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It is the essence of this self-understanding to be an act of obedience having a distinctive double structure: it is both trust in God's unconditional love alone for the ultimate meaning of our lives and loyalty to this same love and to all to whom it is loyal as the only final cause that our lives are to serve. Although in both aspects, the obedience of faith is a human response to God's prevenient love, its first aspect of trust is relatively passive, while its second aspect of loyalty is relatively active. Moreover, the priority of the first and more passive aspect of trust to the second and more active aspect of loyalty is absolute. It is precisely out of our acceptance of God's unconditional love in trust that we alone become sufficiently free from ourselves and all others to be truly loyal to God's cause. It is no less true, however, that if we truly trust in God's love, we cannot fail to live in loyalty to it. Thus, while the second aspect of the obedience of faith is and must be strictly posterior to the first, there is nevertheless but one such obedience with two aspects, each of which necessarily implies the other.

n.d.