Question 9.
If the Eucharist was subjected to DNA testing, would it be found to have the nucleotides of a human being or of flour?
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
(1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
(Sorry, i got the questions out of numerical order.)
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:_wj7oEnOKtdmsM:http://www.indexstock.com/store/GetThumb.asp/ImageNum%3D1026384%26VOLID%3D3716%26gc%3Dgc1%26ss%3D1/Question%20Mark-1026384.jpg
It would show up as flour.
In our existence, there are two sides of a thing. There is what a thing really is, and there is a thing’s physical characteristics. The physical characteristics are dictated by the molecules that make the thing up. Now think about this very carefully: why do sodium-chloride molecules make up salt? Why don’t they make up something else?
The reason is that the particular properties of the sodium-chloride molecule, as dictated by the strength of the bonds involved, the electrical charge, and so forth, give it the properties that we know of as salt. But God made everything, so there’s a deeper question: why did He make those particular properties create a substance like salt, as opposed to something else? Ultimately, it’s becuase He chose to. He could have designed the physical laws of the universe so that different basic properties made a subatance that tastes salty.
In other words, God is in control over everything. He can take the molecules that make up bread and say that, for this one little part of the universe that the bread occupies, the rules don’t apply. In this little patch of existence, this is human flesh. This is what He does with the Eucharist. To all of our senses and all of the tests we can do, the Eucharist looks like bread. Yet it is, in reality, Jesus’ body, because God has made it so.
That doesn’t mean God always chooses to hide the flesh of Christ. Sometimes, He shows it. These are called Eucharistic miracles. In a Eucharistic miracle, God does
not change the rules of the universe, so to speak, and we see the true flesh of Christ as it really is.
The most famous example is the
miracle of Lanciano. While offering the Mass one day, a priest began to doubt that the Eucharist was truly Christ. God performed a miracle so that, in his very hands, the Eucharist took ok the appearences of flesh. It was witnessed by the entire congregation in the Mass. The piece of flesh has passed down now 800 years completely unpreserved. In 8 centuries, it has not decayed.
In the 1970s, the flesh was permitted to be studied by a team of over 70 unbiased scientists from the World Health Organization. They discovered that the flesh was a piece of human heart. The most astonishing part was that when they cut off several pieces for study, they weighed the same no matter what combination they were weighed in. In other words, piece A weighed the same as piece B, and piece B weighed the same as piece C, but piece A
and B weighed that same amount as
well, and adding piece C to the scale didn’t change it either! This is consistent with the Catholic teaching that the Eucharist contains the entire body of Christ, no matter how large or small a piece you receive.
There are plenty of other miracles around. If I am nost mistaken, the most amazing thing about them is that the DNA from them is always the same, and matches the DNA from the shroud of Turin.
Several of the Eucharistic miracles are available on video. Here are a few:
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8021437065680936367&q=Eucharistic+Miracle&total=138&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0 - the “bread” turns red and beats like a heart at certain intervals.
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8070995291235752072&q=Eucharistic+Miracle&total=138&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=3 - the "bread’ turns into flesh and blood on the tongue of a communicant.
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4009479065184218241&q=Eucharistic+Miracle&total=138&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1 - a documentary of several different miracles
Think about these, Socrates. You can’t easily dismiss them. Don’t just read this, or view the videos, and move on. Take some time off from the forums when you’ve read this. Go and be alone, in the silence. Pray. Just go spend time with God, even if it has nothing to do with the Eucharist or anything else. It is the only way for you to know the truth, what
ever that happens to be.
Peace and God bless,
)
I remember from our previous conversations that you tend to simplify things down into equations which don’t capture what people are actually saying. I’ve noticed a couple of things here.