit where the soil is open, prepared, and cultivated. So today, on Corpus Christi, the invitation is simple but serious:
Do not only ask “How long have i been receiving Communion?”
Ask instead: “How much is Christ living in me because of it?”
And if you find areas where the fruit is weak, do not despair. That is already grace calling you again-deeper, more sincere, more open to be transformed from within. Happy Feast of Corpus Christi. Amen
