Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Eucharistic Miracle in Buenos Aires

Love One Another

The weakening of faith in the real presence of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist is one of the most significant aspects of the current spiritual crisis. Jesus wants to strengthen our faith in His Eucharistic presence. That is why from time to time in the history of the Catholic Church He gives us signs–Eucharistic miracles that clearly underscore the fact that He, the Risen Lord Himself in the mystery of His Divinity and glorified humanity, is truly present in the Eucharist. The most recent Eucharistic miracle recognized by the Church authorities occurred in 1996 in the capital of Argentina–Buenos Aires.
 
A consecrated Host becomes flesh and blood
At seven o’clock in the evening on August 18, 1996, Fr. Alejandro Pezet was saying Holy Mass at a Catholic church 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, Fr. 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 of the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.
On Monday, August 26, upon opening the tabernacle, he saw to his amazement that the Host had turned into a bloody substance. He informed Cardinal 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, Cardinal Bergoglio decided to have it scientifically analyzed.
On October 5, 1999, in the presence of the Cardinal’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.”
Only faith in the extraordinary action of a God provides the reasonable answer—faith in a God, who wants to make us aware that He is truly present in the mystery of the Eucharist.
The Eucharistic miracle in Buenos Aires is an extraordinary sign attested to by science. Through it Jesus desires to arouse in us a lively faith in His real presence in the Eucharist. He reminds us that His presence is real, and not symbolic. Only with the eyes of faith do we see Him under appearance of the consecrated bread and wine. We do not see Him with our bodily eyes, since He is present in His glorified humanity. In the Eucharist Jesus sees and loves us and desires to save us.
In collaboration with Ron Tesoriero, Mike Willesee, one of Australia’s best-known journalists (he converted to Catholicism after working on the documents of another Eucharistic miracle) wrote a book entitled Reason to Believe. In it they present documented facts of Eucharistic miracles and other signs calling people to faith in Christ who abides and teaches in the Catholic Church. They have also made a documentary film on the Eucharist—based largely on the scientific discoveries associated with the miraculous Host in Buenos Aires. Their aim was to give a clear presentation of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the subject of the Eucharist. They screened the film in numerous Australian cities. The showing at Adelaide drew a crowd of two thousand viewers. During the commentary and question period that followed a visibly moved man stood up announcing that he was blind. Having learned that this was an exceptional film, he had very much wanted to see it. Just before the screening, he prayed fervently to Jesus for the grace to see the film. At once his sight was restored to him, but only for the thirty-minute duration of the film. Upon its conclusion, he again lost the ability to see. He confirmed this by describing in minute detail certain scenes of the film. It was an incredible event that moved those present to the core of their being.
Through such wondrous signs God calls souls to conversion. If Jesus causes the Host to become visible flesh and blood, a muscle that is responsible for the contraction of a human heart—a heart that suffers like that of someone who has been beaten severely about the chest, if He does such things, it is in order to arouse and quicken our faith in His real presence in the Eucharist. He thus enables us to see that Holy Mass is a re-presentation (i.e. a making present) of the entire drama of our salvation: Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. Jesus says to his disciples, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe” (Jn 4: 48). There is no need to actively seek out wondrous signs. But if Jesus chooses to give them to us, then it behooves us to accept them with meekness and seek to understand what He desires to tell us by them. Thanks to these signs, many people have discovered faith in God—the One God in the Holy Trinity, who reveals His Son to us: Jesus Christ, who abides in the sacraments and teaches us through Holy Scripture and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
A mystery that surpasses our understanding
