Dear Goanneters,
Do we need miracles for our Faith? No, but God gives us confirmation of our
Eucharistic Faith. Let us thank God. We have several Eucharistic miracles,
but we should remember that of Lanciano, Italy, in the 8th century, when
medical anatomy was not yet developed. Till today it is confirmed by modern
science.
Regards.
Fr.Ivo
The Eucharistic Miracles of the World
The Eucharistic Miracles
Eucharistic miracles are God's extraordinary interventions, meant to confirm
faith in the real presence of the body and blood of the Lord in the
Eucharist. We know the Catholic teaching on the real presence. With the
words of consecration: "This is my body," "This is my blood," the substance
of bread becomes the body of Christ, and the substance of wine His blood.
This marvelous change is called transubstantiation, that is to say, the
passage of substance. Of the bread and wine there remain only the
appearances or species, which, with a philosophical term, are called
accidents. In other words, only the dimensions, color, taste, smell and even
the nutritive capacity remain. But the substance, that is to say, the true
reality does not remain, for it has become the body and blood of the Lord.
Transubstantiation can in no way be experienced by the senses; only faith
assures us of this marvelous change.
The Eucharistic miracles are meant to confirm this faith, which is based on
Jesus's words according to which what seems like bread is no longer bread,
and what seems wine is no longer wine. In fact, in the Eucharistic miracles
the flesh and blood-or one or the other-appear, depending on the situation.
The purpose of these miracles is to show that we must not look at the
external appearance (bread and wine) but at the substance, to the true
reality of the thing, which is flesh and blood.
Medieval theologians have carefully examined the matter of Eucharistic
Miracles (which were very frequent in their day) and have given various
interpretations; but the best founded and most reasonable one seems to be
that of St. Thomas Aquinas, the "Eucharistic Doctor" par excellence (Summa
Theolgica III, q. 76, a. 8).
He says that the body and blood which appear after a miracle are due to the
transformation of the Eucharistic species, namely, of the accidents, and do
not touch the true substance of the body and blood of Christ. In other
words, the species of bread and wine are miraculously changed into the
species of flesh and blood; but the true body and true blood of Jesus are
not those which appear but those which, even before the miracle, were hidden
beneath the species of flesh and blood.
If, in fact, the flesh and blood which appear were truly the flesh and blood
of Christ, we would have to say that the risen Jesus, who reigns impassibly
at the right hand of the Father, loses a part of his flesh and blood,
something which in no way can be accepted.
We must therefore say that the flesh and blood which appear in the miracles
are in the order of species or appearances, neither more nor less than the
order of the species of bread and wine.
The Lord performs these miracles to give us a sign, easy and visible to all,
that in the Eucharist there is the true body and true blood of the Lord.
But this true body and this true blood are not those that appear, but rather
those that are substantially contained under the species or appearances,
species and appearances that, before the miracle, were those of bread and
wine, and after the miracle are those of flesh and blood.
Under the appearances of flesh and blood Jesus is truly and substantially
contained as He was before the miracle. For this reason we can adore Jesus
truly present under the species of flesh and blood.
Father Roberto Coggi, O.P.