Eucharistic miracles

Posted: 09.11.09

A miracle is a direct intervention by God in the natural order which causes something extraordinary to occur. The best examples of miracles are those which Jesus himself performed. The Gospels contain many examples of these, such as Jesus curing and healing infirm people, calming storms, multiplying loaves and fishes to feed the multitude and turning water into wine. The lives of the saints sometimes exhibit miraculous occurrences, such as the stigmata borne by St. Padre Pio.

A miracle never occurs for its own sake. It is always meant to point to the reality of God and to instill faith in the one who experiences it. A miracle makes evident the greater reality of God’s loving presence among us. The purpose of miracles is very obvious in all those performed by the Lord. A good example is Jesus healing the paralytic lying on a stretcher who was brought to him for a cure. In this incident, Jesus points to the greater reality before he performs the miracle. Jesus first forgives the paralytic’s sins and, when the crowd seems disappointed, then Jesus heals the man physically saying, “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – he then said to the paralytic, ‘Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home’” (Mt 9:4-6).

Since the Last Supper, miracles have been recorded regarding the Eucharist and its celebration, but none as great as the Eucharist itself. In fact, these miracles are simply meant to point to the miracle that is the Eucharist and to what this miracle accomplishes for us. This is very much in keeping with the intention of Jesus who performed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes (cf. Jn 6) to point to the gift of the Eucharist that he would give to his Church.

One of the earliest eucharistic miracles involves a young Roman acolyte named St. Tarsicius who lived during the third-century persecution by the Emperor Valentinian. Tarsicius was entrusted with the ministry of bringing the Eucharist to persecuted Christians in prison awaiting martyrdom. He himself was attacked on his way to the prison while carrying the Blessed Sacrament and was beaten to death. When his body was turned over, no trace of the Eucharist could be found.

Over the centuries various incidents involving extraordinary phenomena and the Eucharist have taken place that include different manifestations. St. Anthony of Padua is known to have a mule genuflect before the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. A flame hovered over the head of St. Ignatius of Loyola while he was celebrating Mass. The three children of Fatima miraculously received holy Communion from an angel. Two recently canonized saints, Maria Faustina Kowalski and Padre Pio, experienced eucharistic miracles in the form of ecstatic raptures. It is not the intention of this reflection to recount the many miracles or to describe them in detail. The citation of these few examples is to make clear that such miracles occurred only to point to the ultimate reality of the Eucharist itself.

The miracle of the Eucharist enables us to see that God is always acting in our lives at every moment in what seems to be the most ordinary of events. There is nothing more ordinary than bread and wine and yet these become the body and blood of Christ, God’s presence in our midst. The Eucharist still looks like bread and wine and only faith perceives the presence of Christ. Through reception of the Eucharist, we come into communion with Christ himself who leads us into the depths of God’s being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Through this union with God we come into communion with each other in the fullest way.

Through the miracle of the Eucharist, our faith, hope and love are intensified and it is through these that we know God’s miraculous presence in our lives. Through the miracle of the Eucharist, we grow in virtue and in our ability to overcome sin. By ourselves, we are unable to overcome evil. It is Christ’s saving action in his passion, resurrection and ascension, celebrated in the Eucharist, which strengthens us in this regard. Through the miracle of the Eucharist, we receive a peace and joy that is unattainable in any other manner. Through the miracle of the Eucharist, we are able to see that every person is made in the image and likeness of God and that life itself is indeed a miracle. The miracle of the Eucharist gives us the vision to see that all events are extraordinary since they are touched by God.

Jesus warned against looking for signs and miracles. Such do not produce faith. In this context, Jesus made clear that his dying and rising for us, which we celebrate in the Eucharist, is the sign and miracle which transcends all others. He said, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” (Mt 12:39-40). Only faith sees the miracle of the Eucharist and that is why Christ says to us, “Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Mt 13:17).

The saints had the proper perspective toward eucharistic miracles, always realizing that such were meant to lead to the true miracle of the Eucharist which is only understood by faith.

St. Louis, King of France, who lived during the 13th century, was working in his study when a member of this court came in and excitedly told him that the infant Jesus was appearing in the host upon the altar. The saint continued his writing and calmly expressed that he could not believe more firmly in Christ’s presence in the Eucharist even if he were to behold a miracle.

St. John Bosco, the great saint of young people and the founder of the Salesian Congregation, who lived during the 19th century, was celebrating Mass in one of his homes for the care of poor boys. He went to the tabernacle for the ciborium when he discovered that there were only about 20 hosts to distribute to the almost 600 boys who were to receive holy Communion. The sacristan was anxiously watching because he realized, after the consecration, that he had failed to prepare a ciborium with sufficient hosts for the congregation. St. John Bosco prayed quietly for a moment and then continued to distribute holy Communion to the boys until all 600 had received.

After Mass the saint returned to the sacristy saying nothing. The sacristan profusely apologized for his oversight but then expressed his excitement at the miracle that Don Bosco had obviously worked in the multiplication of the hosts. He also remarked that the saint was unusually calm about this miracle. Don Bosco admitted to what had happened but remarked that the miracle paled next to the one of his having already changed bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. That sums up the true miracle of the Eucharist.

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