The Real Presense November 23, 2004

Has anyone ever heard of the town of Lanciano? Lanciano is a small town on the Adriatic Sea in Italy. It’s the site of the first recorded Eucharistic miracle.

In the year 700, a Basilian monk (that's Basilian, not Brazilian. There was no Brazil in 700) was having a crisis of faith. He had doubts about the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. As time went on, his doubts grew and his priesthood faltered. In celebrating mass, he spoke the words of the consecration, but he was really just going through the motions. Fortunately, the words themselves perform the sacrament, not the priest’s attitude.

One morning, after saying the words, he was astonished to look down at the altar and see that the bread and wine had been transformed into actual flesh and blood. We believe that the bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, but that they retain the appearance of bread and wine. Not this time. They were actual flesh and actual blood.

The monk began to weep. He called the members of the congregation to gather around the altar to witness what had happened. He told them that God had revealed Himself to them in order to cure the monk’s unbelief. As you can imagine, those present got very excited.

The blood coagulated into five individual globules, each of a different size. The archbishop sent a scale to weigh them, and it turned out that each one weighed the same as the others, in spite of the difference in their size. Every possible combination of two or more also weighed the same and the combined weight of all five was also the same. Church authorities authenticated the miracle.

The flesh and the blood were put into special containers but the containers weren’t sealed. Even so, they have not changed in over 1,300 years. In 1574, the church again permitted the weighing of the five globules of blood in the presence of witnesses. The results were the same as they had been in 700.

In 1970, Pope Paul VI permitted a series of scientific studies to be done on the relics. The studies were repeated in 1981 with newer, more advanced technology. Scientists concluded that the flesh is authentic, and that it is human heart tissue. The blood is also human, type AB, the same as the heart and the same as the blood found on the Shroud of Turin. The doctors concluded that no one living in the 8^th century could have collected such a sample with the technology that existed at that time. Remember that these specimens have been unprotected from the elements since the year 700, and yet remain intact. There is no scientific explanation for any of this.

In a few minutes we’ll receive the Body of Christ in the Eucharist. Once again, we will have the opportunity to take the Body and Soul, Blood and Divinity of our Lord into our own bodies.

Obviously what happened at Lanciano was a miracle. But it was nowhere near the miracle that Christ performs every day in changing the bread and wine into His own Body and Blood. And you and I have the privilege of partaking in this heavenly food from this altar. Christ literally becomes part of us. That’s what He told us He would do and that’s what we, as Catholics, believe.

I think it’s ironic that so many people, including many Catholics don’t believe that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist. “How could he change himself into bread and wine? It’s impossible. He was just speaking figuratively at the last supper.”

These are the same people who believe that He changed water into wine at Cana. They believe that he fed the multitudes with a few fish and loaves of bread. They believe He healed the sick, made the blind see, and raised Lazurus from the dead. He calmed the wind and walked on water. HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD!

But, He can’t make himself present on the altar, in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. To me, that’s blasphemy. To think that there’s anything God can’t do is just too silly for words. He’s God! He created the universe! He can break any rule He wants to. He made the rules.

When we finish our service this morning, we will expose this Blessed Sacrament on the altar for Eucharistic Adoration. We will have an opportunity to spend as much time as we’d like in His Presence, meditating, praying, or just sitting here, absorbing the spiritual energy that comes from the Real Presence of Christ. This is something that our ancestors fought for and even died for. Please don’t take it for granted.