… the contemplation of the Holy Trinity …

Sanctify your soul by the rembrance of Him. Adorn yourself by gazing on Him. Unite yourself with Him in the fire of his love: by this He shows Himself to you and gladdens you by the sight of Him. This love makes Him dwell in your soul with his Father and his Spirit. This love makes you yourself like a vision of his majesty and on all sides you will see clearly. By this love you will tread upon the depths, and in his light you will behold the highest heavens. This love will utter in you the mysteries of the Spirit, and will reveal to you the uncreated light and show you how to walk in it. By this love all which is in you will radiantly shine forth, and all which is before you will give great light. This will make you a king instead of a servant and will put all your enemies under your feet to be tread upon. This will crown your intellect with the crown which is offered at the end of the course, and in the stirrings of your intellect, the contemplation of the Holy Trinity will be manifest.

John of Dalyatha Letter 15, 10.

Evagrius Ponticus spoke of the same ina much more concise manner:

Faith: the beginning of love. The end of love: knowledge of God (Ad Monachos 3).

Only the one who is a lover of God will (and can) be a knower of God. Love and knowledge are inseparable. It is therefore imperative that we, as Christians, do not forget that in our ascetic effort to follow Jesus Christ we must first and foremost learn to love Him. A pentecostal preacher once told me his practice with recent converts to Christianity, he said: I don’t give them books to read or things to do. At first I tell them to go home, and fall in love with God.” Even now, after I have long left that movement, this piece of advise seems to contain a very important point:

1 If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2 And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3 And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing (1 Cor. 13, 1-3).

Friends, God is love:

He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is charity (1 John 4, 8).

And we have known, and have believed the charity, which God hath to us. God is charity: and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him (1 John 4, 16).

In order for us to know God we must abide in love, become love. This is the fuel of our life in Christ, without it we have no life in Christ. In a way our whole ascetic effort is meant to teach us to love, to genuinely love. Once this has become the reality within us – once we abide in love – the door to knowledge of God is flung wide open. Knowledge of God is not necessarily determined by intellectual (in the modern sense) capacity, but by the room in our heart, not by how many books we have read (and memorized) but whether or not we love Him.

15 When therefore they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter: Simon son of John, lovest thou me more than these? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs. 16 He saith to him again: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs. 17 He said to him the third time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he had said to him the third time: Lovest thou me? And he said to him: Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee. He said to him: Feed my sheep. 18 Amen, amen I say to thee, when thou wast younger, thou didst gird thyself, and didst walk where thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not. 19 And this he said, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had said this, he saith to him: Follow me (John 21, 15-19).

Dn. Gregory