MarysLittleFlower Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 I believe God's love is infinite. Is it infinite for each soul? On one hand I remember Jesus telling this to an approved mystic. And I always just thought so. On.another hand, a Catholic friend of mine who is better at theology than me said that God loves each soul proportionate to how much of Himself He finds in it. That makes sense too. Of course His love for Our Lady is special for example. And to top it off there are things Jesus said to the mystics that indicate this - like some souls being favoured. What I'm confused with is it somehow seems to me like both statements are true but are they and HOW? I can't figure it out. Any help?I'm only mentioning the mystics as examples of these ideas being present in approved Catholic books. I.don't read a lot of theology cause I'm not good at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catlick Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 The Gospel speaks of St. John the Apostle as the apostle most loved by Christ. So there is a hierarchy of love, even among the twelve chosen men. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julianneoflongbeach Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 One of my favorite things about God is that there are no contradictions, but paradoxes abound. So you may choose to think of it like that is you'd like. God's love is infinite for each and every one of us. But that is different from being pleased by someone and showing them favor in return. One also must remember in how Jesus loved John that He was in a sense bound by his human mortality during that time and felt as we do. John was His BFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 God's love is infinite in potential I think, but His love for each individual is only actualized to the proportion that we accept His grace. As such He obviously loves Mary greater than any other human, and St. Joseph afterwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarysLittleFlower Posted August 3, 2015 Author Share Posted August 3, 2015 (edited) OK I think I see more clearly now .. Can we say that He wants to give us as much of Himself as possible, but for some reason this doesn't always happen because of our fault? And that He chooses some souls to give more to (through no merit of their own) but this is to help reach others? I just also believe that God really does long to give Himself to each soul, and that He doesn't just offer a bit of Himself but loves each soul as if they were the only one. So He loves perfectly. But not all can receive His love to the same degree so His love is more in some than others, and His graces are more for certain souls. So souls have varying levels of His love in them so He gives His love according to each. When He loves us, He loves the good He placed in us and so He loves His own love in us. Am I correct?, Edited August 3, 2015 by MarysLittleFlower Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 That sounds like a good overview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AveMariaPurissima Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 (edited) I believe St. Thérèse had a similar question. Here's how she explains in Story of a Soul: You knew all my intimate thoughts and cleared up all my doubts. I once told you how astonished I was that God does not give equal glory in heaven to all His chosen. I was afraid they were not at all equally happy. You made me bring Daddy’s tumbler and put it by the side of my thimble. You filled them both with water and asked me which was fuller. I told you they were both full to the brim and that it was impossible to put more water in them than they could hold. And so, Mother darling, you made me understand that in heaven God will give His chosen their fitting glory and that the last will have no reason to envy the first. By such means, you made me understand the most sublime mysteries and gave my soul its essential food. —St. Thérèse of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul. (New York: Double Day, 2001) 20. Also, here's a great article from the St. Joseph Province Dominicans on this topic: Does God Love Some People More Than Others? Edited August 5, 2015 by AveMariaPurissima Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Credo in Deum Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 God loves all people perfectly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccountDeleted Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 God loves all people perfectly. This. It is we humans who want to compare and judge levels and degrees of love. It's a bit like sibling rivalry - Mom(or Dad) loves me more than you! We carry our very human conditioning into the divine relationship - which is ridiculous. I think the article was good Ave because it address the problem I have with St Therese's comparisons - where she implies that some have bigger cups than others. I much prefer the Thanksgiving feast example, where each person eats their fill and is satisfied. But all comparisons are so odious. God loves completely, infinitely and perfectly. And He doesn't choose to love some more than others so that they can share the love either! He just loves and what we do with that - well the ball is in our court. Some people will share more than others because that's just who they are - and that depends on a multitude of factors in a person's life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightofChrist Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 What is interesting is that God could love us all infinitely but not equally. Some infinities are greater than others, and some are less than others. A easy way to explain this is to think about an infinite amount of quarters