Misunderstanding Catholicism: Eucharistic Miracles

Is Seeing Necessary to Believe?

(Photograph courtesy of Pixabay)

Many people may not be familiar with the term “eucharist,” much less “eucharistic miracle,” yet the latter term made national headlines on the internet recently. (“Eucharist” means thanksgiving and is a word traditionally used to refer to Holy Communion.)

For a brief background note, Catholics take Christ’s words literally: “This IS my body” and “This IS my blood,” means that at the high point of the Holy Mass called the “consecration,” the “bread” is transformed into the body of Christ and the wine is transformed into the blood of Christ.

There is no change in appearance, yet what takes place is nevertheless a true “transubstantiation.” Thus, in a real sense, a miracle takes place during every single Holy Mass.

What happened recently to make the eucharistic celebration newsworthy occurred during Holy Mass March 5th at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Thomaston, Connecticut. At one point during distribution of the “bread” during communion [Catholics use small round wafers called “hosts”], the Eucharistic minister [person distributing the hosts] noticed they were running completely out of hosts.

Suddenly there were more hosts in the ciborium, which is a goblet-shaped vessel that holds the hosts. They simply seemed to have mysteriously multiplied without any physical intervention.

Although this alleged miracle is under investigation by the Church and has not been declared an official miracle, it is reminiscent of the time that Jesus multiplied the five loaves of bread and two fish into enough food to feed a crowd of 5,000.

Historically, 152 Eucharistic Miracles have been documented. Four of these miracles took place in the 21st century. A traveling display of posters with photos and descriptions of eucharistic miracles came to my church a few months ago.

A great book exists with the same photos and details of each miracle: The Eucharistic Miracles of the World: Catalogue of the Vatican International Exhibition, published by Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration Association, Inc. (www.therealpresence.org).

One amazing Eucharistic miracle backed by independent scientific analysis occurred in Poland in October of 2008. The priest dropped a consecrated host on the ground while he was giving hosts to people. Because one approved way of handling with great respect a host that has been dropped on the floor is to place it in a vessel of water, the priest did so and placed the vessel inside a safe.

Seven days later, when the vessel was removed from the safe, a red stain that looked like blood was on the host.

The host was placed on cloth and preserved until January when a sample was delivered to two professionals in histopathology at the University of Medicine in Bialystok.

They reported, “The sample sent for evaluation looks like myocardial tissue. In our opinion, of all the tissues of living organisms, this is the one that resembles it the most.”

Another similarly amazing miracle took place in Mexico in 2006 with a similar reddish substance appearing on a host that was being handed to a parishioner. The host was not consumed but kept for scientific analysis.

Dr. John Compagno, a preeminent histopathologist, discovered red and white blood cells. Further tests proved heart muscle was involved. Two different studies conducted by forensic experts determined the substance originated from the interior “excluding the hypothesis that someone could have applied it from the outside.” What’s more, in 2010, microscopic studies of the same preserved sample revealed both coagulated blood as well as “the presence of fresh blood.”

I realize there is a shocking aspect to the idea that Catholics believe they are consuming the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. However, there are many shocking aspects of Christianity. Jesus was crucified like a common criminal even though he never sinned or broke the law. Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to 500 people. He said our bodies will be resurrected on the Last Day.

Why should we be surprised that Jesus provided a way for believers to encounter His Real Presence every single time they participate in receiving His Body and Blood?

Perhaps these documented Eucharistic miracles occur to shock non-believers into considering the truth in the same way Jesus granted a request to doubting Thomas.

When Thomas heard that the Risen Lord had appeared and spoken to other disciples, he was skeptical and said he would not believe that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead unless Thomas could touch the nail holes in His hands and put his own hand in the side of Jesus.

Jesus granted his request and said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (John 20:29).

Jesus was clear in His teaching about the Real Presence. The Jews were questioning whether he meant what He said literally when Jesus said “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:51).

Some disciples said “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat”?

Jesus replied, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (John 6:53).

Jesus elaborates on this truth for five more verses which are certainly worth a look. Following his clear, strong discourse, during which he even asks if they are shocked by the truth, some of His own disciples decided this teaching was too hard to believe. Verse 66 reads, “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”

If you will forgive the bad pun, it occurred to me that these skeptics found Jesus’ teaching too hard to swallow.

Language can trip us up when we try to discuss difficult theological topics, such as Jesus’ Real Presence in Holy Communion. For instance, the priest in Connecticut who reported the recent multiplication of hosts as an event in which Jesus multiplied himself. That language may strike people as absurd. Language has its limitations, as we all know. Historically, when Catholics have proclaimed the truth of transubstantiation, some people have accused Catholics of being cannibalistic.

However, for the truth, we can read John 6 and look at what Jesus himself said. We shouldn’t be put off by human attempts to explain the miraculous.

After all, miracles speak for themselves!