Does God Love the Devil?
What do you think?
What do you think?
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| Vasili-Surikov -The Temptation of Christ-1872 |
This question was reflected on by Father Leon Pereira, OP., the Chaplain to English-Speaking Pilgrims in Medjugorje.
A transcript of his homily and answer follows:
Sometimes to know what we truly believe, we have to ask questions, and ask good questions! And expect an answer. And the sort of questions that children ask are usually very good. For example, children will ask things like, "Does God love the devil?" What's your answer? Anyone for yes? Anyone for no? Ok! Undecided!
Now, does God love the devil? That is a very important question. The short answer is, yes! Of course He does. I knew someone who always used to say, "I can't reconcile the idea of a God of love with the existence of Hell." So I said to him, "Well, look, if there is no Hell, it means we are forced to go to Heaven. And if we are forced to go to Heaven against our will, then God is some kind of despot, or He is not love." Right? Because we are forced, and if we are forced it is not love. So Hell exists because God is love.
And I will put it to you this way. The cause of all three things, Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, is God's love. In Hell the damned are love by God, and they don't want to be loved. So they experience it as shear torture. In Purgatory, the Holy Souls are loved by God. And they see how they have held back from His love. How they have been selfish. And this pain purifies them. In Heaven the Blessed are loved by God, and they delight in being loved. And this is the cause of their Beatific State, seeing God as He is, face to face. Becoming like Him, living by His Divine Life. Ok, so all three are caused by God.
In the Narnia Chronicles, the last book - you know those children's books by C.S. Lewis - the last book is called "The Last Battle". Near the end, there is a scene in which the heroes, the children, end up in a barn with all the bad guys. And the heroes, the children, experience the barn as all lit up beautifully, with all these wonderful silver candlesticks holding candles, and a wonderful meal set out on silver platters. And they drink fine red wine out of crystal goblets. But meanwhile, the baddies think they are in a dark barn, eating and drinking swill. And they tread on each other and they curse each other, and they hate everything and everyone including themselves.
This is a powerful image of both Heaven and Hell, both caused by God's love. To the extent you are open to God's love and mercy, you receive it. To the extent that you are closed, you receive His justice. There is a gentleman, a friend of mine now, who was a pilgrim like you. And he said, "Father I used to struggle to believe that God loved me, but ever since you said that God loves the devil, I think I can believe it now!"What an amazing answer and reflection on the God of Love Whom we serve and worship!!! St. John expresses the essence of God as Love:
But remember God is love, God is not sentimentality. We must be open to that love. And if we are not open, then He will lovingly send us to Hell.
God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. (1 John 4:8)not to be confused with sentimentality as Fr. Leon clarifies, but that He, GOD, is - in and of Himself - LOVE!
Love Unconditional and Unchanging!
What good news!
God cannot not love!
Because to not love is against His very nature.
For those of us who struggle with believing that God can really love us after all we've done and all the mistakes we've made - like the pilgrim Fr. Leon mentions in his homily - may reflecting on Fr. Leon's words help us to accept the REALITY of God's love for us!
May we not only accept, but receive this Life-giving, Transforming Love of God!
May we allow God's love to pour into us anew and heal our woundedness that keeps us always questioning and leery of God, and thus, separated from the union God desires to have with us.
© Janet Moore 2018. All Rights Reserved.
We can listen to Father Leon's wit and wisdom daily, as his homilies are posted on MaryTV each day. For example, in today's homily, for 6/7/2018, he gives an incredible teaching on the Holy Mass!
Please make sure to click the link above! It is an excellent teaching on the greatest gift God gives to us and a glimpse into the Reality of Heaven's worship.
Lastly, my family and I were blessed to first meet Father Leon on our pilgrimage to Medjugorje last year and then, were blessed also to host Father Leon in my diocese a few months back. So many people loved him, that we estimate 1000 people came to listen to his teaching and his testimony.
If you can't get enough of Father Leon, you can watch and listen to the talk he gave to our diocese here:
Thank you to Cathy Nolan of Mary TV for transcribing his homily and for posting his homilies each day!
May God bless each of us and transform us by His Love!
Even philosophically, it is completely wrong (it's more heresy caused by false mercy of modernism, than a 'good sermon'). The kind of new 'c'atholicism, where only Love and only Mercy 'are' the main if not the only characteristic of the God Almighty.
