This is a remarkable feast day--celebrating the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ. There are so many reasons that Catholics believe in transubstantiation (the changing of bread and wine into the ACTUAL sacrifice of Calvary), but here is another confirmation of that belief.
*The Miracle*
In 1996 in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, Argentina, when the present
Pope Francis was Auxiliary Bishop under Cardinal Quarracino, an amazing
eucharistic miracle took place. He himself had it photographed and
investigated and the results are astonishing.
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 Bishop Jorge
Bergoglio(Now Pope Francis, Auxillary Bishop that time), 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(Who became Archbishop by that time) 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(the source of sample
was kept secret to the scientists).
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.
Also, Dr. Zugibe passionately asked, “You have to explain one thing to me,
if this sample came from a person who was dead, then how could it be that
as I was examining it the cells of the sample were moving and beating? If
this heart comes from someone who died in 1996, how can it still be alive?
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.”
Then Doctor Ricardo Castanon Gomez arranged to have the lab reports from
the Buenos Aires miracle compared to the lab reports from the Lanciano
miracle, again without revealing the origin of the test samples. The
experts making the comparison concluded that the two lab reports must have
originated from test samples obtained from the same person. They further
reported that both samples revealed an “AB” positive blood type. They are
all characteristic of a man who was born and lived in the Middle East
region.
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.
(Archbishop Bergoglio became a Cardinal in 2001, and since this miracle was published
by the time he became a Cardinal, that's why he is addressed as Cardinal in this post.)
No comments:
Post a Comment