only be present under the appearance of bread and wine but actually allowed the appearance of bread and wine to be visibly present as flesh and blood!

Transcription

1 Homily for Corpus Christi 2014 I never expected to be in the presence of the first recorded Eucharistic miracle in Lanciano, Italy. Of course, the very first Eucharistic miracle was when the Lord gave his body and blood to his apostles at the Last Supper! But there have been moments in history when Christ has allowed for His body and blood to not only be present under the appearance of bread and wine but actually allowed the appearance of bread and wine to be visibly present as flesh and blood! In 750 AD, a priest was offering Mass in Lanciano and had in his heart serious doubts as to whether Christ s body and blood where actually present in the Eucharist or if it was some mere symbolic or spiritual presence. To his amazement as he looked down at the host that he had just consecrated he saw on the altar a piece of human flesh and in the chalice he saw a cup of human blood! Shortly after the blood began to coagulate into 5 portions and the host began to darken in appearance, so the host was placed in a monstrance and the blood in a sealed glass container. In the 1970 s renowned medical experts where permitted to investigate the miracle of Lanciano. They discovered that the host was not only human flesh but was a portion of a human heart muscle, and the blood was actual human blood, AB type to be exact, the same blood type found in the Shroud of Turin. The medical experts concluded this was truly human flesh and blood and

2 that its ability to have been left in such a state of preservation for more than 1200 years was beyond scientific explanation! And there I was in Lanciano! A group of tourists had just rushed through the church, leaving myself, Fr Jerome and two good friends to spend nearly ½ hour staring at this miracle, completely overwhelmed by what I was seeing, not sure what to say other than thank you for allowing me to be here to see and believe. But then something happened that I dare say was even more miraculous! Fr. Jerome after a while got up and went to pray in front of the Tabernacle in the church, to pray to our Eucharistic Lord living and waiting for a visit from his beloved people. And then it hit me! What happened long ago in Lanciano was truly miraculous and God has allowed for this miracle to remain for us to see and believe that the Eucharist is truly the body and blood of the Son of God, to no longer doubt but believe, (though I suppose there was some people in 750 AD who wanted to deceive others by a piece of human heart muscle, cut so thinly that it matched the dimensions of a host, and 5 droplets of coagulated blood that match the blood type of most Jewish men of the 1 st century AD, but for some reason I m rather skeptical such a feat occurred)!

3 But the even greater miracle resided in the tabernacle that Fr. Jerome was praying in front of! Because within is the living Christ, the boundless God humbly reigning in a tiny gold box, and not only was he in our midst but he was willing for each of us, in all our sinfulness and need for conversion, repentance, confession and starting again day after day, to eat his flesh and drink his blood, to enter into communion with him, for those 15 or so minutes that the Eucharistic elements remain within our bodies till they are broken down and the Eucharistic presence of the Lord is no more, is that not heaven on earth, to be still and know that our God is near, reigning within us, that we become his tabernacles of praise?! That is a greater miracle than what happened in Lanciano and it happens every single day. And that is why we are invited to take the Lord into the streets to proclaim this truth to the world! We are not afraid to go on procession today, to raise Jesus up for others to see, to allow those who may know nothing about the Eucharist to see our outward display of faith and God willing to lead them to know and believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. This was what motivated Pope Urban IV in 1264 to establish the feast of Corpus Christi for the universal Church. A few years before another Eucharistic miracle had occurred in Orvieto Italy when a doubting priest upon elevating the

4 Sacred Host saw drops of blood fall onto the corporal clothe below, offering the church a miraculous sign of faith that drew the faithful to Orvieto and inspired renewed devotion to the Eucharist. Pope Urban saw an opportunity to rekindle the flame of Eucharistic faith in God s people by celebrating this feast and encouraging people to take part in a procession throughout their cities to honour the Lord and bring him out to be among his people! And if ever there was a time in human history where the world needs to be shaken up to once again know that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, it is right now in a time of doubt, despair, and deep sadness that holds so many souls in bondage. We bring the Lord into the streets not to be pompous or religiously intolerant to the belief of others, it is to allow to people to see the true medicine for all the hurts that this world inflicts upon us, for nothing else compares to the healing balm that is the Eucharist, whether we receive him or even just gaze upon him, he is the answer to the deepest longing of the human heart to be loved unconditionally!

5 And it is also a day to ask God to rekindle our faith in the Eucharist or if we are plagued with doubts to help us believe in the midst of our unbelief. I ll leave you then with what I think is the most compelling defense of the Eucharist ever composed by the American Catholic author Flannery O Conner: I was once, five or six years ago, taken by some friends to have dinner with Mary McCarthy and her husband, Mr. Broadwater. She departed the Church at the age of 15 and is a Big Intellectual. We went at eight and I hadn't opened my mouth once, there being nothing for me in such company to say. Having me there was like having a dog present who had been trained to say a few words but overcome with inadequacy had forgotten them. Well, toward morning the conversation turned on the Eucharist, which I, being the Catholic, was obviously supposed to defend. Mrs. Broadwater said when she was a child and received the Host, she thought of it as the Holy Ghost, He being the most portable person of the Trinity; now she thought of it as a symbol and implied that it was a pretty good one. I then said, in a very shaky voice, Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it. That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.