In the Catholic world, Love and Life are a package deal. By God’s design, our human love brings fourth life. God’s Life in us is the very definition of Grace, by which we are saved. You can’t have one without the other.

When Jesus was asked “What is the greatest of all commandments?” Matt 22:37 He said, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

God so loves us that he gave is only Son to be sacrificed as the NEW Lamb in the NEW Covenant. He wants His life in us. He was imperative in John 6:53 Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.

and at the last supper: 1 COR 11:24 on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

And the apostles clearly got the message. 1 Cor 11: 27-29 A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

So did the early church, starting with those that learned directly from the apostle John…

Ignatius of Antioch

In his letter to the Smyrnaeans, Chapter 7

“They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes.”

Polycarp

“The Eucharist, pledge of our resurrection.”

“If our flesh is not saved, then the Lord has not redeemed us with his blood, the eucharistic chalice does not make us sharers in his blood, and the bread we break does not make us sharers in his body.”

Irenaeus of Lyon

Against Heresies (Book V, Chapter 2)

When Christ visited us in His grace, He did not come to what did not belong to Him: also, by shedding His true blood for us, and exhibiting to us His true flesh in the Eucharist, He conferred upon our flesh the capacity of salvation.

… and all throughout the centuries. During the Eucharistic prayer, the bread and wine transform substantially into the body and blood of Jesus (transubstantiation). Even 1,500 years later, Marin Luther believed Christ was present “with“ the Eucharist (consubstantiation).

We associate love with weddings, Jesus’ first miracle was at a wedding. In Matt 22:2 Jesus says: “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast* for his son.” In Revelation 19:6-9 we see The Wedding Supper of the Lamb, is a future event in heaven that represents the ultimate union between Christ (the Lamb) and his church (the bride). It symbolizes the joyous culmination of God's redemptive plan and the beginning of perfect eternal communion. 

If you are Catholic, remember that the Eucharist is a sacrament, which is defined as giving Grace, God’s life in us. To put it another way, God’s Love in us which we are to not only Love God back, but share this love with each other (greatest commandments). Jesus, who is God, was clear this is not optional, if we choose to Love God, this is definitely a big part of what that love looks like.