If a wild olive tree is grafted with good food, it will turn into a fruitful olive tree. This is exactly what happens to us Christians. When we are alone, we remain without spiritual fruit, but when we are connected to Christ and partake of His body and blood, we quickly receive the greatest of blessings, the forgiveness of sins and the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, the fruits of justification that Christ gives. We partake of the body of Christ, which is a guarantee for achieving spiritual victories and sublime conquests.

It is clear that our life after Holy Communion should become Christian in kind, that is, in the likeness of Christ. “You are the body of Christ and members of His members” (1 Corinthians 12:27). The words of the Apostle apply more to our spirits and more to our bodies, and when the Apostle Paul says, “He that cleaveth to the Lord is by the spirit” (1 Corinthians 16:17), he refers to the bond that unites our soul to Christ. He places great emphasis on this bond. Therefore Christ took not only a body, but also a spirit, a mind, a will, and all that is human except sin, in order to be completely identified with our being and to unite all that we have with His. Only with sinners does Christ not unite, for He is free from all sin and has nothing to do with them, for He is free from error. The Lord, as a merciful God, accepted all the elements of our life except sin and condescended to unite with us by His boundless condescension. Christ, the true God, came down to earth to raise us up to heaven. He became man to raise man to God, and as man He remained free from all sin and became the eternal conqueror, and freed human nature from sin and shame, and as Savior He freed man from the guilt of sins and reconciled him to God. We could not ascend to heaven and receive these great gifts, so the Savior came down to earth and took what is ours and gave us what is priceless from His own. He gave us His body and blood. In this way we receive God and accept Him into our souls.

It is clear that Christ enters into us through Holy Communion, unites himself with us, and transforms our existence according to his own life. If a drop of water falls into an ocean of fragrance, the drop merges with the ocean, unites with it, takes on all its properties, and becomes a fragrance like the ocean into which it falls. Christ is the spiritual fragrance and has all the power to transform believers whom he enters through Holy Communion into people whose lives are not only fragrant but who carry the whole fragrance of Christ: “We are the fragrant aroma of Christ, the God-breathed breath of life” (2 Corinthians 15:2).

The sacrament of thanksgiving gives strength and grace to the souls of believers who receive communion with pure hearts and remain far from sin. Christ unites with those who prepare themselves spiritually before communion in a way that no power, no matter how great, can break its bond. “This is a very great mystery, and I say this in reference to Christ and the church,” says the Apostle Paul about the spiritual unity between Christ and Christians who are true members of the church. The sacrament of thanksgiving is a light for those who have pure hearts, a breath that gives sanctification, and a strength that strengthens the will of those who need sanctification. There is no other source for those who struggle and fight against sin to draw the sanctifying power from: “The blood of Christ, the Son of God, may cleanse you from all sin,” says the Evangelist John (1 John 1:7), who enjoyed the special love of Jesus. Christ is the only one who has overcome evil, so his pure body that died on the cross is a banner of victory against evil and a strong aid to those struggling against sinful desires.