Arrupe, as a medical student, was able to examine the medical records of
those who made these claims. In all three cases, he confessed that there
was no natural explanation that could be found. Arrupe reflected, “I had
been an eyewitness of a miracle worked by Jesus Christ in the Eucharist,
by that same Jesus Christ who had during the course of his life cured so
many who were ill and paralytic.”3 Arrupe recalled the image of the host
raised in the air as he saw the boy jump from the stretcher. Three months
later, he entered the Society of Jesus. The love and curing power of the
Eucharist was the beginning of Arrupe’s vocation as a Jesuit.
A second insight about the Eucharist occurred for Arrupe in Japan, where
he was sent in 1938. When the United States dropped the atomic bomb
on Hiroshima in 1945, Arrupe and his novices were living only a few miles
outside the city. The powerful experience of trying to save the lives of the
bomb victims became a dimension of his eucharistic model of working
for justice. After the Jesuits dragged the survivors into the chapel to
operate on them, Arrupe said Mass amongst those laying in agony. As he
turned and saw the victims, he prayed for both those suffering and those
who had caused the suffering by dropping the bomb. Arrupe describes
this powerful