The love of Jesus in leaving himself for our food before his death

The Angelic Doctor calls the Most Blessed Sacrament "a Sacrament of love, a token of the greatest love that a God could give us." "The love of loves," says St. Bernard. O Divine Food, O Sacrament of love, when wilt Thou draw me entirely to Thyself?

I. Jesus, knowing that his hour was come that he should pass out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end. (John xiii. 1). Our most loving Redeemer, on the last night of His life, knowing that the much longed-for time had arrived in which He should die for the love of man, had not the heart to leave us alone in this valley of tears; but in order that He might not be separated from us even by death, He would leave us His whole Self as Food in the Sacrament of the Altar; giving us to understand by this, that, having given us this gift of infinite worth, He could give us nothing further to prove to us His love: He loved them unto the end. Cornelius a Lapide, with St. John Chrysostom and Theophylact, interprets the words unto the end according to the Greek text, and write thus: He loved them with an excessive and supreme love. Jesus in this Sacrament made His last effort of love towards men, as the Abbot Guerric says: "He poured out the whole power of His love upon His friends."

This was still better expressed by the Holy Council of Trent, which, in speaking of the Sacrament of the Altar, said that in it our Blessed Saviour "poured out of Himself, as it were, all the riches of His love towards us." The Angelical St. Thomas was therefore right in calling this Sacrament "a Sacrament of love, and a token of the greatest love that a God could give us." And St. Bernard called it " The Love of loves." And St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi said that a soul, after having communicated, might say, It is consummated; that is to say: My God, having given Himself to me in this Holy Communion, has nothing more to give me. This Saint, one day, asked one of her novices what she had been thinking of after Communion; she answered: "Of the love of Jesus." "Yes," replied the Saint, "when we think of this love, we cannot pass on to other thoughts, but must stop upon love."

O Saviour of the world, what dost Thou expect from men, that Thou hast been induced even to give them Thyself as Food? And what can there be left for Thee to give us after this Sacrament, in order to oblige us to love Thee? Ah, my most loving God, enlighten me that I may know what an excess of goodness this has been of Thine, to reduce Thyself unto becoming my Food in Holy Communion! If Thou hast, therefore, given Thyself entirely to me, it is just that I also should give myself wholly to Thee. Yes, my Jesus, I give myself entirely to Thee. I love Thee above every good, and I desire to receive Thee in order to love Thee more. Come, therefore, and come often, into my soul, and make it entirely Thine. Oh, that I could truly say to Thee, as the loving St. Philip Neri said to Thee when he received Thee in the Viaticum: "Behold, my Love! Behold my Love! Give me my Love!"

II. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. (John vi. 57). St. Denis, the Areopagite, says that love always tends towards union with the object beloved. And because food becomes one thing with him who eats it, therefore Our Lord would reduce Himself to Food, in order that receiving Him in Holy Communion, we might become of one substance with Him: Take ye and eat, said Jesus, this is my body. As if He had said, remarks St. John Chrysostom: "Eat Me, that the highest union may take place." O man, feed thyself on Me, in order that thou and I may become one substance. In the same way, says St. Cyril of Alexandria, as two pieces of melted wax unite together, so a soul that communicates is so thoroughly united to Jesus, that Jesus remains in her and she in Jesus. O my beloved Redeemer, exclaims Saint Laurence Justinian, how couldst Thou ever come to love us so much that Thou wouldst unite Thyself to us in such a way that Thy Heart and ours should become but one heart?" Oh, how admirable is Thy love, O Lord Jesus, Who wouldst incorporate us in such a manner with Thy Body, that we should have but one heart with Thee."