From his very first letter, St Paul spoke various times about the three virtues of faith, hope and love, though sometimes he preferred the word "constancy" to hope. Paul did not explain why he chose these three virtues: he seems to have taken it for granted that all his readers were familiar with this way of speaking about our relationship with God.

St John speaks more indirectly about the same three virtues in the passage from his first letter which we read today. He specifically mentions "the love that the Father has bestowed on us", and further on speaks of the hope which motivates us in our search for purity or holiness. Only indirectly does he mention faith, when he speaks about knowing the Son: knowing Jesus is a matter of faith.

The fact that both Paul and John speak of faith, hope and love is of great importance for our spiritual lives.

By faith, we accept all that God has done for us in Jesus and in the present we respond to God's mercy and forgiveness by love, strengthened by the hope that, with God's grace, we will persevere in loving God and each other, and so await the reward of eternal life.