Science Has Proven the Real Presence

I highly recommend Charles Coulombe's A Catholic Quest for the Holy Grail which, IIRC, has a long chapter on Eucharistic miracles.

From Catholic Stand

By Gene Van Son

Dr. Ricardo Castañon Gomez is not well-known to many Catholics.  But he should be.

Atheist Richard Dawkins has apparently never heard of Dr. Ricardo Castañon Gomez either. Dawkins tweeted recently that Catholic belief in the Eucharist is madness.  Had Dawkins heard of Gomez and the results of Gomez’s scientific investigations into the Eucharistic Miracles of Argentina and Tixtla, Mexico, he might not have tweeted his tweet!

Dr. Gomez is a scientist.  He’s also a former atheist.  He became a Catholic after leading his first scientific investigation to examine what appeared to be a bleeding consecrated host.  Recently he led a second investigation. Both investigations, as far as I’m concerned, provide proof of the Real Presence in the Eucharist.

Eucharistic Miracles

Dr. Gomez led the scientific investigation into the 1996 Eucharistic Miracle in Buenos Aires, Argentina (detailed in three separate PDFs, #1, #2, and #3).  He also led the investigation into the 2006 Eucharistic Miracle in Tixtla, Mexico.

In both instances, consecrated hosts appeared to be bleeding.  In both instances samples taken from the hosts proved to be blood and living human tissue.  And in both instances the tissue was living muscle tissue from an inflamed human heart.  Also in both instances, the blood was type AB.

These findings match the findings of a 1971 scientific investigation into the 8th Century Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano.  What’s more, the AB blood type in all three cases matches the AB blood type found on the Shroud of Turin.

And even more recently, in 2013, in Legnica, Poland, samples taken from a consecrated host that appeared to be bleeding were also scientifically examined.  The tests once again showed that the samples were of inflamed heart muscle.

So in four separate scientific investigations, in four different countries, samples of consecrated hosts that appeared to be bleeding have been scientifically examined. And in all four instances scientists said the samples were living human heart muscle tissue.  If this does not prove the Real Presence in the Eucharist, I don’t know what would.

More Proof

But it gets even better.

In 2004, eight years after the host in Argentina was first found to be bleeding, Dr. Gomez brought another sample of the host to Dr. Frederick Zugibe.  Zugibe was then one of the United States’ most prominent forensics experts.  Gomez asked him to examine the sample, but Gomez did not tell Zugibe anything about the sample.

Dr. Zugibe told Dr. Gomez that the sample he examined was that of living muscle tissue from a human heart.  Zugibe also said the tissue came from a person whose heart had been severely traumatized.

Dr. Zugibe was amazed when Dr. Gomez informed him that the sample had been obtained eight years earlier.  Zugibe told Gomez that the cells were still living when he examined them.  He asked Gomez to explain how this could be so when the sample was eight years old.  Gomez then told Zugibe that the sample was from a Consecrated Host.  Zugibe’s amazement turned to astonishment.

Also, in the samples taken from the hosts in both Lanciano and Argentina, live white blood cells were present.  Yet white blood cells ‘die’ within a few hours after being exposed to air.  The Lanciano blood samples were over 1,200 years old

To me these miracles show that what the Catholic Church teaches on Transubstantiation and the Eucharist is true.  And no other religion on earth can say that science has proven what it teaches is true.

Catholics Should Know This

But atheists like Dawkins think Catholics are mad to believe in the Real Presence.  Practitioners of other religions may think Catholics are crazy as well.  And even members of other Christian denominations might think Catholics are crazy to believe in Transubstantiation.

But every Catholic should know that we are receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist when we receive Communion.  Yet as the July 2019 Pew research revealed, many Catholics also do not believe in the Real Presence.

If only more people knew what science has to say about the Eucharist!

Uninformed?

You will get “about 550,000 results” if you Google the phrase “Eucharistic Miracle of Argentina.”  And you will get “about 28,500 results” if you Google “Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano.”  So there is plenty of information available about these two Eucharistic Miracles.  Why more people, and especially Catholic people, are not aware of these miracles is curious.

My wife and I make it a point to tell the kids in the eighth grade Faith Formation class we teach about these two miracles.  When we tell them about the miracles and the results of the scientific investigations they are spellbound.  When we talk about these miracles, we have the complete and undivided attention of the entire class.  The Real Presence becomes real.

Faith Formation instructors in classes throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world should make note of this.  Miracles – the Eucharistic Miracles, along with the Marian Miracles at Fatima, Lourdes, and Guadalupe – ought to be at least one lesson in the lesson plan for the year.  Young people are being told today that science has all the answers.  In these four Eucharistic Miracles, science speaks quite loudly.

It’s possible your children or grandchildren have not heard about any of these miracles.  Or perhaps they have not heard of the scientific investigations into them.  Maybe you should make it point to educate them!