Fr Joe Borg's column in The Sunday Times of November 1 ('A love affair called God'), brought to the fore the powerful and pervading reality that "the essence of Christianity is love - and the feeling of this love is meant to enhance the joy of living".

Love as self-giving is the dominant view throughout the Bible to establish who God is. In his first letter, St John describes God as being this self-transcendent love.

Furthermore, the apostle adds that those who claim that they believe and know God are to embrace his altruistic love. "So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 John 4, 16).

Philosophers have struggled to give their views concerning God. The problem with their thinking lies in the fact that they relegated the mystery of God into pure thought. In the philosophical domain God remained a sheer cold notion. I am thinking of the ontological argument as coined by St Anslem in his Proslogion: God is "a being than which nothing greater can be thought".

While I acknowledge the great merits of such a thorough reflection I would opt for the idea that love is a reality that is directly experienced. Here the Word of God comes into play again. St John says: "We know and believe the love God has for us" (1 John 4, 16).

In his celebrated book Mysterium Paschale, the outstanding Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar writes: "In serving, in washing the feet of His creatures, God reveals Himself even in that which is most intimately divine in Him, and manifests His supreme glory".

All these illustrious and heroic acts point to God's magnificent glory as shown in giving up His life on the cross. "When I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself" (John 12, 32). This is, for me, the love affair called God. A God who was so full of love that became a human being, suffered many things, was rejected, killed and after three days rose again to redeem the entire creation from the slavery of sin and death (Mark 8, 31).