God's Love

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Does God love each person equally?-- all 6.5 billion of us, plus the billions who have existed in the generations prior?

I’m starting to have my doubts.

For example, God chose Mary to bear His Son, thus, as the text says, she was “highly favored.” This is tantamount to God saying, “I love all my children, but I love so-and-so the best!”

Perhaps Mary is a bad example due to her unique position, but she is still human like all of us. If God can favor Mary more than any other woman to be His mother, then it seems fairly logical to assert that God can love whomever He wishes more than the next person. If God doesn’t love us equally, then what measure should we love Him in return? We can only love with the measure we’re given!

What about our Holy Father? Does God love you just as much as He does the Holy Father, who is also favored by the Spirit?

I believe there is a hierarchy of God’s love much as there is a hierarchy for everything else in the Church – a hierarchy of the Magisterium, a hierarchy of heaven (thank you, Pseudo-Dionysius), a hierarchy of spiritual ascents, etc.
 
here is my two cents 🙂 all speculation, of course… try to not think of it like God’s love is divided between all His creatures, whether equally or unequally. He loves each person with His whole Heart. Yes, some are more favoured than others. But if you were to meet Jesus, He wouldn’t look at you differently, with less love, than He would look at someone else. I don’t know how I know this…but it’s just what I’ve believed for a while. Its like when you’re at Adoration, it’s just you and Him. 🙂 He’s not “divided”. Even His attention is not divided. He’s God… He’s not limited by anything. We can’t really form an accurate conception of His love.
 
God loves an orphan in the slums of Mumbai as she scrapes for food as much as he loves the Pope as he says mass on Sunday. His love is equal for all of us, though it is hard for us to comprehend because our ways are not God’s ways. We often put limits on love.
Real love, God’s love does not severe in order to accommodate more people, it multiplies. Mary is unique and that is why we give her special veneration. God’s love for her glorified us because it gave us our savior - he loves us through Mary and so his love of us is multiplied with his love of her. People on this board who are parents might be able to better articulate this than I can - when they have children, there heart expands to allow for more love and to love all of their kids equally.
 
MercyMia said:
People on this board who are parents might be able to better articulate this than I can - when they have children, there heart expands to allow for more love and to love all of their kids equally.
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I don’t believe this is true. In his biography of St. Therese, Thomas Nevin discusses the economy of the Martin household and what he discovered is that the second oldest daughter, Pauline, was highly favored by both Zelie and Louis while Leonie was considered to be a problem child and not given the greatest of attention until after it was discovered that a maid was abusing her. Even when Zelie dies, Louis seems to have greater affection for Therese, his “little queen,” than for his other daughters.

Now, while God’s love isn’t human love, it does seem that Jesus loved the disciple John above the other eleven. John received a place of honor at the Last Supper, he was the one chosen to care for Mary when Jesus died, and was prophesied to remain until Jesus came again.
 
I think though that just as having extraordinary graces is not proof of holiness, so it is not proof that God loves that person more than others. It just means that they have a more “visible” role in the Church, let’s say. For example, St Therese became a Saint through doing simple little things for love of God. Does He love her less than someone like St Padre Pio, who had the stigmata, or St John who was found worthy to be the guardian of Our Lady? St Therese just had a different path to holiness, and she submitted to God’s will in that, even though she had wanted to be a missionary, a martyr, etc. It’s through her obedience and submission that she became a Saint.

If you become a Saint, you won’t be like St John or St Therese or ANY other Saint, you will be you. Every Saint is unique.

Sometimes I think that God gives extraordinary favours to those who He knows will not become proud from them or it will not be a distraction from them… and in other cases, He doesn’t give such favours because He wants the person to learn total submission to His will (like St Therese). It doesn’t mean He loves this person any less. Consider Our Lady…her place in Heaven is even above the Angels. But on earth, she lived such a humble, simple life, and didn’t work public miracles.

The truest evidence of God’s love is the Cross and the Eucharist, not special graces.
 
Epistemes said:
Does God love each person equally?-- all 6.5 billion of us, plus the billions who have existed in the generations prior?

I’m starting to have my doubts.

For example, God chose Mary to bear His Son, thus, as the text says, she was “highly favored.” This is tantamount to God saying, “I love all my children, but I love so-and-so the best!”

Perhaps Mary is a bad example due to her unique position, but she is still human like all of us. If God can favor Mary more than any other woman to be His mother, then it seems fairly logical to assert that God can love whomever He wishes more than the next person. If God doesn’t love us equally, then what measure should we love Him in return? We can only love with the measure we’re given!

What about our Holy Father? Does God love you just as much as He does the Holy Father, who is also favored by the Spirit?

