To Hear About Christ is not the Same as to Encounter Him

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...and it is the encounter which brings love of Him in its train.

Here is another quote from St. Nicholas Cabasilas, same reference as the preceding, but found on p. 90:

Our knowledge of things is twofold: that which one may acquire from hearsay, and that which one may learn by personal experience. In the former we do not deal with the thing itself, but see it by means of words as in a picture, and inaccurately at that, since it is by the image of the form itself. It is impossible to find anything in nature entirely like it which would actually be an adequate copy for use by those who would acquire knowledge of it. When, however, men encounter the things themselves they gain experience of them. By experience the very form itself encounters the soul and incites desire, as though it left an imprint corresponding to the good. In the former case [if we have “hearsay knowledge but not experience], since we lack the proper appearance of the thing itself, we receive an uncertain and dim image of it through that which it has in common with other things, and by it measure our desire for the thing itself. Therefore we do not love it to the extent that it is a worthy object of love, and since we have not perceived the very form itself we do not experience its proper effects. Just as a different form of anything that exists produces a different impression on the soul, so it inspires a different degree of love.

When therefore love of the Saviour produces nothing new or extraordinary in us it proves that we have encountered no more than mere words about Him.