Contemplation

“Love necessarily flows from contemplation. A man must have gazed long at the face of incarnate, crucified Love and pondered deeply on Love’s actions if, when it comes to the point, he can speak of his own failing love in these terms: love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). In such love, however, contemplation comes to blossom in the truth of a human life; it shows whether the person has really been contemplating in the Christian sense or not. It shows whether he has really acted so as to allow God’s Word to be paramount in his life, God’s truth and love to triumph over his untruth and egotism. This is what is meant by worshipping in spirit and in truth; it also involves renouncing ‘ultimate knowledge’ for the sake of ‘ultimate love’. Far ‘as for knowledge, it will pass away… But love never ends’ (1Corinthians 13:8). The love which surpasses knowledge can only be ‘known’ (Ephesians 3:19) in something more-than-knowledge, which is in fact love itself, a loving together with God and from God, just as God’s truth is one with His life of love which pours forth in a threefold stream.” —–An excerpt from “Prayer” by Hans Urs Von Balthasar

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