Are We All Loved Equally?

My soul magnifies the Lord,  and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name; Luke 1:46-49

Recently I heard a homily about how God loves us all equally. While the sentiment of that sounds nice, I wondered if it were true.

I know that God is love;

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:7-8

I also know that all goodness comes from God, and by extension, anything that is good is loving.

Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. Mark 10:18

So, I had to ask myself this question. If God is all love, and everything he does is loving, then does that mean the existence of hell is because of love?

The answer, of course, is yes. If God stopped loving us, we wouldn’t end up in heaven or in hell. We would simply cease to be. His love is what brought us into creation. His love sustains us, no matter what we choose to do with the love and where our choices lead us in the end.

This brings me back to the original question. Are we all loved equally? Well, we can say with certainty that we are all loved, created by love, for love. But one would think, just by observation that Saints are more loved by God than others are. What differentiates the Saint from others is the amount of God’s love they were willing to receive and be filled with, so that, in turn, they could love like Christ did. To the extent that we are filled with God’s love, is the measure of how much we are loved. And some are more filled than others.

God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea (mare). He made an assemblage of all His graces and he called it Mary – Saint Louis de Montfort

In other words, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the most loved by God. This made Satan angry. We can all agree that God does not love Mary and Satan equally. This is because Mary is filled with all of God’s grace, which makes her the most loving, while Satan is filled with none of it, which makes him an enemy of God, and thereby an enemy of love.

What does this mean for us? It means we merit God’s love. To the extent that we are willing to submit to the Will of God and let His grace fill us, is the measure to which we become worthy and will be glorified. Some actually do have more Glory than others. And this Glory, it isn’t an achievement to be earned. It is a conforming of our will to the Will of God, so His Will can be done on earth as it is in heaven. And it means things could look different for each of us. It means, I will never surpass the Glory of Mary. The church teaches us that she is singular, and it is seen in her bodily Assumption. This does not make me upset, it makes me grateful for her willingness to bear the Son of God. There is a place for me and for all of us in Glory if we let God do what God does.

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:2

I just want a room in the house. For some reason many of us are wounded by the fact that someone else may have a better room than we do. This woundedness is really a type of unforgiveness. It blocks us from being invited into the King or Queen’s quarters; a place where they would give us great honor because we magnified God. Isn’t it enough to be invited?

 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”  But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.”  Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:39-43

The most remorseful sinner can receive the greatest amount of love. If Saint Dismas teaches us anything, it is that we should never despair of our place in heaven. In one instant he went from thief to his full glory. This is something Jesus corrects James and John about;

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”  And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”  They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to appoint, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” Mark 10:35-40

Here, even Jesus is deferring to the Will of the Father. He further corrects the other disciples who have become angry at the request of James and John;

 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John.  So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Mark 10:41-44

Why do we insist on being equal, or first? Isn’t that just Lording ourselves over another? Isn’t that making it about us and our ego? Isn’t paradise enough? This kind of mentality is why in Matthew’s Gospel we also hear;

 … the last will be first, and the first will be last. Matthew 20:16

Ego is what we need to be stripped of. Envy has no place in the Kingdom. Equitable distribution is not the measure of what we should be looking for. We should be looking for and praising God’s Glory, the Glory God wants to share with us that makes us shine like a city on a hill.

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.  People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16

There is only one way to the Kingdom, and it is through Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, by being baptized as He requested (Matthew 28:19-20) and by denying self and taking up your cross and following Him (Matthew 16:24-26). This is how we transform into love. No other pathway leads there. In fact, other pathways lead you away from there;

What do I imply, then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 1 Corinthians 10:19-21

It is not proselytizing to bring the love of Christ into the world. It is imperative to say so, in love, for the sake of love.

My job is to inform, not convince. – Saint Bernadette

We leave the rest to the Holy Spirit;

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:  about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, and you will see me no longer;  about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. John 16:7-11

So, the answer to the question, are we loved equally, is we don’t know the mind of God. I think it is more accurate to say that God loves each of us fully. I wrote this article to make you think. We tend to get sentimental and think what we do or what religion we practice doesn’t matter because God loves us equally. But it actually does matter and it matter’s a lot. All paths don’t lead the same way.

“Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.  For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13-14

We do know Mary is the highest of all creatures and we should treat her as such. What we also know is He loves infinitely, which is something we can’t really quantify or express adequately and using the word “equally” seems to put God inside the measurement box that Jesus told his disciples to avoid. All religions and all paths aren’t equal. What matters is the extent that we embrace Christ, His Sacraments, and our crosses, because when we do this, we will become love and thereby be loved more. And in knowing this we serve; we do not look down on others, we instead desire this goodness and love for them and evangelize as Jesus told us to. Our desire should simply be to be everything God made us to be and let him fill us. How this all takes place is not a competition, it is up to the Will of God who can fill all different kinds of people to the most glorified they are meant to be. May God grant me all the love He desires to pour into me and may I receive it with all my heart.

That others may be loved more than I…Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. (From the Litany of Humility)