I believe there is a hierarchy of God’s love much as there is a hierarchy for everything else in the Church – a hierarchy of the Magisterium, a hierarchy of heaven (thank you, Pseudo-Dionysius), a hierarchy of spiritual ascents, etc.
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God the Father’s love is simple, singular: He loves the Son. The Father loves all that has been created because it is an image (in varying degrees) of the One through Whom and in Whom all things are created: the Son. The Father loves all humanity as part of creation, humanity being the crown of creation. Those who more fully image the Son (by supernatural grace, the grace of baptism transforming the beloved creature into a child of God, an image of the Son) are thus the most beloved because they participate in the one Love of the Father of the Son - the Blessed Mother being the highest example of this “received” Love. Since those in the state of grace are so in varying degrees, the love of God for the soul is concomitant to the image of the Son the Father sees in the given soul.
I answer that, Since to love a thing is to will it good, in a twofold way anything may be loved more, or less. In one way on the part of the act of the will itself, which is more or less intense. In this way God does not love some things more than others, because He loves all things by an act of the will that is one, simple, and always the same. In another way on the part of the good itself that a person wills for the beloved. In this way we are said to love that one more than another, for whom we will a greater good, though our will is not more intense. In this way we must needs say that God loves some things more than others. For since God’s love is the cause of goodness in things, as has been said (Article [2]), no one thing would be better than another, if God did not will greater good for one than for another. The Summa Theologica, question 20, article 3.
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I answer that, It must needs be, according to what has been said before, that God loves more the better things . For it has been shown (Articles [2],3), that God’s loving one thing more than another is nothing else than His willing for that thing a greater good: because God’s will is the cause of goodness in things; and the reason why some things are better than others, is that God wills for them a greater good. Hence it follows that He loves more the better things. The Summa Theologica, question 20, article 4.
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I believe that God has infinite love for everyone. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be God. 😉

God is the ultimate in goodness. If God loved person B less than person A, then God couldn’t be the ultimate in goodness, because we could easily conceive of a better being, one that would love B just as much as A.

:twocents:
 
You know, I wasn’t sure my father loved me a couple of weeks ago… the feeling passed.
 
My dear friend

Good question. I think God is Love and can only love. He loves everything infinitely. He loves us all infinitely, even the devils and damned. He does favour some more than others by the looks of it but this is not because He loves them more. If God favours someone more than ourself we should not complain because none of us deserve anything and yet God wants to give us all everything – Himself. The more we receive the more will be demanded of us too. Mary was favoured more than all but the price was suffering greater than anyone else will experience. A priest or religious is chosen to have a very special place in Gods church but on the other hand a great deal is expected of them. It’s far harder for them to get to heaven – they have to work very hard. We all have gifts from God and should not be envious or jealous of others who seem to have greater gifts. We can become a great saint and amass the greatest treasure in heaven by simply being the most truly human and loving person – even if we do no great deeds. The argument seems much the same as women thinking they have a hard deal, being below men. And men point to the very special and unique gift of motherhood. We all have a different role to play but all are loved equally and infinitely by God. Hope I make sense.

May God bless us all abundantly and may we all experience the great love and mercy that He wills for us now and hereafter:thumbsup:🙂

John
 
FCEGM said:
OTC, how glorious that we are “caught up” in the love of the Father for the Son. To be transformed by love into true images of the Beloved is source of joy.
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Well, it’s depressing that God only loves to the degree that He sees a reflection of His Son. In this hapless sinner, there’s not much Son to see! 😦
 
We can only love with the measure we’re given!
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Not true! The thing is, I think God can indeed love one person more than another BUT His love for the least of us already far outstrips the amount of love the entire existence of humanity could ever have…So I wouldn’t worry about it.

Matter of experience; I was just sitting my my room talking to Jesus the other day, and I felt Him sitting there with me. I knew very well at that moment that, despite everything going on in the world and how unworthy I am and have been, I had His complete and undivided attention and He is madly in love with me.

As I was thinking the very exact same thing about Him loving others in different measure just a week or so ago, you can see how quick He is to console and correct us!👍
 
Epistemes said:
Well, it’s depressing that God only loves to the degree that He sees a reflection of His Son. In this hapless sinner, there’s not much Son to see! 😦
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As a mother, I can tell you that I love my children beyond measure, and I think that’s how God loves us. As to the above comment, I think it’s like this: I look at my children and see all the greatness in them and the not-so-great-stuff (a sometimes defiant toddler, etc.) – I see all of it, their “flaws” and their innocence and goodness – and it doesn’t change my love for them. Sometimes it makes me upset with them (if they’re being disobedient*), just as when we’re disobedient it must frustrate and hurt God…but He still loves us! So, I’m not sure I agree with the above – I think the more of Jesus He sees reflected in us, the happier He is, but I don’t know if it changes His love for us. 🤷

*the 9 1/2 month old isn’t disobedient (yet) 😉 😛
 
God loves everyone equally and wholeheartedly… we all just have different purposes and uniqueness … =)
 
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