THE WORLD'S GREATEST SECRET
John Mathias Haffert
table of contents
CHAPTER TWELVE
POWER OF THE SECRET
The miracles of Christ, as
we mentioned before, are the subject of most of the first century frescoes
brightly adorning the tombs of those who died for Him. But it is doubtful
whether any of those first Christians, except those actually in Palestine with
Our Lord, saw anything as dramatic and convincing as what happened in our own
century at Fatima. Paul Claude described it as "an explosion of the
supernatural. " Three children claimed to receive a message from Heaven
in a country whose capital had been proclaimed "the atheist capital of
the world." They predicted that a miracle would take place at a certain
time, in a certain place, "so that all may believe." Such a thing
had never before happened in history. And the first important vision which
these children claimed was that of an angel* holding a Host over a chalice.
Blood dripped from the Host into the chalice and the children were struck with
awe and fear. Leaving the Host and the chalice suspended in midair, the angel
prostrated himself (in the Islamic manner of forehead to the ground) before
the Holy Eucharist and three times repeated the prayer which begins: "O
Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I
offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ,
present in all the tabernacles of the world,. .
2 Finally
the angel arose, took the Host and the chalice and gave the children
Communion' while saying: "Take the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ,
horribly insulted by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and
console your God. " Then the angel vanished. Subsequently the Virgin*
appeared to the children. She extended her hands from which rays of light
streamed upon them and they felt "lost in God, " and they found
themselves praying: "0 most Holy Trinity, I adore You! My God, my God, I
love You in the Most Blessed Sacrament!" Five other times the Virgin
appeared to the children. She told them that men must change their ungodly
ways of living or World War I would be followed by World War 11 and that even
"further wars" and "annihilation of entire nations" would
follow the provocation of international Communism. (This was in 1917 when the
children in this remote Portuguese hamlet had never heard of Communism and
Russia was not considered a threat to the world at large, by anybody,
anywhere.) She ended by saying that the revelation was from God, and that a
public miracle would occur on October 13th to prove it. As far as we know,
this is the only occasion in history when the exact time and place of a public
miracle was predicted "so that all may believe. " That miracle, a
phenomenon described by some one hundred thousand witnesses as something like
the sun falling toward earth, was seen over a radius of thirty square
miles.
3 All who saw it thought
they were about to die. No natural explanation was found.' When we ask what
the miracle proves, what "everyone may believe" - we are left with
the whole revelation of Fatima which began with an apparition of the Eucharist
before which an archangel fell in adoration, an exclamation of adoration to
God in the Eucharist, a message of reparation practiced through devotion to
the Immaculate Heart,* and some remarkable prophecies: World War 11, the
spread of atheistic Communism through the entire world, further war, even
annihilation of entire nations. Many of these prophecies made in 1917 came
true, and the others appeared imminent before the world celebrated the Golden
Jubilee of the apparitions in 1967 (as was also the case when Pope John Paul
II went to Fatima on May 12-13, 1982 to publicly thank Our Lady of Fatima for
saving his life in an assassination attempt). But in addition to the dire
prophecies were two great promises (if the Message of Fatima is heeded):
"Russia will be converted, and an era of peace will be granted to
mankind." It is remarkable that in 1967 His Holiness, Athens agoras 1,
Patriarch of the Orthodox,* the religion which is predominant in Russia, said:
"I often see a beautiful band holding the chalice of Our Lord over a
nearby hill, and I hear secret voices that speak of love between humanity and
peace among men." And on April 22, 1967, the forty-two-year-old daughter
of Stalin arrived in the United States for "self-expression" denied
to her so long in Russia. She said:
4 "It was impossible to
live without God..." and from that moment of her belief in Him "the
main dogmas of Communism lost their significance for me." There were
"no longer capitalists or communists... only people, the same everywhere
in their hopes and ideals." In a series of television programs which the
present writer produced in the late 1950's and the early 1960's on the
possibility of the conversion of Russia, he interviewed a former captain of
Soviet intelligence who testified that not only was personal belief in God
becoming common in Russia but that it often reached points of moral heroism.
George F. Kerman, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia who helped Stalin's
daughter come to the U.S., appealed to Americans to welcome her and to
recognize that "a new era is dawning." At Fatima, Portugal, the Blue
Army of Our Lady, primarily through its five million U.S. members, built a
Russian-style chapel near the place of the apparitions as a gesture of welcome
to the great people of the East. Here every day the Eucharistic Liturgy is
celebrated in the same manner as in Russia. The Blessed Sacrament is reserved
in this "Russian" chapel and simultaneously in a Latin chapel
beneath it. Perhaps history will judge the modern story of Christ with us, in
the Blessed Sacrament, in a light similar to that of the first centuries from
which came the great era of the Middle-Ages faith that bore the fruit of
modern progress. The triumph of East-West union, after more than sixty years
of persecution and literally millions of martyrs (far more than in all the
first centuries of Christianity) may well bring the greatest age of man,
greater than most would even dare to dream.
