Eucharistic miracles do not engage the faith, but they show that "the Word became flesh" (John 1: 14) and that the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is not symbolic but real according to the very words of Jesus shortly before his passion, reported in the Gospel of St. John:
I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." [...] Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever." (6,51-57).
The three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and John) tell what Jesus said and did at the Last Supper: "And as they were eating, he took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." (Mark 14,22-24).
The facts of Lanciano and Buenos Aires
The Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano, a little town in Italy, is undoubtedly the best known. This Miracle took place at the beginning of the 7th Century.
One fine morning, during the celebration of Mass, subjected to a great attack of doubts, a Monk began the Consecration before people from a neighboring village. Then, the Host was transformed into Flesh and the Wine into Blood!
Undoubtedly, “the Gift” of Lanciano was given for the people of that era in particular, but also given for the people of all nations and for all the generations to come, because what is most remarkable, is the continuity itself of this Miracle, a Miracle which has remained visible for all people to see for a period of 1300 years, without, however, the least use of any product of preservation or chemical substances whatsoever; allowing the Flesh and the Blood to remain fresh, because yes, the Holy Host, transformed into Flesh, and the Wine transformed into Blood, have subsisted completely intact for more than twelve centuries.
In 1970, 1971, and later in 1981, a scientific investigation was encouraged by the Catholic Church and the analyses, once completed, gave us the following conclusions:
1. The blood of the Eucharistic Miracle is real blood and the flesh is real flesh.
2. The flesh is made up of cardiac-muscle tissues. The way in which this piece of flesh was obtained through dissection from the myocardium supposes an exceptional ability on the part of the “Practitioner.”
3. The blood type is the same in the flesh and in the blood clots, AB. This blood type is identical to the one found on the Holy Shroud of Turin). Proteins were found in the same-normal proportions that are found in the sero-proteins of ordinary blood.
4. The diagram of this blood corresponds to that of human blood that would have been taken from a human body that very same day.
5. No trace of material or chemical agents was detected in the flesh or in the blood.
The preservation of the Flesh and the Blood, which were exposed in their natural state, without the least means of whatever form of preserving agents whatsoever, left to the action of atmospheric and biological agents, constitutes an extraordinary phenomenon, scientifically inexplicable.
Other miracles have taken place since that time, including a recent, especially notable that this is the current Pope, who considered this fact when, in 1996, he was auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires.
At seven o’clock in the evening on August 18, 1996, Alejandro Pezet was saying Holy Mass in the commercial center of Buenos Aires. As he was finishing distributing Holy Communion, a woman came up to tell him that she had found a discarded host on a candleholder at the back of the church. On going to the spot indicated, Alejandro saw the defiled Host. Since he was unable to consume it, he placed it in a container of water and put it away in the tabernacle.
On Monday, August 26, upon opening the tabernacle, he saw to his amazement that the Host had turned into a bloody substance. He informed the bishop Jorge Bergoglio, who gave instructions that the Host be professionally photographed. The photos were taken on September 6. They clearly show that the Host, which had become a fragment of bloodied flesh, had grown significantly in size. For several years the Host remained in the tabernacle, the whole affair being kept a strict secret. Since the Host suffered no visible decomposition. The bishop Bergoglio decided to have it scientifically analyzed.
On October 5, 1999, in the presence of the bishop’s representatives, Dr. Castanon took a sample of the bloody fragment and sent it to New York for analysis. Since he did not wish to prejudice the study, he purposely did not inform the team of scientists of its provenance. One of these scientists was Dr. Frederic Zugiba, the well-known cardiologist and forensic pathologist. He determined that the analyzed substance was real flesh and blood containing human DNA. Zugiba testified that, “the analyzed material is a fragment of the heart muscle found in the wall of the left ventricle close to the valves. This muscle is responsible for the contraction of the heart. It should be borne in mind that the left cardiac ventricle pumps blood to all parts of the body. The heart muscle is in an inflammatory condition and contains a large number of white blood cells. This indicates that the heart was alive at the time the sample was taken. It is my contention that the heart was alive, since white blood cells die outside a living organism. They require a living organism to sustain them. Thus, their presence indicates that the heart was alive when the sample was taken. What is more, these white blood cells had penetrated the tissue, which further indicates that the heart had been under severe stress, as if the owner had been beaten severely about the chest.”
Two Australians, journalist Mike Willesee and lawyer Ron Tesoriero, witnessed these tests. Knowing where sample had come from, they were dumbfounded by Dr. Zugiba’s testimony. Mike Willesee asked the scientist how long the white blood cells would have remained alive if they had come from a piece of human tissue, which had been kept in water. They would have ceased to exist in a matter of minutes, Dr. Zugiba replied. The journalist then told the doctor that the source of the sample had first been kept in ordinary water for a month and then for another three years in a container of distilled water; only then had the sample been taken for analysis. Dr. Zugiba’s was at a loss to account for this fact. There was no way of explaining it scientifically, he stated. Only then did Mike Willesee inform Dr. Zugiba that the analyzed sample came from a consecrated Host (white, unleavened bread) that had mysteriously turned into bloody human flesh. Amazed by this information, Dr. Zugiba replied, “How and why a consecrated Host would change its character and become living human flesh and blood will remain an inexplicable mystery to science—a mystery totally beyond her competence.”
These facts corroborate what the Catholic Church teaches
"The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend." In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained." "This presence is called 'real' - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present."ut (Catechiism of the Catholic Church, 1374).
The relics exhibited in the church of St. Francis of Lanciano, include a piece of flesh (in the monstrance) and five dried blood clots (in the crystal chalice).
