The last element of the last step on the Ladder of Divine Ascent is LOVE. St. Paul states that of the three virtues – faith, hope and love – love is the greatest (1 Corinthians 13:13). As I have shared, John clearly states that prayer is the greatest activity of the spiritual life because it is, by definition, a relationship with God. Love is the same relationship to an even greater and more intimate degree. This is why John states that love is greater than prayer.

But we are told not only that love is the greatest virtue of all, but that “God IS love (1 John 4:8). Why is this so? Because God is Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit – three Persons in an eternal relationship of love, oneness and unity. Love is relational and ever-lasting. Its fulfillment is a perfect harmony and un-ion of persons. Thus the only one who truly is love by nature, who is love in His very essence, is God the Trinity.

The claim that “God is love” is unique to Christianity. Other monotheists believe that one God means one person – and there can be no true love without more than one person. Polytheists be-lieve there are many distinct divine natures – and there can be no true love without a union of persons. God can be love only if He is Trinity, and therefore only Trinitarians can truly profess that “God is love.” This is truly something that should be thought about. The concept of God as Triune – that is three persons in one God – expresses the fact that God is truly love for it is love that brings the three

Persons into the unity of One God.

Again, think about this concept. The Fathers of the Church were able to fathom the mystery of God as Three-In-One mainly because they believed that Jesus was truly God as well as truly man. This concept of God as Three Persons being bonded by love is critical in our true understanding of God. Then, when you add to this that Jesus is also man, it binds us to God.