Eucharistic Miracles
One
The Eucharist is not a symbol, it is the Real Living, Physical Presence of Jesus Christ, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
According to our senses, the Eucharist looks and tastes like unleavened bread. But there is more to reality than what can be perceived by the senses. That in this sacrament are the true Body of Christ and true Blood is something that cannot be apprehended by the senses but only by faith which relies on divine authority. But what do we mean by faith?
There are three ways to know reality: by observation and the scientific method, by reason, and by revelation. Revelation is that which God reveals through Jesus, handed down by Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium.
Why do we believe that Jesus is physically present in the Eucharist? Because Jesus told us so.
On Holy Thursday evening He took bread blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples and said, “This is my Body…” And likewise, the cup after supper, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood.” Jesus told us, “This is my Body, this is my Blood.” Therefore, it has been the constant teaching of the Church from the very beginning.
Two
Because we cannot see that the Eucharist is Jesus by our senses of sight, taste, and touch it is hard to believe.
However, God in his mercy gives us Eucharistic Miracles to strengthen our faith in what he told us. Around the year 700, there was a priest in Lanciano, Italy who doubted the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
When he pronounced the words of Consecration, “This is My Body, this is My Blood” the bread changed into the Body of Christ and the wine changed into the Blood of Christ like it always does. But this time the Host appeared as Human Flesh and Blood so that everyone could see it!
They didn’t consume the Host because of this Miracle. They kept it and it remained – and it remained – and it remained. Finally, in 1971 a group of scientists tested the Host. What did they find? It was human flesh – heart tissue - with nothing to preserve it.
The Eucharist really is the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Mass is an exchange of Hearts. At Mass we are invited to offer our hearts to Jesus when the priest says, “Lift up your hearts” and we say, “We lift them up the Lord.” Then Jesus gives us His heart in the Eucharist at Communion.
The Mass is an exchange of hearts. What a wonderful exchange!
Three
The Eucharistic Miracle of Buenos Aires 1996
On August 18, 1996, a consecrated Host was discarded in the back of St. Mary’s Church after Communion. A woman found it and told the priest who placed the host in a container of water to dissolve, before being poured on a living plant.
Then, on August 26, 1996, the priest opened the Tabernacle and saw that the host had not dissolved. In fact, the host had changed in appearance to bloody human flesh and had grown significantly in size.
The priest informed the Bishop, who is now Pope Francis and he gave instructions for a fragment of the Host to be sent to Dr. Frederick Zugibe, a Cardiac Forensic Pathologist in NY for analysis. However, they did not tell the Pathologist the fragment was from a Host. In his pathology report the doctor concluded it was human heart tissue from the left ventricle. The tissue was infiltrated with white blood cells which told him two things: This heart was alive when the sample was taken and this heart had suffered trauma as white blood cells go to address injury.
The Pathologist was asked how long the white blood cells would have remained alive if they had come from a piece of tissue kept in water.
“They would have died in a matter of minutes,” he responded.
The sample had been kept in ordinary water for a month and then in distilled water for three years in a container of distilled water. Only then had the sample been taken for analysis
It was only then that it was revealed to the Pathologist the sample was taken from a consecrated host.
The DNA revealed a Man who lived in the Middle East, that it was human heart tissue from the left ventricle, blood type AB+, AKA the universal recipient. Jesus will refuse no one who comes to Him.
The lab report was then compared to a similar study of the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano Italy. They matched perfectly, proving that the test results must have come from the same person.
Four
On Christmas Day 2013, a consecrated Host fell on the floor at St. Hyacinth parish in Legnica, Poland. The priest placed it in a container with water to allow the host to dissolve. Soon after, red stains appeared on the host.
The bishop was notified, and a small fragment was tested by various research institutes. The final medical statement by the Department of Forensic Medicine determined that the specimen was human heart tissue which bore signs of distress. This Eucharistic miracle is open to the public for veneration.
In the Fall of 2016, a priest friend of mine from India contacted me and sent me many iPhone photos of a miraculous event. He hosted a Eucharistic Holy Hour at his parish with the Eucharist exposed in a monstrance on the main altar of the Church. During the Holy Hour, the Host began to bleed in the presence of all in attendance. Everyone saw it. He took pictures and sent them to me.
Five
In John chapter six Jesus taught, “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.' Then the Jews started arguing with one another: 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' they said. Jesus replied: I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me. This is the bread come down from heaven; not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live forever.”