The Eucharist—the actual presence of the risen person of Jesus under the appearances of bread and wine—is one of the most important and most difficult truths revealed to us by Christ. Eucharistic miracles are merely visible confirmations of what He tells us about Himself; namely, that He really does give us His glorified body and blood as spiritual food and drink.
Jesus established the Eucharist on the eve of His passion, death, and resurrection. During the Last Supper, He “took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, gave thanks,and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins’” (Mat 26: 26-28). When Jesus took and gave the apostles the bread and wine, He said, “this is my body….this is my blood” by which He clearly meant that the bread and wine which He gave them to eat and drink really was His body and blood, and not some sort of symbol.
Earlier, in the famous Eucharistic sermon recorded by St. John the Evangelist, Jesus said to the Jews: “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. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (Jn 6: 53-56). Shocked by Jesus’ words, the Jews said, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (Jn 6: 52). Many of Jesus’ disciples were also scandalized. “This saying is hard,” they objected, “who can accept it?” Knowing that the truth of the Eucharist was a shock and a scandal to many of His listeners, Jesus responded not by retracting His words, but by raising the stakes: “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life”” (Jn 6: 62-63). Here Jesus goes to the heart of the mystery by anticipating the glorification of His humanity through His death, resurrection, and ascension. He will give His flesh and blood as food and drink after the Ascension; that is, when His flesh and blood have been glorified and divinized, for, unglorified, “flesh” is indeed “of no avail.”
Not all Jesus’ listeners accepted His teaching of the Eucharist. Thus He turned to them, saying, “‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him” (Jn 6: 65). Judas’ betrayal began with his rejection of Jesus’ teaching about His real presence in the Eucharist. In confirmation of this fact, Jesus said, “‘Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?’ He was referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would betray him, one of the Twelve” (Jn 6: 70-71).
The Eucharist is the Risen Jesus Himself in His glorified, and thus invisible, humanity. This is the essence of His teaching of the Eucharist (Jn 6: 62-63). By its death and resurrection, the humanity of Jesus takes on a divine nature; it assumes a new order of existence: “For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity, bodily” (Col 2: 9). In His glorified humanity, the Risen Jesus, becoming omnipresent, gives of Himself in the gift of the Eucharist. He shares with us His resurrected life and love that we may even here on earth experience the reality of heaven and partake of the life of the Holy Trinity.
Confronting the mystery of the Eucharist, human reason feels its impotence and limitations. In his encyclical devoted this sacrament, John Paul II writes: “‘The consecration of the bread and wine effects the change of the whole substance of the bead into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. And the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called this change transubstantiation.’ Truly the Eucharist is a mysterium fidei, a mystery which surpasses our understanding and can only be received in faith, as is often brought out in the catechesis of the Church Fathers regarding this divine sacrament: ‘Do not see—Saint Cyril of Jerusalem exhorts—in the bread and wine merely natural elements, because the Lord has expressly said that they are his body and his blood: faith assures you of this, though your senses suggest otherwise’” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 15).
The Eucharist is Christ’s supreme gift and miracle, for in it He gives us Himself and engages us in His work of salvation. He enables us to participate in His victory over death, sin, and Satan, share in the divine nature, and partake of the life of the Holy Trinity. In the Eucharist we receive “the medicine of immortality, the antidote to death” (EE, 18). For this reason, Mother Church holds that every deliberate and freely willed absence from Holy Mass on Sunday is an irretrievable spiritual loss, a sign of loss of faith, and hence a serious sin. Let us also remember that if “a Christian’s conscience is burdened by serious sin, then the path of penance through the sacrament of Reconciliation becomes necessary for full participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice” (EE, 37).
Fr. M. Piotrowski SChr

