Faith: Knowledge of Love; Love: Manifestation of Faith

"...Love needs faith in order to understand itself. It needs faith in Christ as the constant reminder that only one is good--God. And He is love..."

"...In love man has the reality of his spiritual life, but he has it also in the Word; and, in order not to collapse into sentimental self-deception, the spirituality of his existence must always be enlightened anew by the light of the Word. He has eternal life in the love of God, but he also has it in his faith in Christ..."

(Plinthos translation)


...Die Liebe braucht den Glauben, um sich selbst zu verstehen. Sie braucht den Glauben an Christus als die stete Mahnung, daß nur einer gut ist--Gott. Unde der ist die Liebe...

...Der Mensch, hat in der Liebe die Wirklichkeit seines geistigen Lebens, aber er hat sie auch im Wort, und vom Licht des Wortes muß die Geistigkeit seiner Existenz immer wieder beleuchtet werden, um nicht in einem Selbstbetrug des Gefühls ze zerfallen. Er hat sein ewiges Leben in der Liebe zu Gott, aber er hat es auch im Glauben an Christus...

"The Reality of Christ" in Ferdinand Ebner, Schriften Band I, Fragmente, Aufsätze, Aphorismen: Zu einer Pneumatologie des Wortes, München: Kösel, 1963.


This thought calls to mind two other texts
1) Saint Augustine in the Confessions asking God which comes first--that I know You or that I love You.
2) Pope Saint John Paul II's doctoral thesis on Faith in Saint John of the Cross where he says that for Saint John of the Cross faith consists in love. What is interesting in the Ebner text is that Ebner also says it the other way around, that love needs faith. Faith is the knowledge of love. You only recognize love with faith.