ReplyDeleteThe question is wrong, even if/when it comes from children. Therefore, the answer must be firstly in the correcting of the question. Does God loved all beings, among them also those (angels), who before were able to be loved, but then some of them willingly choose to separate themselves from God (and His love)? Yes, He did.
By separating from God by those fallen creatures, firstly (then) angels, and lately (then and now) the humans, THEY separated themselves COMPLETELY from God (and thus, from His love too)! What is then the point of asking, "Does God love devil?" It should rather be questioned, "Does God's love reach the devil?" And answer is, NO!
And this is not because of God who is Love, but because of devil who choose to be evil (for eternity), which is the state of a being that cannot be reached by the God who is Love.
And so, they cannot be loved by God!
This gives us a clear and the right answer, which exclude any further necessity for thinking about such nonsense: "Does God loves devil?"(!)
Because if such (question) would have any proper meaning or sense (which doesn't), then it will create if not a lot, then certainly a bit of false hope!
Which is, again, totally meaningless and pointless, and worse because that kind of 'philosophical thoughts' will put man (a child even more!) astray, on the wrong path, very easily...
Besides, God is Love and Justness. Both of those 'characteristics' are inseparably from each other. I'd say, that we must think about that always. Only it in this way!
Because love without justness could and often times harms people. But God will never harm people.
For example; To love someone *because* he lives in a way that certainly will lead him to the perdition,... can never be justified love, and therefore we cannot speak about love, but the false love.
On the other side, to love the same person *despite* his deadly and gravely sinful way of lifestyle can be called a love. Buth such love must be expressed in the right way, which means that those who loves him, must do everything possible to bring such person on the right path (again), with the most important purpose which we all have, -- saving the souls which are for eternity and created for eternal life!
We can even say that His Love is also His Just. And vice versa. And that is simple and easy to understand, because God will never, en therefore shall or can do ever any, bad, wicked evil act (sin) to anyone. So, the same goes about His love (even then when people wish to see God only as Love, He should never be seen as Love only, because He is Just too!). God thus CANNOT love devil, who, by his own will, was fallen, so hard and so deep, that he became pure Evil! Anybody who thinks other way, let him explain what are then the fruits of His love in that cases!? And I mean the good fruits of His love for the devils themselves!?
Therefore, to say that God loves *E*vil, or even *e*vil, is rather blasphemy than a 'good Catholic sermon'!
We are taught that God is love. His love is such that He gave us free will to either love Him back or not. We even have the choice to turn our back on Him. Not believe in Him. And to preach and teach against Him and His existence; and to mock those who believe in Him. His love is such that He allows us all these luxuries to choose as we wish. The devil was one of God's loved creations. He chose to rebel and love God no more. God allowed him this choice. I guess, (although I have no proof of this), God still loved him despite the devil's rebellion. But it was the devil's free choice to go his own way.
ReplyDeleteMany humans choose the same path of the devil. And, I guess, are still loved by God.
But then, one day, comes decision time. We die either in love with God for all He has done for us; or in enmity with God. It is our free choice at death that leads us to Heaven or Hell. It is as if God says to us: "Thy will be done. You choose to go to hell; then go!" (To quote C S Lewis).
Does God still love those in hell, including the devil? My guess is probably yes. If God is love then He loves everyone; even those who rebelled against Him.
Will God forgive those in hell and welcome them back to Heaven, including the devil? There is no Biblical evidence or teaching of that. In Christ's parable about the rich man and poor Lazarus at his door, Jesus says that there is a great chasm between Heaven and hell and neither side can traverse it. So it seems that those in hell are there for eternity since Jesus taught so. They are there for eternity because they chose to go there. The gates of hell are locked from the inside, as C S Lewis said.
So to answer the original question: Does God love the devil? My guess is yes, as He has always done, despite His rebellion. Just like many parents love their child who goes astray.
Will God forgive the devil, and all those who rebelled, and welcome them back to Heaven? There is no Biblical evidence or teaching of that. But then everything is possible to God. The devil and his followers can be forgiven ... ... ... if they really want to!
God bless.
Medjugorje is not of God, it is the devil heat appears there.
ReplyDeleteLook at the demons statements that instruct fasting over charity. In that the demon reveals plainly that it is not of God because God is love and love is charity.
WAKE UP!
WAKE UP!