12 comments:

  1. Symbolism or substance?

    Will US Catholics, especially the bishops, and Al Kresta, begin speaking out against the unjust US-NATO-Al Qaeda war on Syria now that Pope Francis has done so? Or will they continue to support the opposition?

    “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” ~ Jesus

    Fox News – March 31, 2013 – Pope Francis calls for world peace in first Easter Mass as pontiff

    “[A]bove all for dear Syria, for its people torn by conflict and for the many refugees who await help and comfort. How much blood has been shed! And how much suffering must there still be before a political solution to the crisis will be found?” ~ Pope Francis

    Source: Pope Francis calls for world peace in first Easter Mass as pontiff – http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/31/pope-leads-easter-mass-in-st-peter-square/

    The Star Ledger – March 22, 2013 – Aiding Al Qaida as part of the War on Terror? That’s what McCain and Graham are doing

    “Do you support the call by John McCain and Lindsey Graham for the U.S. to intervene on the side of the rebels in Syria?

    Congratulations! You’re on the same side as the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda.

    And you’re also really, really gullible.” ~ Paul Mulshine

    Source: Aiding Al Qaida as part of the War on Terror? That’s what McCain and Graham are doing - http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2013/03/aiding_al_qaida_as_part_of_the.html

    The Syrian opposition consists of foreign mercenaries paid, trained, and armed by the US and NATO

    “We know al Qaeda [leader Ayman al-] Zawahiri is supporting the opposition in Syria.” ~ Hillary Clinton (to CBS News February 27, 2012)

    Source: Clinton: Arming Syrian rebels could help al Qaeda – http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57386279/clinton-arming-syrian-rebels-could-help-al-qaeda/

    VOA News – February 28, 2013 – US to Provide $60 Million for Syrian Opposition

    Source: http://www.voanews.com/content/kerry-meets-syrian-opposition/1612347.html

    Reuters – March 10, 2013 – Americans are training Syria rebels in Jordan – http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/10/us-syria-crisis-rebels-usa-idUSBRE9290FI20130310

    USA TODAY – March 28, 2013 – “Former soldier charged with aiding al-Qaeda in Syria”

    “A former U.S. soldier was charged Thursday with taking up arms with an al-Qaeda group in attacks against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.”

    Source: Former soldier charged with aiding al-Qaeda in Syria - http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/03/28/harroun-al-qaeda-syria-soldier/2029333/

    New York Times – March 24, 2013 – Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With Aid From C.I.A.

    “The United States has been helping Arab governments and Turkey send arms to the rebels.”

    Source: Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With Aid From C.I.A. -  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/world/middleeast/arms-airlift-to-syrian-rebels-expands-with-cia-aid.html

    Homeland Security News Wire - March 25, 2013 - Rebels, not the Syrian army, fired last week’s chemical weapon: experts

    Source: Rebels, not the Syrian army, fired last week’s chemical weapon: experts - http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20130325-rebels-not-the-syrian-army-fired-last-week-s-chemical-weapon-experts

    VIDEO – Syrian Christian Nun: NATO’s FSA Foreign Saudi Wahabi Mercenaries are Massacring Christians – http://youtu.be/_XaGsqnU-9U

    Scottish Catholic Observer – February 22 2013 – “Syrian Catholics live in fear for their lives, says archbishop” - http://www.sconews.co.uk/news/16569/syrian-catholics-live-in-fear-for-their-lives/

    See: The Second Reformation – Judgement begins at the house of God – http://wp.me/pPnn7-27Q

    Symbolism or substance?

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  2. all the popes have called for peace. not too many folks actually listen It is good you are listening.
    This Eucharistic Miracle is awesome.
    Thank you Jesus for giving us your body to eat and your blood to drink, Of lover of Mandkind, have mercy on us!

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  3. What is the origin of the photo included in this article? It doesn't appear to be associated with the miracle written about in the article but with another alleged miracle in Naju, Korea which, I believe, was shown to be false.

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    1. Someone misposted photos, correct, the photos with this article is not matched.

      More about the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist in NAJU in details-
      http://www.najumary.or.kr/English/signs/eucharisticmiracle.htm

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  4. Very interesting article. A few errors, however, stood out as I was reading. First: "By its death and resurrection, the humanity of Jesus takes on a divine nature; it assumes a new order of existence" This is not the Christian understanding of the Incarnation. From the very moment of the Incarnation, Jesus Christ was truly God and truly man. (see the Catechism 464-469)

    Also: "He will give His flesh and blood as food and drink after the Ascension; that is, when His flesh and blood have been glorified and divinized, for, unglorified, 'flesh' is indeed 'of no avail.'" Again, Jesus' was always truly God and truly man, and so his "flesh" did not undergo divinization after the Ascension. Also, Jesus gave the Eucharist at least twice before the Ascension: the Last Supper and the two disciples at Emmaus (24: 13-35)

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    1. In St. John’s Gospel, in Chapter 6, from Verse 1 to 71, Jesus explains the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist which He will give to His Church as a means of perpetuating His Real Presence on earth after His Ascension. Jesus said: “I am the living bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world” (John 6:31-32). Some of the Jews complained: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (Ibid. 6:53). Jesus continued: “Amen, amen I say to you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed; and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.”(Ibid. 6:54-57) Then, many of his disciples said, “This saying is hard, and who can hear it” (Ibid. 6:61).

