“Just as the mere memory of fire, doesn’t seem warm to the body, so also faith, without love doesn’t produce the light of knowledge in the soul.” St. Maximus the Confesssor (+662)

Love is the primary key to the fullness of life and the fullness of relationship. It is this love between ourselves and God that enables us to believe the truths of revelation without fully appreciating all that is contained within. Because of the love of a child for the parent, the child believes what the parent says because the parent said it. Later, the adult child realizes why the parent said what they did. That is why God, who loves us first, calls us to love in return, so that we can accept what he teaches us, because he is who he is. As we grow in love, we will be better able to see the gradual flowering of his revelation with new understanding.