The Living Bread From Heaven

 

Deacon Dave · The Living Bread From Heaven

Homily for Corpus Christi Sunday, June 19, 2022. 1 Cor. 11:23-26; Gospel of St. Luke 9:11-17. Theme: The Living Bread From Heaven 

Today's Gospel story about the miraculous multiplication of loaves has always been seen by Christians as connected to the Eucharist. This is because it deals with a miracle using bread and shows Jesus feeding people in an incredible way. You know, when the people in that crowd encountered Jesus, what they saw and smelled and touched and heard was an ordinary Jewish man from the backwoods village of Nazareth, 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 truly, fully was. What they could not see before them was the glorious Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Eternal Son of God the Father. This reality was always there, but it was hidden from their senses by the physicality of flesh and bone. 

The Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist is very much the same. We don’t grasp the full reality behind what our eyes behold, what our hands touch and what our mouths taste when we receive Holy Communion. And yet, a genuine miracle takes place at every Mass. 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 ordinary wine. 

God knows that this is a hard teaching to believe and accept and so every once in a while he gives us tangible evidence that what we believe is true. Every so often God has changed not just the inner reality but also 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 the Flesh and Blood of Christ the Lord. I want to mention just two of them because these were selected to be carefully scrutinized by scientific teams. 

The first and most famous Eucharistic miracles took place in Lanciano, Italy in the year 750 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 globules of blood. And they have remained so ever since, for 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 20th century, a host also turned into bloody flesh in Buenos Aires, Argentina 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 miraculous host of Lanciano. But the examination of the Argentinian 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 actually moving, pulsating and beating, like a normal human heart! The host was somehow living cardiac flesh! He declared it to be a mystery far beyond the capability of science to explain. 

We call it a miracle. And our Faith supports this incredible finding because it tells us that the Eucharist we receive is the Body and Blood of the Living Risen Lord Jesus, not that of a dead and long-gone Savior. We proclaimed this mystery at the Alleluia acclamation today which said: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…”. As we begin the 3-year long National Eucharistic Revival which the US Bishops have started on this feast of Corpus Christi, let’s praise and thank God for the Eucharist and ask for an increase of the gift of faith within each of us. 

While we cannot comprehend or explain how the Eucharist becomes the very Body and Blood of Christ, I think we can see why God chose to have its physicality remain as bread and wine in taste and appearance. For who of us would actually 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 of the Eucharist. Pope Francis has put it most simply and clearly saying: “It is Jesus, it is the Jesus who saved us, it is the Jesus who comes to give us strength to live. It is Jesus, Jesus alive.”