By C.M. Paul
Dimapur, March 28, 2024: Bishop James Thoppil of Kohima has intervened at the claim of a Eucharistic miracle in one of the parishes in the northeastern diocese that covers the entire state of Nagaland.
The bishop’s intervention on March 27 came three days after the alleged miracle occurred at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Chumukedima, a parish near Dimapur airport, a few km from the bishop’s residence.
The occurrence of consecrated host turning solid and bleeding has baffled both clergy and faithful in the diocese.
Father Johnson Vadakkapurathan, the priest in charge of the parish, narrated the sequence of events to Matters India on March 27.
About a month ago, a Catholic parishioner brought her Baptist friend to the Sunday Mass. At communion time the Baptist woman received the Holy Communion but took it home after pretending to consume it.
The Baptists believe Christ is present when taking communion but unlike Catholics, they do not believe in transubstantiation (that the elements literally transform into the body and blood).
Feeling guilty for her act of desecration of the Sacred Host, the woman spent a restless night. Early next morning she ran to her Catholic neighbour and explained the matter and showed her the communion covered with a white paper.
The Catholic friend called the parish priest but he was not available, so she called a Carmelite nun serving the parish and brought the communion to the church.
Father Vadakkapurathan took the consecrated host and broke it into pieces and kept it in a small glass tumbler or cruet and poured holy water to dissolve it. He then kept it in the tabernacle planning to dispose of it later.
In such cases, the custom of the Catholic Church is to reverentially dispose of the sacred host, either by consumption by the priest or by dissolving it in water and pouring it into a hole dug for the purpose.
Normally the host in contact with saliva or water dissolves within a few seconds, but when the priest examined the host after several days, the host had not dissolved.
On Palm Sunday, Father Vadakkapurathan, on receiving a sick call, opened the tabernacle to take viaticum to the sick. As he was taking the consecrated host for the viaticum, he noticed something unusual in the tumbler he had deposited the host. He found the host intact at the bottom and a layer of something floating over it.
Shocked, the priest dipped his finger into the cruet to examine it. When he applied force, the layer broke, and blood started oozing out.
The parish then kept the sacred object for public viewing until Bishop Thoppil came and took it into custody for further examination.
Down the centuries instances of the sacred host becoming flesh and blood have been reported from various parts of the world, including India.
On November 15, 2013, a face resembling that of Jesus appeared on the host during Mass at the Christ the King Church, Vilakkannur, a parish under the Syro-Malabar Archdiocese of Tellicherry in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
The “Miracle” Host was sent to Rome for scientific study on January 10, 2020, through Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro who had come to the Syro-Malabar headquarters in Kochi, some 330 km south of Vilakkannur.
A famous “Eucharistic miracles” listed on the internet happened in Lanciano in Italy in the eighth century. According to tradition, a monk who had doubts about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist found, when he said the words of consecration at Mass, that the bread and wine changed into flesh and blood. The Catholic Church officially recognizes this miracle as authentic.
In 1995, the Sacred Host received by a woman named Julia Kim was changed to living flesh and blood In South Korea’s Kwangju Archdiocese.
Carlo Acutis, a teenage computer wizard who was recently canonized a saint, was a great devotee of the Holy Eucharist and his list of Eucharistic miracles are also available on the net.