Homily of H.E. Mons. Claudio Gatti of June 11, 2007

1st reading: Acts 11:21-26, 13:1-3; Psalm 97; Gospel Mt 10:7-13

I have decided to celebrate the anniversary of the great Eucharistic miracle that took place on June 11, 2000, every year at the feast of Pentecost. It is good that this great miracle, which took place in my hands in the presence of about two hundred people, in one of the most important liturgical feasts of the Church, should always be remembered on the day of Pentecost, even when we will no longer be here.

Today, June 11, we could not fail to remember it again.

Who, among you, will ever forget what happened that day, what your eyes saw and your nose perceived? You will remember that living, throbbing blood, which had spread over most of the host after the rite of the bread consecration and, despite being wet, was intact. You will remember that particular scent, which you have certainly felt at other times, but which must have exerted a particular emotion on you throughout the day and you will remember as one of the most beautiful of your life.

What happened is indelible in my mind because, in addition to what you have also experienced, the Lord has given me the possibility and the grace to savor the sweetness of His Blood; I can guarantee you that it has an indescribable taste and sweetness, it is something heavenly, it is Jesus’ Blood!

Normally, the sight of blood is upsetting and someone might even feel sick or faint, but before Jesus’ Blood, and you have seen it several times, all this has not happened. Some of you, when they see just a few drops of blood coming out of your finger, feel sick; in contrast, when they saw the blood spilling from the newly consecrated Eucharist or from the Eucharist brought by Jesus and Our Lady taken away from profanation, felt neither fear nor discomfort, but a great joy. You have experienced joy and almost wanted to remain permanently before it.

You have lived in a small way the experience of Peter, James and John at the time of Jesus’ transfiguration, when Peter said: "Lord, let us put up three shelters!" (Lk 9:33), that is: "I am not going to move from here, I remain in this continuous contemplation" because he really wished to continue to taste and admire the marvelous sight of Jesus’ transfiguration. You too have had the joy of contemplating these events several times; they have not only excited your heart, but have regenerated also the soul and have pushed it to take more and more decisive steps towards the Christ. Although men often turn away from Christ, He continues to shout: "I thirst for souls, I want souls!"

Seven years have passed since the great Eucharistic miracle took place. You know that in the Bible the number seven has particular meanings, it is among the important numbers, the same as three. Today we celebrate the seventh anniversary and we wander: "What happened to that work of God, of that intervention of God?" When God intervenes, He does it for men, to whom He always asks for consent, he does not act as a dictator or a tyrant who imposes, but as a father who proposes. Being a work of God, as we have been told many times by the Mother of the Eucharist, it has brought about a great deal of good and many conversions within the Church. This has happened in simple souls, who are not only children or illiterate people, but also consecrated souls, priests and bishops, because simplicity does not indicate a moment of life, but a condition of the soul. The simple ones are those who understand God the most, because they do not reason according to human categories, but according to the logic of God. We have not seen all that much happening in our city but we have seen something outside Rome.

Remember that human responsibility is something appalling and awful.

God put the freedom in our hands, because He wanted us to be free so we could decide for the good but, unfortunately, we also choose evil and this happens so many times. What is written in John: "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him" (Jn 1:11), this is particularly painful for our city. The responsibility, or rather the fault, belongs to those who are not simple and even young people may not be so.

Do you see how mental categories turn upside down? Priests, bishops, intellectuals, those who are satisfied with their own culture, may not be simple and therefore the acceptance of God's intervention is biased. The humble and the simple accept God, they go towards Him, while the proud one goes towards himself and his contentment, he places himself where God should stand: all this entails huge responsibilities, frightening detachments. Not only the mercenary shepherds go far from God, but also the souls they are entrusted with are dragged behind them.

I invite you to turn your eyes and see the whole world, so you will see some wonderful changes. In places where human action, through the missionaries, has shown in a modest and simple way, fires of love, faith and acceptance of the Gospel have developed. As the Mother of the Eucharist said, the merit does not belong to the missionary, but to God's action accepted by humble and simple souls. The Eucharist was welcomed and loved; several people not belonging to Christianity have opened their hearts to Jesus the Eucharist thus reaching true faith, the true Church and the one God. All this happened thanks to the intervention of God, who in these years did not act by chance or out of habit, but with a specific purpose: the redemption and conversion of souls. Even the Mother of the Eucharist is loved all over the world and she is even invoked by people who are not part of the Christian religion: Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus.

Therefore, if the Church today is larger and experiencing an initial phase of rebirth and cleanliness, we owe it to the blood of Christ poured out mystically each time, but always really present into the Eucharist and, by its intervention, also poured out in a visible and miraculous way for men to see it. That day, June 11th 2000, must be handed down, must be part of Christian memory and in this you must be responsible and bear witness.

Now I entrust you with a task that seems simple, but nonetheless it is important. Today I wear the same chasuble of 11th June 2000 and I am particularly fond of it, because it reminds me of that great Eucharistic miracle. As long as I live, I will be the only one to wear it and when God will call me to go and keep Him company up there, then this chasuble will have to be removed from liturgical use and kept in a place where people can see it and remember what happened. I entrust this task in a special way to the younger people, who have also the duty to preserve everything that happened here.

Today we have had Eucharistic adoration with the Eucharist that shed blood and which you too had seen. Here we keep five hosts bathed in Jesus’s blood, together with a sixth host that is the fruit of another Eucharistic miracle. These hosts are five just as the continents, so I was thinking that each of them must be in a continent: one in Europe, one in Asia, one in Africa, one in Australia, one in the Americas; each must be taken from one country to another, but remaining within the continent itself. We are already organizing the future a little bit and this too is entrusted to those who will come after me and you because the memory of God's action and God’s love must be handed down from generation to generation to bless God, to praise him for his interventions and to adapt our lives to the indications contained in the Gospel.

We love Jesus the Eucharist, let's make other people love him, spread the testimony of this love and please, wherever you go, even on vacation, if you realize that Jesus in his churches has little respect or is not sufficiently covered by adequate worship, you must go and protest with those who should take care of the cult, telling them that there is a lack of respect for God. Be apostles of the Eucharist and Jesus will open the door for you when you will receive the telegram where it is written: "Come, today you will be with me in Heaven".

Praised be Jesus Christ.