- Christ essential to a properly formed conscience
We are hopelessly lost without Christ. Both by our weakened wills and dimmed intellects as a result of original sin, the capacity to properly form our conscience is thwarted. However, out of the sheer gratuitous gift of the Son who stoops down to our poverty, He shows us the Way. He walks with us as he did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Each person thus has the decisive choice of either entering into a relationship with Christ or rejecting Him.
- Christ as Divine demands a response from Man
Christ, as God, demands a choice from each person. Christ is not another noble person killed by a mob, i.e. Socrates. Socrates did not rise from the dead. Christ under His own power rose with a glorified Body, which is different than the Assumption of our Lady who was assumed by Our Lord’s power. His glorified Body is present in a unique manner in the Holy Eucharist.
Freedom demands an object, not an arbitrary term, why one is created free. People living idea bodily autonomy, mankind recognizing subjective opinions instead of what we see. These will end alone and a monologue.
God loves us because we are known by Him. If we don’t know each other, there is no relationship.
Peace is where Christ walks. Knew the Christians by their love. Known by being radically other, beacon of hope. Not us but we who live in Christ. People who radiate Christ.
VI Miracles attest to Christ Divinity
- The Cross and Resurrection is The Miracle and testimony to the Lord’s Divinity. All Miracles, healings, deliverances, apparitions, and even Scripture itself bears witness to this central, inescapable, historical and transcendental fact.
- Eucharistic Miracles are a subset of the Resurrection-
Miracles, as an extension of the Resurrection, do not in themselves cause Faith. Rather, they support and strengthen Faith already received. Faith, Christ is always a Gift to be received, never an object to grasped.
Chesterton, miracle a man with two legs. Breathing is a miracle.
Eucharist Miracles in particular have the potential to remind the soul to receive worthy, to sustain belief in the Real Presence, or to treat the Blessed Sacrament with the reverence it deserves. The Lord knowing the poverty of our human nature, gives these signs to aid our walk with Him. A particular miracle to reflect on in the month of July which is dedicated to the Precious Blood is The Miracle of Lanciano, Italy 700’s AD.
The Miracle of Lanciano, Italy 700’s AD.[1]
- circa 700’s
-Monastery St. Longinus Roman centurion pierced the heart & believed in Son of God
-Priest monk, unnamed “versed in the sciences of the world (ratio), but ignorant in that of God (fides)”
- suffered from reoccurring doubts that the bread and wine transubstantiated into the Body & Blood of Christ
- Immediately after the words of Consecration, the host changed into a circle of flesh and the wine transformed into visible blood
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At first bewildered, then after regaining composure spoke to the congregation, “O fortunate witnesses, to whom the Blessed God, to confound my unbelief, has wished to reveal Himself visible to our eyes! Come, brethren, and marvel at our God so close to us. Behold the flesh and blood of our Most Beloved Christ.”
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The congregation was that of townspeople who went to spread the news to other villagers so that they could witness the Eucharistic miracle for themselves.
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The flesh remained intact, but the blood in the chalice soon divided into 5 pellets of unequal size and irregular shapes.
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The monks decided to weigh the nuggets on a scale obtained by the Archbishop, calibration.
-1 nugget weighed the same as all five, 2 nuggets the same as 3 nuggets, the smallest weighed the same as the largest nugget, 15.85 grams
- Originally the Basilian monks had custody of the relics, then it passed to the Benedictines and then Franciscans
1887 Leo XIII granted plenary indulgence in perpetuity for those who visit the church of the Miracle during the eight days preceding the annual feast day, the last day Sunday of October
Christ love of priest, ‘confound my unbelief’. We presume so wise, skeptical, in his unbelief confused for belief.
Darkening of mind, truth of body, unawareness God can shake this unbelief.
Night comes, day follows. For the stars we need darkness. Grace always there. But must be asked for. If we see don’t ask for assistance to see.
[1] Joan Carroll Cruz Eucharistic Miracles (TAN: Charlotte NC 1987) Chapter 1
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