We are nourished by the miraculous healing power of the Eucharist

Lately, I feel like I have become one of the “older folk” I noticed at daily Mass throughout my life. Years ago I wondered why there were not more pressing things for them to do. Years later I realized that they were actually onto something and I was the oblivious one. They knew that Mass is the best way to start the day and the most important place to be on earth.

While I always believed Mass was important, I lacked full appreciation for the miracle that was taking place on the altar. Similarly, we sometimes neglect to notice the miracles of nature, like the beauty of blooming flowers, except that the miracle at Mass is the greatest of them all.

Christians believe God’s Word is true and that the miracles of Jesus recorded in scripture actually occurred. Not only do they reveal God’s omnipotence, but they also demonstrate his desire to heal us, to restore us and to make us new.

Yet, when it comes to the Eucharist it seems the majority of Christians and Catholics are not convinced of the miracle of transubstantiation, even though Christ’s words in John 6 are very clear. Transubstantiation, which means to transform a substance into something beyond what it was, occurs during Consecration when the host becomes Christ’s body and blood. Jesus said, “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me” John 6:55-56.

This past summer, at the National Eucharistic Congress, I was moved by the impassioned talk given by Father Robert Spitzer, S.J., philosopher, author and president of the Magis Center of Reason and Faith. He spoke of the many Eucharistic miracles, especially the Buenos Aires miracle in 1996 that converted atheist scientist Dr. Ricardo Castañón Gómez. A woman found an abandoned host in a church and brought it to the priest, Father Alejandro Pezet. Father Pezet placed it into a glass of water so it could dissolve and be properly disposed into a sacrarium.  A few days later, however, a big red ring and what looked like actual flesh was seen growing out of the host.

Perhaps providentially, Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, was the prelate at the time. When he was notified he said not to remove the host and to take photos so it could be studied. After remaining in water for three years it still hadn’t dissolved and the ring of flesh became more evident. Bishop Bergoglio said to bring it to a lab for investigation. Dr. Gómez, the scientist leading the investigation, took out a sliver and sent it to pathologist and cardiologist, Dr. Frederick Zugibe, at New York University.

“When Dr. Zugibe got the sample back he was absolutely floored,” said Father Spitzer. The host contained numerous white blood cells, which only live for a short time, so they had to be taken from a living heart.

“It’s literally wounded tissue,” Father Spitzer affirmed. “What you see is the fragmenting and the segmenting that is present in the heart tissue just before a heart dies. White blood cells are trying to heal the heart tissue because the heart has undergone a polytrauma. It’s a wounded heart.” The pathology report lists the blood type as AB, the universal blood type and the same blood type extracted from the Shroud of Turin.

Father Spitzer thinks God has allowed these investigations because in our secular world so many today want scientific proof. “Well, all I can tell you is, science is giving us a whole lot of evidence right here,” he said, “giving it 2000 years later.” Dr. Gomez is now a Catholic.

The following four additional Eucharistic miracles have been thoroughly investigated and approved: Legnica, Poland 2013; Chirattakonam, India, 2001; Tixtla, Mexico, 2006; and Sokolka, Poland, 2008.  Perhaps they have all occurred recently to awaken us to the miracle that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus came to us in the flesh through Mary, a sinless virgin, and gave us his whole self for all eternity.

Everything at Mass is oriented toward our personal encounter with Jesus. The altar is the Source of all Grace. We are body and soul, yet many of us neglect our need for spiritual healing. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

The Eucharist has become my spiritual nourishment, my anti-anxiety medicine and my saving grace all in one. Whenever I am feeling stressed, down, confused or hopeless I know my Divine Healer will help me and strengthen me. I know that he is there, in the Tabernacle, waiting for me. He’s the one I can always count on. As my unworthy self approaches the altar, I am overcome with gratitude that very soon my soul shall be healed.

Anna M. Githens is a freelance writer with a career background in finance, teaching and journalism. She holds an MA in Theology, a BA in Economics and a Certification in Theology of the Body.