"Faith and hope enter into eternity transformed into the shape of love. In the end everything must become love. Perfection's name is love. But the sign of perfect love in this world bears the name cross. That is the way that perfect love must go in this world, must go over and over again. That shows us first of all that this world is ripe, even overripe, for its destruction; only God's indescribable patience can wait for the end time. Second, it shows us that the church in this world remains the church under the sign of the cross. In particular, the church that wants to become the church of God's visible glory, here and now, has denied its Lord on the cross. Faith, hope, and love together lead us through the cross to perfection.
"When we go out the doors of this church now, we enter a world that is longing for the things we have spoken of here-- not simply for the words, of course, but for the reality. Humanity, betrayed and disappointed a thousand times over, needs faith; humanity, wounded and suffering, needs hope; humanity, fallen into discord and mistrust, needs love. Even if we no longer have any compassion for our own poor souls, which are truly in need of all three, do at least have compassion for your poor fellow human beings. They want to learn from us how to believe again, to hope, to love again; do not deny them."
- from the sermon "A Church That Believes, Hopes, and Loves" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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