So, yesterday I went to Adoration. This was admittedly maybe the 2nd or 3rd time in my whole life I'd participated in such a thing, and the first time in a church for an entire hour, with only myself and Jesus in the form of a consecrated host present. It gave me time to pray - the rosary, the liturgy of the hours, and just straight from the heart stuff - and time to meditate. It was peaceful, there in the quiet church. Quiet is not a luxury I get to experience very often, and I sometimes forget how powerful it can be.
I sat there, staring at the host, and then at the large crucifix above it, at the life-sized statue of Jesus on the cross. And I got to thinking. Those two things. Were they same thing? Really? This piece of bread? My head has examined the evidence time and again. And I have come to the conclusion, in my head, that... if I believe what the Bible says, if I believe what Jesus himself says in John 6, and I believe what the historical church has taught from it's very inception 2000 years ago, then this most astounding thing is fact. The bread IS Jesus. Logically, I know this most illogical thing is truth. I can't seem to rationalize it away. Theologically, the Real Presence also makes perfect sense to me. I've written about it time and again, and I understand that I NEED the real, actual presence and person of Jesus inside of me, so that I may take Him on, so that I may abide in Him as He abides in me. And I read the Bible, and I see the Old Testament foreshadowing, the preparation, for this most sacred of mysteries, and.... I get it. In my head, I "get" the Eucharist.
But it's different when you're there, sitting, in the quiet. With the bread and the crucifix juxtaposed so closely together. My head is there. Is my heart? Sitting in a quiet church alone can make a person feel close to Jesus. The stained glass, the candles, the altar, the statues. All of it. The house of God, in and of itself, seems to be a little gateway to Heaven. But it was different with the host exposed. Honestly, I was a little nervous. There was a tangible presence there, and even though I consume the host every Sunday, it felt as if I had a private audience with Someone that I'd previously only known in a "group setting". Silly. But true. A first date, if you will.
My time there at adoration made me think back to the Miracle of Lanciano, and the Miracle of Buenos Aires. 1400 years ago, a priest celebrating mass in Italy had similar doubts. Was this bread REALLY Jesus? And there, before his eyes, the bread turned into flesh. And it's still there, sitting in a church in Italy:
In Buenos Aires, in 1996, another Eucharistic Miracle took place in the diocese run by then Bishop Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis. A host that had fallen to the ground was placed in a glass of water to dissolve. Instead, it grew into flesh.
The scientific studies on both of these occurrences fascinate me.
In 1971, Odoardo Linoli (an Italian professor of anatomy and pathological histology) studied the Lanciano miracle. His research was published in "Quaderni Sclavo di Diagnostica Clinica e di Laboratori" at the time. I have a copy of the full article, in Italian. Luckily, Google translates things for me. Dr. Linoli concluded the following:
"A description has been given of the macroscopic aspects of the Flesh and the Blood of the Eucharistic Miracle which happened in Lanciano back in the eighth century.
Histological studies have been carried out with the following results: Flesh is composed of mesodermal tissue and recognizable as heart tissue, myocardium and endocardium.
Several studies on Blood, in particular thin layer chromatography, allowed to recognize it as belonging to Blood. The human nature of the ancient Blood and Flesh in Lanciano was identified immunologically by Uhlenhuth's zonal precipitation reaction. The Blood group in elution fluids of the ancient Blood and Flesh is the same in both tissues (AB group). The electrophoretic tracings of serum proteins of the ancient Blood show quite superimposable pattern to those obtained with a fresh serum. In the ancient Blood low amounts of sodium, potassium, chloride, non organic phosphorus and magnesium were found while calcium levels were increased."
So, human heart tissue, and blood type AB.
The Buenos Aires sample was studied by Dr. Frederick Zugibe, an expert in forensic medicine. He found that the sample he was given (he had no idea his sample had come from a consecrated host) could be "identified as a fragment of the heart muscle, which due to the large amount of white blood cells and the inflamed condition of the sample must have been taken from a living heart that had suffered a great stress situation."
The sample was also studied by Neuropsychopharmacology Physiologist Castañon Ricardo Gomez from Bolivia, who sent part of the sample to the Analytical Forensic Institute in San Francisco. "The Institute noted that it was human blood, confirming the previous studies. The DNA code is uniquely human. The samples were also sent to Professor John Walker of the University of Sydney in Australia. Independently of any other studies it was found that the muscle cells and white blood cells originate from a human and are perfectly intact. The studies also showed that the tissue was inflamed, which means that the person to whom it belongs, had suffered a trauma. In 2003, Walker told Castañon that the samples comply with an infected male, according to the signs also still alive according to the state of the heart."
Further comparisons of the two samples, 1300 years apart in age, and half a world away in distance, showed the following:
"The comparison showed that the studied samples come from the same person in both cases. The blood type is AB + for each, which occurs in about five percent of all people worldwide. The DNA is the same in the both cases. In addition, there are features that the man came from the Middle East. Further comparisons showed the same agreement with the grave cloth of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo."
HELLO!!
That's bombshell stuff, people. I don't need miracles to believe in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but if I DID? Bombshell. Stuff. Big time.
And sitting there at church yesterday, in the quiet presence, praying and meditating in front of the host staring back at me from the altar, time flew by much quicker than I'd expected it would. By the end of that mere 60 minutes, I knew. Not just in my head. But in my heart. How it happens, I have no idea. It's a miracle each and every time it does. Ordinary bread. No longer ordinary. REAL.
So often, I feel more like the Magi than the Shepherds at the Nativity. Instead of rushing to the feet of Jesus, dropping everything and just GOING, I think, I ponder, I calculate, I think again. I get there. Slowly, deliberately, maybe getting sidetracked along the way. If I simply took what I was taught, if I had the faith of the simple, the children, I would get there much sooner. If I was a shepherd, I'd be there right away. But I am the magi. And thankfully, the Lord accepts me, too.
I am not worthy. SO not worthy of this gift.
"But only say the word, and my soul shall be healed. "
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