      Knowing that his disciples were murmuring, Jesus said: “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profitheth nothing. The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life. But there are some of you that believe not” (Ibid. 6:64-65). It is written that many of his disciples went back and walked no more with Him (Ibid. 6:67). Jesus said to his 12 Apostles: “Will you also go away?” (Ibid. 6:68). Peter, representing all of the Apostles, answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (Ibid. 6:69). We can derive some important conclusions from the above conversations:

      a.It is obvious that the disciples understood Jesus’ words about His Flesh and Blood not symbolically but literally. That is because they complained and left Him.

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  5. The risen body of Our Lord was a Glorified Body-with different properties than pre - resurrection; (Passing through locked doors, being solid & touchable, then vanishing mysteriously, etc.). Yes He was always true God and true man,exhibiting (with occasional exceptions) ordinary human nature. After the resurrection, however He manifested a transformed Glorified body, such as will be ours after our own resurrection & judgement on the Last Day.His resurrection was not just the reanimating of a corpse.
    The Eucharist is a Sacrifice, linked to Golgotha. Our Lord looked "forward" to the crucifixion; we look "backward" to it. The Sacrifice on Calvary is the pinnacle of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
    We receive the fullness of the risen, glorified Christ in Holy Communion; "Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity of Jesus Christ, True God and True Man"

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  6. More about the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist in details-
    http://www.najumary.or.kr/English/signs/eucharisticmiracle.htm

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  7. EPARCHY OF TORONTO
    (Ukrainian Catholic)
    Apostolic Administrator
    Chancery Office
    Naju, Korea, September 22, 1995
    Sworn Testimony of Witnesses of Miraculous transformation of Consecrated Host and Wine, changing into living and moving flesh and blood, when Julia Kim received Holy Communion during the Celebration of the Eucharist at the open air Mass, celebrated in the field of the valley amidst the mountains outside Naju, at 5 p.m. on September 22, 1995.
    I, Bishop Roman Danylak, Apostolic Administrator of the Eparchy of Toronto for Ukrainian Catholics in Toronto, Canada, and titular bishop of Nyssa, herewith solemnly testify that I concelebrated the Divine Liturgy, or Holy Mass, with the Reverend Fathers Aloysius Chang, parish priest of the Kwangju Archdiocese in Korea, invited by me to assist during my visit to Korea; and Joseph Peter Finn, retired priest of the Diocese of London, Canada, on Friday, September 22, at 5 p.m. in an open air celebration on the grounds of the valley where a future church is to be erected, God-willing, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Mother of God.
    Following the Liturgy of the Word, I delivered a brief homily for the occasion. After the communion of the priests, Fr. Chang and I administered Holy Communion under both species to Julia Kim and the eleven others.. As we continued the distribution of Holy Communion to the others present, we heard a sudden sobbing of one of the women assisting at Mass. The Sacred Host received by Julia was changed to living flesh and blood. Father Joseph Finn , who had remained at the altar during the communion of the faithful, was observing Julia; he noted that at the moment he turned to observe Julia, he saw the white edge of the host disappearing and changing into the substance of living flesh.
    Fr. Chang and I returned to Julia. The host had changed to dark red, living flesh and blood flowing from it. After Mass, Julia shared with us that she experienced the Divine Flesh as a thick consistency and a copious flowing of blood, more so than on the occasion of previous miracles of the changing of the host into bleeding flesh. We remained in-silence and prayer; all present had the opportunity of viewing and venerating the miraculous host. After some moments I asked Julia to swallow and consume the host. And after the Mass Julia explained that the Host had become large and fleshy; and that she consumed it with some difficulty.
    The taste of blood remained in her mouth for some time. I then asked that she be given a glass of water., from the miraculous source of water nearby. As she drank the waters her finger touched her lips, and a trace of blood was visible on her finger. She rinsed her finger in the water and drank it.
    In testimony of this, I append my signature, together with the signatures of all the witnesses present.
    Dated at Naju, this 22nd day of September, 1995
    (signed)
    Roman Danylak, titular bishop of Nyssa,
    Apostolic Administrator, Eparchy of Toronto, Canada.

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  8. I am confused.. not about the miracle, .. but about the picture used in this report. The event only has a single Host.. here is a picture with what appears to be TWO Hosts.... can someone please explain?

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    1. We apologize, as it seems the photo that was included with the original article (link just below the article's title, above), was not of the Buenos Aires miracle, but of a different miracle, perhaps of Naju, Korea. We'll remove it since it isn't an accurate portrayal of the article's content. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. - Clare.

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