5 Logically enough, we may
ask why God seems to concentrate so much of His miraculous activity in certain
places, such as Lourdes and Fatima. We cannot read His mind, but we can
speculate. Perhaps this concentration is a means of calling men's attention
and allowing proof to build up, as it were, under proper and objective
observation. The secular press gives them little space, but it does not and
cannot fail to report them when they gradually come to world attention.
Miracles can be ignored only when they are isolated occurrences. However,
other Eucharistic miracles occur constantly all over the world. After all, it
is the same Christ in the Eucharist whether He be in Lourdes or Alaska, in
Fatima or Finland. We need not believe in any one of them. On the face of it,
some seem credible; others seem like pious fables which appeal, we think, only
to simple folk. But on second thought, aren't all miracles a sort of baby-talk
that God uses to reach us, His childish earthlings, we who strut about
pretending to be so grownup, so in dependent, and so sophisticated and
self-reliant? There is a story told about Saint Louis IX of France. Once he
was working in his study when a courtier burst in exclaiming: "Sire, come
quickly! Come to the chapel! The Infant Jesus is appearing in the Host in the
monstrance." The saint did not move. "I could not believe more
firmly in Christ's presence in the Eucharist if I were to see a miracle,"
he answered and went back to his writing. But few are like Saint Louis. One of
the oldest and best verified miracles of the Blessed Sacrament is that of
Lanciano, Italy. A doubting priest saw the appearance of bread in his hands
turn into that of bleeding flesh. The appearance of wine in the chalice
changed to that of five separate drops of blood. And this Flesh and Blood has
remained incorrupt since the eighth century.
6 The most recent
investigation, authorized by the Archbishop of Lanciano, Mons. Pacifico
Perantoni, took place in 1970. The results were remarkable. Not only did they
reveal that the Host and Blood were still incorrupt but that the flesh of the
Host is heart tissue. The report in I'O sservatore Romano of April 3, 1971,
reveals : 3 The investigation began with an histological study into the
"Flesh," and carried out microscopical, microchernical and
chromatographic tests of the "Blood." Immunological tests were made
in order to find out the species the same Blood and Flesh belonged to, and to
determine the blood-groups of both the Flesh and the Blood. Moreover, in order
to get a more certain and inconfutable scientific certitude, laboratory
analyses and electrophoretic tests of the proteins were made to determine the
calcium, chlorides, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and sodium contained in
the Blood. What were the results? 1) The blood of the Eucharistic Miracle is
real blood and the Flesh real flesh; 2) the Flesh is composed of cardiac
muscular tissue; 3) the Blood and the Flesh belong to the human species; 4)
both blood groups of the Flesh and of the Blood are the same (so they came
from the same person); 5) the proteins in the Blood have been found to be
normally fractionated with the same Percentage ratio as they are found in the aerotherapeutics
table of the fresh and normal human blood; 6) in the Blood there are also
chloride, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium in a reduced amount, while
calcium is in a larger quantity.
7 The report ends with a
photographic documentation and one of the Scientists, a professor from Arezzo,
writes: "Supposing the heart had been drawn from a corpse, I think that
only a hand with great experience in anatomic dissection would have been able
to get a' slice' of the heart of such a uniform size (as it is still seen in
the Flesh), and tangentially to its surface, as it is evident in the
prevalently longitudinal course of the fasciae of the muscle fibers, which is
visible through the histological examinations. Moreover, the blood in a corpse
becomes deliquescent and decomposes rapidly. In connection with this I must
repeat that salt or other substances used even in the old times to embalm were
not present in the histological sections. Lastly, though it is true that some
proteins have been found in 4,000 or 5,000 year-old Egyptian mummies because
of the preservation used, our case is quite different. A slice of myocardium,
left in the natural state throughout several centuries and exposed to the
biological and physical agents, was inevitably bound to decompose."
8 The writer has carefully
examined this miracle at close hand and has seen the magnifications (four
hundred times) of the muscle tissue. What is most surprising is the graph made
from dehydrated blood serum from the Eucharistic miracle which shows each of
the serum proteins to be present in the same percentages as in fresh human
serum. And to think that this miracle has been perpetuated, minute after
minute and hour after hour in our midst for over eight hundred years! It
causes us to recall with ever greater wonder the words of the priest who
showed us the incorrupt Host of Lanciano: Living Bread!" There are many
stories of miracles connected with some outrage against the Blessed Sacrament.
To list just a few places where, and times when, such miracles were said to
occur: Savings, Moravia, 1120; Excelled, on French-Italian border, 1453;
Poznan, Poland, 1599; Breslau, Germany, 1831; Orthez in the Upper Pyrenees in
1845, and many, many others. A recent account of profanation of the Blessed
Sacrament and Christ's dramatic manifestation was published in the mid1960's
in the Montreal weekly Patrie. The event took place in Bui Chu, China. Most
Eucharistic-minded persons (frequent communicants) tend to regret such
miracles on the periphery of the major miracle of transubstantiation. They
admit that in some instances miracles have been necessary because of
blasphemy, lack of faith, or need of reparation. But they rarely express
interest in hearing about them. And that seems to be pretty generally the
official Church attitude. The miracle of Bolsena-Orvietc, is a notable
exception because the Pope personally conducted the investigation almost
"on the spot" and thereupon commissioned Saint Thomas Aquinas to
write the Mass of the "Body of Christ" (Corpus Christi), for a new
feast in the Church.
