The Living Bread Come Down From Heaven

From the Catholic Liturgy for Corpus Christi Sunday, June 23, 2019. 1 Cor. 11:23-26Luke 9:11-17. Theme: The Living Bread Come Down From Heaven

When Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth and people encountered him, what they saw and smelled and touched and heard was an ordinary Jewish man, in his 30’s, fit and strong from his work as a laborer, speaking with a heavy Galilean accent, and covered with the dust of the road. But their senses did not, could not, experience the full reality of who he was. What they could not see in him was the glory and power of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Eternal Son of God the Father. But this reality of his divinity, of who he really was, was always there. It was just hidden from their senses by the physicality of flesh and bone.

The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist Jesus gave us is very much the same: we don’t grasp the reality behind what our eyes behold, what our hands touch and what our mouths taste. And yet, a genuine miracle takes place at every Mass and we heard St. Paul affirm this in today’s second reading about Jesus’ words at the Last Supper.  What was simply bread and wine becomes the very Body and Blood of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ. Though they continue to look and taste the same, Christ our God is in fact really and truly present in every morsel of what was once bread and in every drop of what was previously wine.

But God knows that every so often we need to be shown that what we believe is true. Every so often, God has changed not just the inner reality but the actual physicality of the bread and wine of the Eucharist.  There are over 130 of these documented Eucharistic miracles affirming for us that what we worship, what we receive and what we adore is truly Christ the Lord. No one need take just my word about these things. Anyone can go on a computer and in no time at all you can see the evidence, read test results and even watch videos of some of these Eucharistic miracles. Today I just want to share with you about two of them.

The first and most famous of these documented Eucharistic miracles took place in Lanciano, Italy in the year 700 AD. A priest celebrating Mass was having doubts about the Real Presence of Jesus in Holy Communion.  During the words of consecration, the host he was holding began to literally turn into flesh in his hands, and the few drops of wine in the chalice were transformed into blood. And they have remained so throughout the past 1300 years. In 1971, Pope St. Paul VI permitted carefully guarded scientific studies to be carried out and scientists discovered the flesh was from the heart of a male and the content of the chalice was human blood type AB.

Jumping ahead to the 20^th century, a host also turned into bloody flesh in Buenos Aires in 1996. The bishop at that time, who is today Pope Francis, sent it, under guard, to a reputable lab in New York for sampling.  Those who tested it were not told what it was or where it came from.  The man in charge of the study was Dr. Frederic Zugibe, a world-famous cardiologist and forensic pathologist.  The findings revealed it to be part of the heart muscle. The blood type was AB. A perfect match to the host of Lanciano.  And curiously, scientists say that these lab results match the very same blood type which they have found on the famous Shroud of Turin.

But the examination of the miraculous host resulted in an even more astounding and inexplicable fact.  When the lab samples were put under a microscope, Dr. Zugibe saw that the cells were moving, pulsating, beating, like a normal human heart!  The host was somehow living flesh! He declared it to be a mystery beyond the capability of science to explain. Here is a good link to this miracle: https://fathercarrozza.com/tag/eucharistic-miracle-of-buenos-aires/

This is because the Eucharist we receive is the body and blood of the living Risen Lord Jesus, not that of a dead and long-gone Savior. This is why our cantor sang Jesus’ words during the Alleluia today which proclaim: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…”. The Living Bread.

I think we can see now why God, in his wisdom, chose to have the physicality of the Eucharist – what we see and touch and taste - remain bread and wine even though the reality of what and who it is changes. For who of us would go to receive Holy Communion if it looked and tasted like what it really is: the living flesh and blood of Christ? And yet, that is the awesome reality. We truly become one with the Risen Lord Jesus through this Sacrament of Love, this precious Gift to us from his most Sacred Heart.  

Just this morning from Rome, Pope Francis, who as I just mentioned was intimately involved with the Living Bread miracle of Buenos Aries, sent Catholics these words about the Eucharist for us to ponder on this Corpus Christi Sunday: “It is Jesus, it is the Jesus who saved us, it is the Jesus who comes to give us the strength to live. It is Jesus, Jesus alive.”