The Institution of the Eucharist

On Holy Thursday evening, Jesus gave us the greatest gift possible, the gift of Himself in the Eucharist.

At the time He was betrayed and entered willingly into his Passion, He took bread and, giving thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which will be given up for you.” In a similar way, when supper was ended, He took the chalice and, once more giving thanks, He gave it to his disciples saying, “Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.”

The CCC teaches us, “By the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change is called transubstantiation.” The Eucharist is the whole Person of Jesus Christ given to us. 

According to Scripture, the heart signifies the whole person.

It can be difficult to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist because it looks and tastes like bread. But only the appearance remains after the consecration. The substance of the bread and wine is changed. It becomes Jesus. Through the ages, Jesus has given us Eucharistic miracles to strengthen our faith in the Real Presence. 

On August 18, 1996, a consecrated Host was discarded after Communion in the back of St. Mary Church in Buenos Aires. The priest was notified and placed the host in a container of water to dissolve before disposing of it properly. A week later, the priest opened the tabernacle and saw that the host had not dissolved. In fact, the host had changed in appearance to bloody human flesh and had grown significantly in size.  

He informed the Bishop, who is now Pope Francis, and he gave instructions for a fragment of the Host to be sent to Dr. Frederick Zugibe, a Cardiac Forensic Pathologist in NY for analysis. However, they did not tell the Pathologist the fragment was from a Host. 

In his pathology report, the Dr. concluded it was human heart tissue from the left ventricle. The tissue was infiltrated with white blood cells, which told him two things: this heart was alive when the sample was taken and this heart had suffered trauma because the white blood cells indicated injury.

The Pathologist was asked how long the white blood cells would have remained alive if they had come from a piece of tissue kept in water. “They would have died in a matter of minutes,” he responded. The sample had been kept in ordinary water for a month and then in a container of distilled water for three years before it was taken for analysis. 

The DNA revealed a Man who lived in the Middle East. That it was Human Heart tissue, blood type AB+, the Universal Recipient, because Jesus will refuse no one who comes to Him. The lab report was then compared to a similar study of the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, Italy. They matched perfectly. The test results must have come from the Same Person. 

There have been more than 136 documented Eucharistic Miracles. You can find them at Eucharistic Miracles of the World, the website of Bl. Carlo Acutis. 

The Eucharist is truly the Sacred Heart of Jesus!

Jesus revealed His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.

“While I was praying before the Eucharist,” she writes, “Jesus presented Himself to me, all resplendent with glory, His Five Wounds shining like so many suns. Flames issued from every part of His Sacred Humanity, especially from His chest, which resembled an open furnace and disclosed to me His most loving Heart, which was the living source of these flames…”

“My divine Heart,” he told me, “is so inflamed with love for the human race...that it cannot keep back the pent-up flames of its burning charity any longer. They must burst out through you and reveal my Heart to the world to enrich mankind with my precious treasures” Next, he asked for my heart. I begged him to take it; he did and placed it in his own divine Heart. He let me see it there—a tiny atom being completely burned up in that fiery furnace. Then, lifting it out—now a little heart-shaped flame—he put it back where he had found it. “There, my well-beloved,” I heard him saying, “that’s a precious proof of my love for you, hiding in your side a little spark from its hottest flames. That will be your heart from now on” After this I remained for on fire for several days, inebriated with Divine Love.

Then Jesus revealed to Margaret Mary that which causes him more suffering than all the pain he endured in his Passion and death, that for all the marvels of His excess of love, He receives so much indifference, ingratitude, and contempt toward his heart in the Eucharist. “If they would only give Me some return of love,” Jesus said, “I should not reckon all that I have done for them, and I would do yet more if possible. But they have only coldness and contempt for all My efforts to do them good.”

How generous has the Lord been 

We think of God the Creator as all-powerful, someone who just snaps His fingers and can give us whatever we need when we need it. But in Jesus we see a God who bleeds out individual drops of blood for us, who gasps out, in horrible agony, individual breaths for us, until all the blood is gone and He’s taken His last breath.

Jesus in the Sacred Heart pulls His heart out of His chest, He sinks to His knees, and He stretches out the hand with His heart in it, and He says, “Here! This is all I have, all that I am! What else can I give you? My love for you cost me everything. What is it going to take for you to notice me? To care about Me?”

How can you not respond to that? How can you not respond to someone who has been so generous to you at such a cost?

How much He needs us

Jesus tells us that the pain of our indifference wounds Him more deeply than even the agonies of the Cross. He is pleading with you and with me for a little love.

Would you turn away if your child reached out for a hug? Would you ignore a friend in tears, asking you to come because something terrible just happened? Then how can we ignore God Himself, who tells us that His Heart is pierced, not only by the abandonment of His Apostles in His hour of suffering, but by the coldness and contempt He continues to receive in the Eucharist?

Jesus revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque that we can console His Sacred Heart simply by receiving Him with love as often as we can in the Eucharist and by thanking the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for everything.

Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.

If you enjoyed this meditation, subscribe below.