St. Bernardine of Siena remarks that men remember more continually and love more tenderly the signs of love which are shown to them in the hour of death. Hence it is the custom that friends, when about to die, leave to those persons whom they have loved some gift, such as a garment or a ring, as a memorial of their affection. But what hast Thou, O my Jesus, left us, when quitting this world, in memory of Thy love? Not, indeed, a garment or a ring, but Thine own body, Thy blood, Thy soul, Thy divinity, Thy whole self, without reserve. "He gave thee all," says St. John Chrysostom; "he left nothing for himself... " St. Bernardine of Siena says that Jesus Christ, burning with love for us, and not content with being prepared to give his life for us, was constrained by the excess of his love to work a greater work before he died; and this was to give his own body for our food. This Sacrament, therefore, was rightly named by St. Thomas, "the Sacrament of love, the pledge of love..." St. Bernard calls this sacrament "the love of loves"; because this gift comprehends all the other gifts bestowed upon us by our Lord... The Eucharist is not only a pledge of the love of Jesus Christ, but of paradise, which he desires also to give us. "In which," says the Church, "a pledge of future glory is given us." Hence St. Philip Neri could find no other name for Jesus Christ in the Sacrament save that of "love"; and so, when the holy Viaticum was brought to him, he was heard to exclaim, "Behold my love; give me my love."

The Holy Eucharist
St. Alphonsus de Liguori