In our Gospel today, Jesus declares Himself, for the first time, as the Bread of Life, a common name that we use for the Eucharist. Yet, the question is, how does normal bread become filled with life and how does normal wine turn into blood?
The other day I shared a beautiful story about a miracle that occurred in Lanciano, Italy, which I would like to share in greater detail today. (the picture of the Eucharist, which is still intact today is above)
One morning, about 13 centuries ago, there was a monk who had serious doubts about the Real Presence of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist. When he had finished consecrating both the bread and the wine, the bread became flesh before his eyes and the wine became blood.
When a scientist examined each, he determined the following: the blood is, indeed, real blood, the Flesh and Blood belong to a human species, the blood type indicates that it is a single person, and, most astonishing of all, the Flesh is muscular tissue from a heart. In other words, the bread and wine, literally and physically became what we receive, the Body and the Blood of Christ.
So, that when we say, as we hear so beautifully in our Gospel, that Jesus is the Bread of Life, the life that each priest elevates at the moment of consecration, the life is, literally, a beating Heart in his hands.
Perhaps, we don’t always think about that nor really want to but that is why the Eucharist gives us such an abundance of life and why it is a food that can never perish, because, it feeds us physically, spiritually and eternally. In fact, that is why St. Catherine of Siena was able to live solely upon the Eucharist for many years, when unable to eat anything else.
It is also why the Eucharist has such power and amazing ability to transform us and to allow us, as St. Paul says in our second reading, to “put on the new self,” because, whether we realize it or not, every time we approach that altar in order to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we are changed, if even a little.
We become different, because we receive God Himself, we receive the same Jesus whom we kneel before in adoration, we receive the same Jesus before whom, as St. Paul says elsewhere, “every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth,” we receive the same Jesus who multiplies loaves and fishes and the same Jesus who performs miracles daily, especially upon this altar.
That is why, as St. Robert Bellarmine puts it, with whom I leave you with today: “The bread of wheat that nourishes our bodies is not prepared with so much labor only to be contemplated; it is made to be eaten. Thus the Bread of Life, the Bread of the angels, he says, is not offered only for our adoration and homage, but was given to us as food. Let us go, then, and partake of this Food to nourish and fortify our souls.”
The other day I shared a beautiful story about a miracle that occurred in Lanciano, Italy, which I would like to share in greater detail today. (the picture of the Eucharist, which is still intact today is above)
One morning, about 13 centuries ago, there was a monk who had serious doubts about the Real Presence of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist. When he had finished consecrating both the bread and the wine, the bread became flesh before his eyes and the wine became blood.
When a scientist examined each, he determined the following: the blood is, indeed, real blood, the Flesh and Blood belong to a human species, the blood type indicates that it is a single person, and, most astonishing of all, the Flesh is muscular tissue from a heart. In other words, the bread and wine, literally and physically became what we receive, the Body and the Blood of Christ.
So, that when we say, as we hear so beautifully in our Gospel, that Jesus is the Bread of Life, the life that each priest elevates at the moment of consecration, the life is, literally, a beating Heart in his hands.
Perhaps, we don’t always think about that nor really want to but that is why the Eucharist gives us such an abundance of life and why it is a food that can never perish, because, it feeds us physically, spiritually and eternally. In fact, that is why St. Catherine of Siena was able to live solely upon the Eucharist for many years, when unable to eat anything else.
It is also why the Eucharist has such power and amazing ability to transform us and to allow us, as St. Paul says in our second reading, to “put on the new self,” because, whether we realize it or not, every time we approach that altar in order to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we are changed, if even a little.
We become different, because we receive God Himself, we receive the same Jesus whom we kneel before in adoration, we receive the same Jesus before whom, as St. Paul says elsewhere, “every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth,” we receive the same Jesus who multiplies loaves and fishes and the same Jesus who performs miracles daily, especially upon this altar.
That is why, as St. Robert Bellarmine puts it, with whom I leave you with today: “The bread of wheat that nourishes our bodies is not prepared with so much labor only to be contemplated; it is made to be eaten. Thus the Bread of Life, the Bread of the angels, he says, is not offered only for our adoration and homage, but was given to us as food. Let us go, then, and partake of this Food to nourish and fortify our souls.”
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