and then an infinite amount of pennies. The infinite amount of quarters will always be more than the infinite amount of pennies, even though both are infinite. Now here's a complex explanation: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-infinity-comes-in-different-sizes/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccountDeleted Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 God doesn't give some of us quarters and some of us pennies. He gives all of us infinite and perfect love.what we do with it is the difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 God doesn't give some of us quarters and some of us pennies. He gives all of us infinite and perfect love.what we do with it is the difference. My priest would disagree with you that God loves everyone strictly equally. Assuming Judas is in hell - which is not an unreasonable assumption as it does seem to be part of the Church's ordinary Magisterium - is it then correct to say that God loves the condemned Judas equally to the Blessed Virgin Mary? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarysLittleFlower Posted August 5, 2015 Author Share Posted August 5, 2015 I believe St. Thérèse had a similar question. Here's how she explains in Story of a Soul: Also, here's a great article from the St. Joseph Province Dominicans on this topic: Does God Love Some People More Than Others? Thank you so much because this made me finally get it I think!! I'll be honest when I first thought about the idea of God loving some more than others it made me afraid of having less of Him in Heaven as if I'd be unhappy, which makes no sense cause we'll be perfectly happy. But now I see: as the article said we receive the same Jesus. And He loves us with the same intensity and gives Himself. The part about the different degrees: the analogy of the football game helped me with that.. My friend said God loves people more who have more of His love in them. So with the analogy - the more we love God perhaps, the more of His love we can receive, - just as the man who was so excited about the game is more excited to be there. However I think this needs to be balanced so it doesn't lead to some discouragement. I use these thoughts to balance it: God truly does give Himself with the same intensity to all and no one would feel less loved. We would all have Jesus in Heaven not a part of Him. He gives all His Heart. Each soul is loved perfectly and He would have died for just that one soul. St Therese saw herself as a little flower yet she is a Saint. We can all be saints. This explanation in the quote below helped me to see how both statements are true.. God loves us to perfection, but to our measure. Maybe it could also be summarized as God's love is infinite but we receive until we are filled. We cant see the immensity of His love. Or like what Nihil said - God loves infinitely in potential... But who can receive infinitely? He gives as much as we can take not out of lack of love but souls being different and some have greater holiness and so can receive more. He loves some in a special way like Our Lady and favours some... But through them, He reaches the others and each soul is unique and precious to Him. I struggled with a realization of my littleness but the decided to look more at Him and less at me.. And no one in Heaven will feel like Jesus isnt loving them enough. I wouldn't want this thread to cause anyone anxiety. If you're reading this and its making you anxious: Jesus loves you as if you were the only one. The only reason degree is different is from our limitation not His: I think it is like filling glasses with water. Are smaller glasses less full? But also - Jesus doesn't give Himself imperfectly - its always the same Jesus even if in different degrees of knowledge. "Scholastic theology has a very interesting answer: God loves each of us with the sameintensity of love, but he loves us each to a different degree." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tab'le De'Bah-Rye Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 (edited) Unsure MLF that it is through our fault that any individual is not highly favored by God, i think it is a choice to receive much or to receive a little, we are all created in the image and likeness of God equally bar one exception ' The holy mother.' Each has an equal capacity to receive of God. But my thought line perhaps goes against a lot of people that believe each has there own particular capacity, remembering though of course holy scripture states that God will never give us more than we can handle and that anything else is from the devil. Though i do get the scripture about St John being highly favored by the LORD, i believe that is because he was the most open to the infinite good possibilities offered by God. He truly had 1000 eyes in his heart as each do and each was wide open to see and believe but not all are so willing to receive the LORDS infinite goodness for many reasons and happenings all understood by the good LORD in there life that have closed some of those eyes, most, half and unfortunately sometimes all, pray for such poor souls that have all there eyes closed. Edited August 5, 2015 by Tab'le De'Bah-Rye Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbTherese Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 ....imho.....it's not as if in Heaven we will be looking at someone else and wishing that God loved me as much as He loves that other person - wishing I had done better on earth to be loved more now...........All in Heaven will be perfectly fulfilled to capacity "4And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away" ......... Revelations Ch21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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