"The church is a union of love - or as Khomiakov puts it, "love as an organism" - not only in the sense that her members are united by love, but above all in that through this love of all for each other, through love as life itself, she manifests Christ and his love to the world, she witnesses to him and loves and saves the world through the love of Christ.....The essence of the church lies in the manifestation and presence in the world of love as life and life as love."
"But then the assembling as the church is above all the sacrament of love. We go to church for love, for the new love of Christ himself, which is granted in our unity. We go to church so that this divine love will again and again be "poured into our hearts," so that again and again we may "put on love" ( Col 3:14), so that, constituting the body of Christ, we can abide in Christ's love and manifest it in the world."
"Thus, in the holy kiss, we express not our own love - rather we embrace each other through the new love of Christ. And is this not the joy of communion, that I receive this love of Christ from the stranger standing across from me, and he from me?"
"Make love your aim," says the apostle (1 Co 14:1. And where can we attain this, if not in the sacrament in which Christ himself unites us in his love?"
I was so struck by these words when I read them.
"We go to church for love"
It is a striking statement, and true.
While I reached out to the Church looking for peace, love is exactly what I found.
Those who believe themselves perhaps beyond redemption are all the more in awe of this love when they find it.