Marital love is an image, however pale, of the reality which develops little by little between the Absolute and the creature, between God and humankind, between Yahweh and Israel.

In marital love it is not enough to study the beloved, write poems, or receive cards from far away. Couples must marry, say “yes” to one another, go behind the veil of intimacy, delight in one another—exultantly, become close, cultivate friendship, stay together as much as possible, coalesce their wills, make two things one, as scripture says.

But pretending to know the other just by studying him in books or photographs means remaining outside real knowledge, real mystery.

Today, many persons who seek or study God do just that. They study him in books, make him an object of speculation, approach him from intellectual curiosity.

With what result? The more we study, the more our ideas become confused; the more we get caught up in discussions, the farther we go from him.

I think this is the nature of the crisis in the Church today; it is a crisis of prayer, it is a crisis of contemplation. Study is no longer the light of spirituality, and curiosity has taken the place of humility.

Self-assurance and derision of the past are the false light which guides man’s pride in the labyrinth of God’s “unknowing,” pretending to seize the truth with the strength of intelligence only.

But God’s truth is the same, truth is the secret of things “up there,” and no one can know it wIthout revelation from God.

Has Christ not already said so?

In the upper room, replying to the worried question put to him by Judas (not Judas Iscariot) about why he was not manifesting himself to the world, but only to his intimate friends, he replied with extreme clarity: “Anyone who loves me will be true to my word, and my Father will love him; we will come to him and make our dwelling place with him” (John 14:23).

Only love brings God’s coming to us, his living presence within us, and his consequent revelation.

He who obeys the commandments he has from me is the man who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father. I too will love him and reveal myself to him. (John 14:21)

—From The God Who Comes, by Carlo Carretto