Resurrection. Ascension. Pentecost. Trinity. This is the movement of God’s action—each event leading to the next, each revealing who God is and who we are in relationship to Him. And today, that movement reaches its summit: the Eucharist, the culmination of salvation history and the heart of creation’s purpose.

Each Gospel offers us insights about the Eucharist, which is why the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels is the feeding of the 5,000. From the very beginning, the Eucharist has been so central to the Christian faith that each community to which the Gospels were written had something to say about this great revelation of God.

When we speak of the Eucharist today, the conversation often revolves around the real presence of Jesus. In faith we say that bread and wine are transformed into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ through the priest praying the words of consecration—through a mystery we call transubstantiation.

We have had over two thousand years of having received this gift to understand it more deeply and speak about the Eucharist at this theological and technical level. That understanding is itself a fruit of the Holy Spirit, who has been guiding our understanding as our doctrine deepens and develops with every generation.

That emphasis became prominent in the late Middle Ages, when the belief in Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist was being challenged. It led to the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, where Pope Innocent III formally used the word “Transubstantiation.” A century later, Pope Urban IV established the Feast of Corpus Christi. Then, under pressure from the Protestant Reformation, the Council of Trent was convened in 1545. It gave rise to the Tridentine Mass, which emphasized the divinity of Christ present in the Eucharist. This gave rise to new rituals and devotions like Eucharistic adoration, processions, and a special focus on the role of the priest as alter Christus, since it was through his anointed hands that Jesus became present.

But behind all of that beautiful development and tradition lies what the early Church always understood: that the Eucharist is about power. The early Christians were not concerned with knowing the technicalities of how Jesus was present. They knew He was—because of its effects. The power of the Eucharist immediately began to transform hearts and culture.

That is the purpose of God’s movement through salvation history: resurrection, ascension, Pentecost, the Trinity, and finally the Eucharist—all pointing to one thing: God’s power to save, to sanctify, and to send. The Eucharist is the means by which the power of Jesus—His own resurrected body—enters the created world: the Church. It is power given as food, not just to satisfy our hunger, but to strengthen us to be His presence on earth, so that we can continue the mission.

The use of ordinary food and drink to transmit divine power doesn’t begin with Jesus. In today’s reading from Genesis, we hear of Melchizedek, a king and priest of God Most High, who comes to bless Abraham with bread and wine. From the earliest moments of the Old Testament, bread and wine become the signs of a blessing that comes from God. Melchizedek prefigured a priesthood greater than any human origin—echoed in Psalm 110: “You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek.”

The early Christians knew exactly who that line referred to: Jesus—the true priest and king, whose offering of bread and wine becomes His own body and blood. The Eucharist is God’s blessing in our midst. Jesus comes to us in bread and wine to bless us with God’s presence.

In Luke’s version of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus takes the bread, looks up to heaven—the place of divine power—and says a blessing before distributing it. Later, after the resurrection, Luke’s community would reflect on this miracle and recognize it as a rehearsal of the Eucharistic mystery.

That understanding is summarized in Luke 24, with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus meets them on the road and opens the Scriptures to them, but they do not recognize Him. It is only in the breaking of the bread that their eyes are opened. Jesus disappears from their sight and becomes fully present in the bread. It was their way of explaining transubstantiation: the power of the resurrected Jesus was there with them, and they ate and were filled.

The effects were immediate: their hearts were set aflame. They were in love with God, which made them return to Jerusalem, share the good news, and begin to live a life for God. Christ was now present in them.

They remembered that when the disciples tell Jesus to dismiss the crowds so they can go find food, Jesus says something unexpected: “Give them some food yourselves.” The apostles who receive the power of Jesus in the Eucharist are then commissioned, ordained as Jesus’ priests to do the same: “Do this in memory of me” because through Him, with Him, and in Him, all power and glory is His forever and ever.

This weekend, I personally reflect on six years of my own ordination—six years since I received that mandate to give you divine food myself. Six years of doing this in memory of Him. Six years of witnessing how the power of God that you receive Sunday after Sunday transforms your lives.

St. Paul says, “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you.” The Eucharist is something received and handed on. It is not a private devotion. Receiving communion is not personal in the individualistic sense. That’s why we are given this great truth after Trinity Sunday: because every time we receive the Eucharist, we are being consecrated into the life of the Trinity, called to live in communion and mission.

As we eat and drink, Jesus’ life grows within us and among us. Paul says, “Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes.” The Eucharist is not only communion—it is also proclamation. And we proclaim divine power in our speech and in our actions. We can do that with confidence because we are being actively empowered.

After nearly 400 years of the Church emphasizing the real divine presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and the role of the priest, the Holy Spirit inspired the bishops at the Second Vatican Council to emphasize the presence and power of Jesus in the people of God through the Eucharist.

The priest has a unique role in calling down the power of God into our midst through the words of consecration. And you have an equally important and unique role in your willingness to receive this power and be transformed by it.

The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity says: “The laity derive the right and duty to the apostolate from their union with Christ the head; inserted as they are into the Mystical Body of Christ by baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit in confirmation and in the Eucharist.”

Your mission is to be consecrated in the Eucharist so as to consecrate the world—by bringing Christ into your homes, workplaces, schools, and civic life.

Ad Gentes, the decree on the Church’s missionary activity, affirms: “The liturgy, especially the Eucharistic sacrifice, is the summit of the Church’s action, whereby she renders the highest glory to God, and the means by which the faithful are strengthened in holiness so that they may carry out their work of evangelization.”

Family, the Eucharist sums up our faith. The Eucharist began transforming the world from the moment the first Christians gathered for the breaking of the bread. It began transforming my own life the moment I received my First Communion. And if we allow the power of Jesus to do so, He continues to transform us every Sunday.

As we move into Ordinary Time, we can’t think of it as just a quiet time between seasons. Ordinary Time is the time of mission and continual transformation.

So ask yourself:

• How am I called to participate in the mission of the Church?
• When was the last time I spoke about the Eucharist and invited someone to come to Mass with me?
• When was the last time I received communion conscious of the transformative power of God I was receiving?

The world will come to know the power of God through you—through lay men and women who have become what they receive: the Body of Christ.

So today, we return to the table: Not just to be filled, but to be sent.
Not just to be comforted, but to be consecrated.
Not just to be blessed, but to become a blessing for the world.

This is the power of the Eucharist.