Faith, Flesh & Forensics

Host of Evidence

During this Lenten season, especially during Holy Week, we are called to grow closer to Christ by deepening our faith.

An important part of this faith is to wholeheartedly believe that Jesus Christ is physically present in the Eucharist—body, blood, soul, and divinity.

Unsurprisingly, many religious groups like Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and more reject this belief.

Slightly more surprising is that nearly a billion Protestants around the world that agree with them.

However, what is truly shocking is that roughly seven out of ten Catholics either don’t believe or hesitate to accept Jesus’s physical presence in the Eucharist.

To combat this growing lack of faith in one of the most central Catholic doctrines, one could reference different sections of scripture, particularly in the Book of John, or draw from the consensus of the Apostolic Fathers like St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Clement of Rome, St. Polycarp of Smyrna, and more, who directly studied under St. Peter and St. John the Apostle.

However, that is for a different day.

Today, we’ll be focusing on eucharistic miracles that show that the Body of Christ is not simply a wafer but rather the true presence of the God-Man.

The following miracles have been examined by top scientists around the world, undergoing thorough investigation and scrutiny, only to eventually reach the conclusion that science cannot explain these events.

The first took place in the 8th century in Lanciano, Italy, where a Basilian monk, like many of us, devoutly followed Christ, His Church, and His teachings, but was having doubts about the His true presence in the Eucharist.

One day while celebrating Mass, during consecration, he witnessed something that would change his inkling of disbelief forever: he saw the host turn into living flesh and the wine coagulate into real blood.

After telling those surrounding him about what he saw, many obviously did not believe him and thought he was crazy.

After the word spread like a wildfire, the local archbishop caught wind of it and decided to commence an investigation.

The investigation concluded and the Church approved the miracle, but many were still skeptical given the lack of “third party investigators” present.

However, nearly 12 decades later in 1971, the case was reopened, as scientists with their updated methods and technology were sure they’d quickly prove the Church wrong.

The specimens were analyzed by Obdiado Linoli, the former head of pathological anatomy at the Hospital of Arizo and professor in anatomy, histology, chemistry, and clinical microscopy.

In other words, “an expert.”

Linoli and his team worked around the clock for roughly a year and the results shocked them.

The microscopic analysis of the tissue and blood showed that the blood was type AB, the protein profiles of the blood were consistent with fresh human blood, and the tissue was heart muscle—more specifically myocardium, endocardium, and vagus nerve elements.

Not only were the relics consistent with living human tissue, but they remained in tact for over 1200 years without any preservatives.

Another retired professor, Rogario Batelli, also investigated the relics a decade later and found the exact same results.

Incredible.

The second example occurred just three decades ago in 1996 when Father Alejandro Possette finished celebrating Mass in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

A woman approached him saying she found a discarded host in the back of the church on a candle holder.

Fr. Possette didn’t want to consume it, so he stored the host in a dish of water and placed it in the Tabernacle.

Despite hosts normally dissolving in a day or two, Fr. Possette came back a week later to find the host still intact.

More importantly, it had transformed into a bloody substance.

After taking a second to gather himself, he instantly reported it to the bishop of Buenos Aires at the time: Bishop Jorge Borgoglio.

Also known as Pope Francis.

After being stored there for several years with no decomposition, it was eventually investigated by a team of scientists, led by Dr. Frederick Zugibe of Columbia University.

A very well respected figure in the cardiology and forensic pathology fields, Dr. Zugibe is known, quite frankly, to not miss.

After much diligent work, Zugibe and his team determined that the substance was real flesh and blood with human DNA.

Similar to the Lanciano report, the tissue was from the myocardium, showed signs of trauma and inflammation, and had blood type AB.

Also, the living tissue contained intact white blood cells only present in living or recently living tissue.

Unbelievable.

The last example happened even more recently in Tixtla, Mexico in October of 2006.

While distributing communion to the faithful, a religious sister spotted a reddish substance on the host in her hands, identifying it as blood.

The local bishop, Fr. Alejo Zavala Castro, requested an outsourced investigation from Dr. Ricardo Castañon Gómez, a neuropsychologist and clinical psychologist, to determine whether the occurrence was a hoax or a genuine miracle.

Castro discovered both red and white blood cells including both macrophages and neutrophils, indicating the tissue was alive at the time it was sampled.

Once again, the tissue showed no signs of decomposition, the heart muscle tissue bore signs of extreme stress, and the blood type was AB, the universal recipient type, signifying that Christ, in His love, is “open to all.”

Interestingly enough, in each of the cases, the samples were analyzed blindly, meaning the researchers were unaware they were scrutinizing the Eucharist.

These findings were so unbelievably inexplicable that Castro, previously an agnostic, converted to Catholicism afterwards.

Unforgettable.

These are just three of numerous examples of miracles surrounding the Body of Christ that simply cannot be explained scientifically.

When Christ says “this is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me,” we would ideally submit our will to His and accept that the Eucharist is really His body.

However, understanding our fallen nature and proclivity to doubt, Christ mercifully grants us signs and miracles that what He said to His apostles should be taken literally.

Simply put, Christ gives us things we do not deserve.

That seems to be a common theme.

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Thanks for reading and until next time.

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