Venerable Fulton Sheen
“Holy Communion is incorporation not only to the life of Christ, but also to His death. This second aspect is sometimes forgotten. St. Paul mentions it: ‘So it is the Lord’s death that you are heralding, whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, until he comes’ (I Corinth. 11:26)… What He did in His birth, at Calvary, in His Resurrection, and Ascension, we must do. But we cannot enter into those heavenly blessings except through the touch of the Cross, namely, through penance, mortification, and self-denial, and a death to our egotism.”
Source: Ven. Fulton Sheen, These are the Sacraments