Does God really will everything?

[fred_conty]

@MrSylvester, hopefully this will help in some way to answer some of your questions.

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But thats the point that I have never recieved a clear answer for. Why do people still go to
hell when that could have been prevented by recieving grace? That is the thing that always
boggled my mind. How can God be so loving and yet abandon sinners like Judas?
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As far as understanding God’s will, this is a topic that has never been settled, and is difficult to juggle with man’s freedom with God’s grace and providence. When we say God controls, it means that since he took us out of nothing, then he suspends us above nothing constantly, or we fall back into nothing. If he constantly suspends us in existence, then he certainly can control the way we are suspended in existence at each moment and that gives him complete control at any moment, not only of us, but all creation. And so Jesus said that God knows the number of the hairs on our head.

But it seems to me that when he made us with freedom, then God let’s go to some degree of his control. That dosen’t mean that he can’t still do anything. But it is inside and within his own will to let go, and let us make free choices because that is exactly what he gave us within the nature of man to do. So in that way we can say that what we do is to exorcise not only our own freedom but also the will of God, both in good and bad. This does not in any way mean he approves of the bad action, but that it is within his will for us to act within our very own nature for yea or nea. Otherwise we would not have created man but some other sort of creature.

So in the end, God respect’s man’s choice, for good or bad, and is his will for man to choose good or evil, tho he disapproves of the evil choice.

The christian has a great advantage of God’s special help of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who enters their life and strengthens all their choices towards good.

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Yet just now, I realzed something. There is no such thing as preventing temptation. All the
stories that had a saint calling in the name of Mary and immediately having his temptations
disappear are not what they appear to be. The name of Mary is not some magical spell that
removes demons; it reminded the saints that Mary was always beside them and it gave them the strength to avoid sin just for her sake.
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Here is what seems to be the procedure of temptations.
–a push to do evil comes
–then we pray for strength(grace) to do the harder good thing (or we chose not to pray)
–then we decide for good or bad, after reflective struggle.
–then victory or defeat in one battle
–then repeat the process over and over until the push is gone(peace).

Sometimes thru prayer, the push is removed or weakened. This is what I have experienced at times. And Mary is usually the one I appeal to.

Sometimes thru prayer, I do feel that I am stronger by the thoughts that come to me.

I wear the miraculous medal of Mary and never take it off unless to repair it.
I use the miraculous medal in temptations calling upon Mary for GREAT graces, not little ones.
I carry her green scapular as well.

Mary always carries out her pledges. These carry her word of great graces if we trust her. I find it easy to trust her absolutely. After all it is her gift and what she wants to do for us.
She has great persuasion with her dear son to get graces and he will not refuse her.
She just needs a little excuse from us to get the grace, and that is our trust in her word.​

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Thing is, their sins could have been avoided if God actually gave them grace and guidance.

That, or they resisted His grace like Judas.
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The second answer is the right one, they refused it. How could such a loving God, Jesus, who gave his whole heart to us, ever want someone to resist his grace? He laid down his life.
How many can we count in our life that would lay down their life for us?​

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What truly drives me mad in these discussions is that I mention the Blessed Virgin and nobody talks about her back. At all. In fact, I think you Tom are the first person I have ever met on CAF to actually MENTION the Blessed Virgin when discussing subjects lie God.
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Our Blessed Mother brings us to her son Jesus who loved us and still loves us with all his might. Mary is the door to Jesus heart. That is what Mary’s whole life centered around, her son. When we think of Mary that should immediately draw our minds to Jesus who she presented to us in the wood of the crib at Bethlehem and on the wood of the cross at Calvary. We cannot seperate them for they are inseperable, mother and child. Knowing and praying to Mary will always lead us to know and love her son more.​

Just some thoughts.

 

[MrSylvester]

@MrSylvester, hopefully this will help in some way to answer some of your questions.

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Just some thoughts.

You gave me a more complete answer than anyone or any book ever gave me with all their purple prose. I even honestly saved your answer on my compter. Thing is, I’m finding it difficult to imagine God not being a neglectful father for letting so many people sin out of respect for their free will while preventing (read: not forcing) others from not falling.