9 The first time a Pope ever
traveled in a helicopter was in August of 1964 when Pope Paul VI flew from the
Vatican to Orvieto for the anniversary of the miracle. And even one of the
famous "Seven Altars" of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome commemorates
the somewhat gory episode. The story concerns a man known as Peter of Prague,
a Bohemian priest of the thirteenth century who supposedly doubted the Real
Presence. While celebrating Mass at St. Christiana's tomb in the take town of
Bolsena, Italy, he broke the Host after the Consecration and was stunned to
see blood flowing from it and dripping onto the corporal (or the square of
linen on which the Host and the chalice are placed during Mass) and onto the
marble beneath. Later the corporal was taken to the Cathedral of Orvieto,
where to this day it is preserved. Another strange story concerns a citizen of
the United States, Frances Allen, daughter of Ethan Allen, soldier patriot of
the American Revolution. When she was twenty-one she persuaded her mother and
stepfather to send her from her home in Vermont to Montreal where she could
complete her education at the convent school of the Sisters of the
Congregation of Notre Dame. Once there she soon made herself persona non grate,
for she took every occasion to mock the Eucharist. For the sake of peace and
harmony among the students the Mother Superior decided to ask the girl to
leave. One of the nuns, however, begged the Superior to give Frances another
chance.
10 It
was of no avail. So for a second time it was decided to send her home. On the
afternoon of her departure, she happened to be helping one of the nuns arrange
some flowers for the chapel. On impulse the Sister turned to Frances and said:
"Would you mind taking them in for me and putting them on the
altar?" Then the Sister added, again on impulse: "Be sure to adore
the Lord while you are there." The girl reached the sanctuary gate just a
few steps from the altar and suddenly found herself unable to move farther.
Her legs seemed paralyzed. A moment later she fell to her knees, babbling
words of faith. The following year she entered the cloister of Hotel Dieu in
Montreal as a postulant, and later she went on to become the first nun from
the thirteen original colonies. Perhaps emotion rather than the direct
intervention of God caused a seeming paralysis, but in view of the outcome,
isn't it logical to suppose that God may well have had a hand in what
happened? This incident occurred back in the early 1800's. There are similar
happenings in our own day. Sr. Mary Claude of the Holy Cross (who wrote of
this herself for the present writer) had gone with another sister to visit a
sick parishioner. By mistake they called at the wrong house. But the woman who
greeted them at the door invited them in and began to ask questions about the
faith. Finally, she asked if she could have formal instructions. In the weeks
that followed she accepted the doctrine of Christianity eagerly, with one
exception: She could not bring herself to believe in the Eucharist. 'Member of
the Congregation of the Holy Cross, Montreal (1%7).
11 The Sisters suggested
that she attend Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and they recommended:
"When the Host is held up in the monstrance,* ask God to help you believe
in the Real Presence." The following week the Sisters visited their protégé
again and inquired how she had liked the ceremony of Benediction. * "He
was beautiful!" came the instant and glowing response. Nonplussed, the
Sisters began asking questions, and the neophyte explained that she had seen
the Lord leave the monstrance to bless the people and then go back again when
the priest returned to the altar. "I saw His wounded side through His
pure white garment and the marks of the nails on His hands and feet," she
added, and was surprised to know that her experience had been unusual.
Imagination? Possibly. But to the day of her death some years afterward the
woman stuck to her story, and she refused to be satisfied with any picture of
Christ that she saw. "He was much more beautiful than that," she
insisted. But this book is not meant to be a recital of the unusual or the
quaint or the fantastic. Aside from the cures of Lourdes and Fatima, little
scientific effort has been made to verify any of the so-called miracles, so we
cannot speak of them with much assurance. However, every Christian knows that
the most important Eucharistic miracles are not miracles at all in the sense
that they can be outwardly perceived. In the Eucharist this morning Christ
enabled a man to overcome his unruly passions; He strengthened a woman against
the undertow of her malicious resentment; He calmed a storm of hatred and
healed a soul in grief.
12 Miracles
of this type happen every day, everywhere, and they are the important miracles
of the Eucharist. Here we have Christ dwelling among us; and "power goes
forth from Him." What was a secret of early Christians becomes a secret
of personal force, now, everywhere. That is perhaps the lasting and most
exciting impression we get of the Eucharistic Christ, the effects of the
"forces" that are His Body suspended in relation to those of bread:
Power. One need only experience it for a moment, or see it as Doctor Carrel
did, and the whole world changes. No longer are we alone. No longer does life
seem meaningless. No longer do crosses weigh. No longer is there room for
anything but surging, glorious hope!
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