Faith is the root, the necessary beginning. Hope is the stem, the energy that makes the plant grow. Love is the fruit, the flower, the visible product, the bottom line. The plant of our new life in Christ is one; the life of God comes into us by faith, through us by hope, and out of us by the works of love.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the foundational roles of faith, hope, and love in spiritual life.
Peter Kreeft illustrates the interconnectedness of faith, hope, and love, describing faith as the essential starting point for spiritual growth, while hope serves as the sustaining force that nourishes this growth. Love is presented as the ultimate outcome and manifestation of this journey, illustrating how these three elements work together to create a fulfilling life in alignment with divine principles.
In practice
This quote could be used in a sermon to illustrate the importance of faith, hope, and love.
Trusting God's grace means trusting God's love for us rather than our love for God. [...] Therefore our prayers should consist mainly of rousing our awareness of God's love for us rather than trying to rouse God's awareness of our love for him, like the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:26-29).
Remembering the facts of death and Heaven gives us an even more pressing reason to learn to pray: We do not have an infinite amount of time. We are one day nearer Home today than we ever were before. I guarantee you that after you die you will not say 'I spent too much time praying; I wish I had watched more TV instead.'
Like apes, we breed, sleep, and die. Yet like God we say, "I am." We are ontological oxymorons.
The modern mind always tends to reduce the greater to the lesser rather than seeing the lesser as reflecting the greater.
Our soul, like Mary's body, is to receive God Himself if only we, like her, believe, consent and receive; if only we speak her truly magic word fiat, "let it be." It is the creative word, the word God used to create the universe.
Protestants believe that the sacraments are like ladders that God gave to us by which we can climb up to Him. Catholics believe that they are like ladders that God gave to Himself by which He climbs down to us.
I realized that everything I had to do I could not do on my own, and so I was almost obliged to put myself in God's hands, to trust in Jesus who - while I wrote my book on him - I felt bound to by an old and more profound friendship.
The heart which has no agenda but God's is the heart at leisure from itself. Its emptiness is filled with the Love of God. Its solitude can be turned into prayer.
Pray for the field. If God calls, then prepare for the field. When it is time, go to the field. A life lost for Christ is a life well spent.
For all of us, we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's in our boat. And when those storms come and those waves (of life) come, He's in the boat with us.
Faith isn't the ability to believe long and far into the misty future. It's simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step.
Our Faith must be tested. God builds no ships but what He sends to sea.
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