Saint Therese, without meaning any malice at all, said that God certainly did love Mary Magdalene because he forgave her for her sins. But because Therese herself never fell into such deep sins, then he loved her even more because he forgave her in advance by protecting her. Thats what I mean when I say that God doesn’t love everyone the same. If he did, he’d protect everyone and prevent them from birth from falling into sin but thats obviously not the case.

In all, I’m scared that not matter what I do, I will never be loved to the same level as Saint Therese was loved by God and Mary. What expectations does God have of a sinner he abandoned? He may expect the sinner to be good before he falls into sin but after he does fall into sin, God’s expectations disappear and all he wants to do is punish the sinner or abandon him. You’ll tell me that God will want the sinner to return but if God himself doesn’t give him the grace to return, how is it possible for said sinner to repent? It’s my conviction that this is the Blessed Virgin’'s function as she never abandons sinners, no matter how obstinate. Sometimes I get scared that Mary herself will never forgive me for all my lack of faith but if God himself never showed me any indication that he loves me, how can I say then that he loves me?

 

[fred_conty]

@MrSylvester, here are a few more ideas that may be of help to you.

I think that it is not an unusual feeling that by sinning we have let Jesus down. Then we begin to feel like our pet dog, when it disobeys us, it knows it was bad, and hids under the table. Adam and Eve also hid after their wrong doing.

But Jesus does not abandon us, but calls us back to his heart with forgiveness. He understands our weakness for he too was a man just like us. He identifies with us in everything except sin, and even in sin he identifies with us to the degree of his understanding of our weakness.

In the bible, Jesus forgave everyone who came to him, and healed physically everyone who asked.
He never refused.
He is just waiting to forgive and has immense love to cover any sin and all sins we may ever commit. He loves us beyond anyone could love us and even beyond our own understanding of love.
There is nothing he would not do to help us. All we need to do is to look up to him in our sorrow and he will loving and readily embrace us.

The stories he told show this forgiveness. Some that come to mind are the good shepherd, the son who took his inheritance and left his father, the good samaritan.

But the one that is unique is the example of two men who were forgiven their debt by their master. One had a large debt and the other a small one. Both were excused free and clear.
Then Jesus asked the question, which one did the master love more, the first or the second.
The one with the big debt he loved more because he forgave him more. So Jesus is telling us that he loves more those whom he forgives more, sinners. He is an ocean of mercy with a depth of love for sinners without end. So he loves both the saint in a special way, and the sinner in a special way, to his depth, but each in a unique way. He never ever quits loving either.
It is only we who must maintian our hope and our trust in him to draw on that love. His heart shows mercy and love to those who give him the chance thru trust, by seeing him as he is.

And Mary, our mother, centers her life around her son even today. Mary is all about her son. And her newborn sons are we, who carry the life of her son in our own hearts. She truely is our mother for she gave us this new life of her son, by giving him to us on Christmas night. So that he may be our brother and have God as our Father. What a wonderful thing she did for us.

And so today she also wants to bring her son to us thru her powerful intercession. She wants to nurture that life of her son with us and to see her son grow in us. As St. Paul said, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” That is her role today, to bring her son thru grace to each and every individual on earth. To help them to kneel at the crib of her son and experience the birth of Jesus in their heart.

In my opinion, I think Jesus loved us more by setting Mary before us to help us.

First, Jesus knows that it is easier for a child to go to its mother than to the dad.
Mothers are just softies and they can be talked into anything, just about.
I feel sure Jesus knew that, and that many would feel easier about talking to a mother or a woman. And did so intentionally to help us all the more.

Second, Jesus is God. God some how has to (speaking in a human way) account for his justice. I’m not speaking theologically but humanly. So he must account for his justice even tho in a sneaky way he really dosn’t want this because he loves us. So to make it all balance and come out right in a just way, Mary gives him the excuse to do this. For her sake, because of her love for him and his for her, he throws away the book so to speak, and embraces us, which is really what he wants to do. I think we sort of feel this is true in our spiritual bones.

One time, a saint asked God in locution, why she should pray for a sinner when he had the power to do anything. And in replay, the Father said something to the effect, don’t ask just do it. In my opinon the Father just said what I just said, he wants to give us an edge and satisfy his justice thru the saint’s request and have the reason he needs, and therefore He said in so many words, “don’t ask”.

I’m sure there is a better theological way to put this, but there it is, in a few words.