Does God Love Satan And If So Are We Called To Love Him As Well

[servus Mariae]

AVE MARIA!!!

I was wondering if someone could find for me what the Church teaches on the following question: Does God love satan and if so are we called to love him as well? I know that there are many different opinions, though all Im looking for is CHURCH TEACHING....NOT YOUR OWN OPION!

Edited August 11, 2008 by servus Mariae

[StColette]

[quote name='servus Mariae' post='1623958' date='Aug 11 2008, 10:19 AM']AVE MARIA!!!

I was wondering if someone could find for me what the Church teaches on the following question: Does God love satan and if so are we called to love him as well? I know that there are many different opinions, though all Im looking for is CHURCH TEACHING....NOT YOUR OWN OPION![/quote]

First, it must be understood that Satan was first created as an angel of God. And in his beginning he was completely good, because God cannot create evil because it is contrary to the very being of who God is.

[b][url="http://java%20script:openWindow("]391[/url][/b] Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy.[sup]266[/sup] Scripture and the Church's Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called "Satan" or the "devil".[sup]267[/sup] The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing."[sup]268[/sup] <a name="395">

Now because all that God creates is good, it must be said for Satan before and after his fall that he is still a creature of God and objectively good. Now, all of the angels were given free will and it was their choice to reject or accept God and His divine plan. Lucifer along with 1/3 of all the angels rebelled against God and His divine plan. Because of this rejection Lucifer and the other fallen angels were not able to behold the beatific vision and were thus cast into another place to dwell, Hell. Lucifer’s great hatred of God was then taken out on man. Satan and the other fallen angels are obstinate in their sin against God and will never seek forgiveness. This is why the sin of pride is considered the greatest and most powerful sin to overcome because it is the very sin that caused Satan and the other angels to reject God. Another clarification must also be made and that is that Satan and the other fallen angels do not cease to be what they were created to be. An angel is a type of creature, just as a human is a type of creature. We don’t cease to be what we were created as no matter how much we try to alter ourselves. This is mostly a paraphrase of the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas. For more clarification of the creation of Angels and the fall of some of the Angels you may read the Prima Pars section of the Summa Theologica [url="http://www.newadvent.org/summa/"]http://www.newadvent.org/summa/[/url]

Now, to get to the real question, “Does God love Satan?” The answer is yes. The Catechism of the Catholic Church ref. # 342 tells us that God loves all his creatures. This citation from the Catechism quotes Ps. 145:9 “The LORD is good to all, compassionate to every creature.” We know from experience that God does not cease to love that which He creates because of sin. Humankind knows first hand the great love and mercy of God upon those who are not really deserving of it. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to die for us. We were not deserving of this because we too, like the angels,, rejected God when our first parents sinned and we continue to reject God in our daily lives, even after the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for us. The Love of God is not something that can be taken away by anything, because to take away Love would take away God, Himself, because God is Love. God continues to love us because we are part of His creation and His creation is something that He created out of Love. Angels, fallen or not, fall into this same category. Yes, some of them rebelled against God, Satan included, and they are obstinate in their sin but this does not mean that God ceases to love His creatures. God’s love for His creation is not dependent upon what He gets out of the relationship. His love is one that is eternal and never faltering.



CCC 301 also attests to the fact that God does not abandon his creatures and that He detests nothing that He has made.

[b]301 [/b]With creation, God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final end. Recognizing this utter dependence with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence:



For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living.

Wisdom 11:25-27

Scripture, quoted here in the Catechism, makes it clear to us about the opinion of God toward his creation. He loves all things that exist (which includes Satan) and detest none of the thing that He has created (which again includes Satan). The citation from Wisdom goes on to say how God would not have made anything if you had hated it. Had God done this it would have been contrary to who God is. God does not hate what He has created.

For the second part of your question “and if so are we called to love him as well?” If God loves Satan then we are called to love him as well. We cannot hate what God does not hate. We are to strive to be like our Heavenly Father. Matthew 5:48 teaches us that we should strive to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. It would be very difficult to do so if we do not love as God loves. We as humans can not love as completely as God loves but we can love all His creation, but it a more incomplete sense.

In closing, the Catechism of the Catholic Church makes it clear that Satan was created good by God and that even after Satan’s fall we are still called to love him because God loves all of his creation. We don’t love the sin that Satan commits but we do love him for the creature of God that he is.

God Bless,
Jennie