‘The Eucharist is our greatest treasure’
The Catholic Herald• June 19, 2025
In his sermon at a Pontifical Mass on 11 June 2025 at Northampton Cathedral, Bishop Athanasius Schneider described the Holy Mass as the eternal sacrifice of Christ and the Church’s greatest treasure. Preaching during his visit to the UK for the Latin Mass Society’s 60th anniversary celebrations, which culminated in the Faith and Culture conference on Saturday, he urged Catholics to approach the Eucharist with deep reverence, interior purity, and outward humility, following the example of saints, martyrs, and monarchs.
Northampton Cathedral, 11 June 2025
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
In these moments we participate in the most holy, the greatest, the most wonderful and the most divine work in all creation and in all eternity: the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Holy Mass is in substance the same as the Holy Sacrifice of Golgotha. We are present to the same work which Christ accomplished on the Cross, the work which Christ the Eternal High Priest is now and forever enacting in heaven in the presence of the Holy Trinity: the sacrifice of the supreme glorification and adoration of the Triune God. Because of this, it is also the sacrifice of the redemption of humankind and the sanctification of all creation. The Holy Mass is therefore the greatest treasure of the Church and of every Catholic. When something is the greatest treasure, people will sacrifice all they have, and even all they are, to protect it and to have a part in this treasure.
Saint John Henry Newman wrote:
“To me nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Masses forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words – it is a great action, the greatest action that can be on earth. It is not the invocation merely, but, if I dare use the word, the evocation of the Eternal. Here becomes present on the altar in flesh and blood, before whom angels bow and devils tremble.” (John Henry Cardinal Newman, Loss and Gain. The Story of a Convert, London 1906, pp. 327–329, words of Mr Willis in Cardinal Newman’s first novel).
All past generations of Catholics left moving examples of their behaviour towards this greatest mystery of our faith. The example of love and devotion of Catholics towards Holy Mass during times of persecution is a powerful lesson which may shake our souls and kindle them with a new fire of Eucharistic love and reverence. One of the most moving and glorious historical examples is Ireland’s loyalty to the Mass in the time of persecution, and the so-called ‘Hidden Saints of the Mass’, described in the book of Father Augustine, OMCap., as follows:
“After a tour in Ireland, the illustrious Count de Montalembert published in Paris, in the year 1829, some very interesting letters in which he describes what he had seen and felt in this country. ‘I shall never forget,’ he says, ‘the first Mass which I heard in a country chapel. I rode to the foot of a hill, the lower part of which was clothed with a thick plantation of oak and fir, and alighted from my horse to ascend it. I had taken only a few steps on my way when my attention was attracted by the appearance of a man who knelt at the foot of the firs. Several others became visible in succession in the same attitude; and the higher I ascended the larger became the numbers of these kneeling peasants. At length, on reaching the top of the hill, I saw a cruciform building badly built of stone, without cement, and covered by thatch. Around it knelt a crowd of robust and vigorous men, all uncovered, though the rain fell in torrents and the mud quivered beneath them. Profound silence reigned everywhere. It was the Catholic chapel of Blarney (at Waterloo) and the priest was saying Mass. I reached the door at the moment of the Elevation, and all this pious assembly had prostrated themselves with their faces on the earth. I made an effort to penetrate under the roof of the chapel thus overflowed by worshippers. There were no seats, no decorations, not even a pavement; the floor was of earth, damp and stony, the roof dilapidated, and tallow candles burned on the altar in place of tapers. When the Holy Sacrifice was ended, the priest mounted his horse and rode away. Then each worshipper rose from his knees and went slowly homeward. Many remained for a much longer time in prayer, kneeling in the mud in that silent enclosure chosen by the poor and faithful people in the time of ancient persecutions.’” (Ireland’s Loyalty to the Mass, op. cit., pp. 194–197).
The greatest reality in the Holy Mass is Christ Himself, really present in His immolated and glorified Body in the little consecrated host. Each faithful, when approaching the divine Body of Christ in the moment of Holy Communion, must show not only the interior purity of the soul but also the exterior adoration of the body. Real greatness is manifested when it bows down.
An example of such humility towards the Eucharistic Lord in Holy Communion may be seen in King Henry VII of England, as witnessed by Saint Cardinal John Fisher in the funeral sermon for the king:
“The sacrament of the altar he received with so great reverence, that all that were present were astonished thereat. For at his first entry into the closet [chapel] where the Sacrament was, he took off his bonnet and kneeled down upon his knees and so crept forth devoutly till he came unto the place itself where he received the Sacrament. Two days before his death the king was of that feebleness that he might not receive it again. Yet he desired to see the monstrance wherein it was contained. The good father, his confessor, in goodly manner as was convenient, brought it unto him. He with such a reverence, with many knockings and beating of his breast, with so quick and lively a countenance, with so desirous a heart made his humble obeisance thereunto and with so great humbleness and devotion kissed not the place itself where the blessed Body of our Lord was contained, but the lowest part, the foot of the monstrance, that all that stood about him scarcely might contain them from tears and weeping.” (M. Macklem, The Life of John Fisher, Ottawa 1968, pp. 20–21).
May the examples of Eucharistic love and reverence of the uncountable number of our brothers and sisters who have gone before us in the sign of faith during the past millennia deepen our faith in the ineffable mystery of the Holy Mass and make our love and reverence towards the Eucharistic Lord in the moment of Holy Communion grow.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard said:
“Has Jesus not a right to still greater honours in His Sacrament since He multiplies His sacrifices therein and abases Himself more? To Him the solemn honours, the magnificence, the richness, the beauty of worship! God regulated Mosaic worship in its minutest details, and it was only a symbol. The ages of faith thought they could never do enough to heighten the splendour of Eucharistic worship. These marvels were the work of faith; the worship and honours paid to Jesus Christ are the measure of the faith of a people. Let honour therefore be given to Jesus Eucharistic. He is worthy of it; He has a right to it. … O Lord, we prefer exile, penury, and death to being deprived of Thee.” (The Real Presence: Eucharistic Meditations, New York 1938, pp. 144, 147).
Dear brothers and sisters, let us receive the Eucharistic Lord with love, with purity of heart, with a gesture of adoration and humility: the Holiest of Holies, the King of the Universe, in the little sacred host.
O Lord, when we have You in the Eucharist, we have all things and we will lack nothing. Amen.