Eat my body, drink my blood. Really?

A portion of the host and heart tissue from Poland, 2008

Among the drama of Easter: "Take and eat; this is my body ... This is my blood..." [!!!!! How many are sufficient?]

The drama is not diminished by the intervening millennia. It remains a dramatic declaration, as Gavin Ashenden, for one, can relate. He was the Anglican Church's chaplain to the Queen from 2008 until his resignation in 2017. He is now a Catholic layman. One reason he decided to become Catholic was because of Eucharistic miracles — specifically, one that happened in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the 1990s.

From the testimony of a physician involved with the case:

On August 15, 1996, in the Parish of Santa Maria, a parishioner received the Consecrated Host in his hands during Communion, but inadvertently dropped it on the floor and thought not to pick it up because it seemed soiled to him. Another more pious person realized what had happened, picked up the host and put it aside, while quickly informing the Parish priest, Father Alejandro Pezet. The priest, following the instructions of the Church in these circumstances, put the Host in a container filled with water, which stayed in the tabernacle waiting for the Host to dissolve.

On August 26, the tabernacle was reopened to remove the fallen Host from the container, and it was found that the Host had not dissolved and had some reddish stains that were growing day by day. The Parish priests hurriedly went to the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, to tell him what had happened. It was decided that they wait before proceeding with investigations. After the Archbishop learned that I was freely following these scientific investigations, he asked me to take care of the present case.

The next step had a mind-blowing result: "A sample of the material was sent to a world-renown cardiologist in New York City, Dr. Frederick Zugibe, who did not know where the bleeding flesh came from. He reported that it was heart muscle from a man who died in torment." Dr. Zugibe reported:

The analyzed material is a fragment of the heart muscle found in the wall of the left ventricle close to the valves. This muscle is responsible for the contraction of the heart. It should be borne in mind that the left cardiac ventricle pumps blood to all parts of the body. The heart muscle is in an inflammatory condition and contains a large number of white blood cells. This indicates that the heart was alive at the time the sample was taken. It is my contention that the heart was alive, since white blood cells die outside a living organism. They require a living organism to sustain them. Thus, their presence indicates that the heart was alive when the sample was taken. What is more, these white blood cells had penetrated the tissue, which further indicates that the heart had been under severe stress, as if the owner had been beaten severely about the chest.

The author of Living In Wonder, Rod Dreher, writes in his (paywalled) daily newsletter:

Do you understand what he says here? That the sample was taken from the heart that was still beating when it was harvested!

The blind scientific investigation determined that the man was alive at the time the sample was taken. The blood type was AB — the same, by the way, as from all other Eucharistic miracles, and the same as found on the Shroud of Turin.

Once he was told what he had, Dr. Zugibe, an atheist, converted to Catholicism.

Other examples of the extra-ordinary continue in Dreher's account:

In Poland, something similar happened in 2008, in Sokolka. Two independent scientific experts examined the material:

The results of both independent studies were in perfect agreement. They concluded that the structure of the transformed fragment of the host is identical to the myocardial (heart) tissue of a living person who is nearing death. The structure of the heart muscle fibers is deeply intertwined with that of the bread, in a way impossible to achieve with human means, according to the declaration of Prof. Maria Sobaniec-Lotowska.

The host and heart tissue from Sokolka in 2008

The same thing happened in Tixtla, Mexico, in 2013:

There are four scientifically inexplicable dimensions of the Tixtla host:

1. There is a thin filament of tissue in the center of the Host from which blood is exuding. Histochemical tests indicate cardiac tissue (Sánchez Loza et al). The tissue seems to be integrated with the Host which is scientifically inexplicable.

2. The cardiac tissue is alive – presence of active red blood cells, and white blood cells/ macrophages in the process of healing. Since tissue dies shortly after being disconnected from a body and circulatory system, the presence of living tissue and blood (after three months – time between the miracle and the tests) is scientifically inexplicable.

3. The Host-tissue is exuding fresh blood from the inside to the outside. Blood on the exterior of host is produced in 2006 while blood on the inside of host is fresh as of 2010. The pressure of natural flow is from the inside to the outside. Which is scientifically inexplicable.

4. The DNA conundrum – DNA material, but no amplifiable profile.

The point that the last line highlights is, as Dreher reports, "the very strange fact that in all these Eucharistic miracles, scientists see DNA material, but can’t create a DNA profile of the person who shed the blood. Perhaps this is what you would expect from a man who has no human father."

He concludes: 

See, we do live in an enchanted world. And all the failures, sins, and even crimes of the clerics, and the people in church, and even of you and me, cannot deny the power of Emmanuel — God among us. They can only blind us to the truth.

See also: 

💢 Eucharistic miracles from the last 20 years

💢 Evidence still with us from 1300 years ago

💢 Eucharistic miracles around the world

Ω Leave a comment and, if you like this blog, go to my Peace and Truth newsletter on Substack, where you can subscribe for free and be notified by email when a new post is published.