Look how wrinkly this shirt is! Man!! WRINKLES! Not just for your face anymore! (big laugh) Right?!
(inhales loudly) Oh Man!
Hi! My name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents!
So ... there's this question that often I get asked a LOT, and that question is this,
"Does God love some people more than others?"
Does God love some people more than others? And the answer is pretty straight forward ... ummmm ... YES!
(laughs) Yeah, he does! And, NO! Actually, it's a trick, it's a trick question! So, PSYCH sucka!
Umm, no, actually so God does not love more, some people more than others, in this sense—
God's love is equal for all, God loves all people with what you call equal Intensity,
this is what Saint Thomas Aquinas would say.
God loves all people with equal intensity!
So, its basically with his affective love, his affection for every person is,
because God is perfect, since God is one, since God IS Love
he cannot love more or less, he just IS Love! So, his affectionate love, for all people, is equal in intensity.
Reflect on the fact that God is the only, what they call necessary being.
God's the only necessary being!
That everything else that exists, is what they call contingent being, which means it did not have to exist, it is not necessary!
Now, when we talk about God's love sometimes, we think "Oh, well, we know God loves you,"
and people say, "Well, of course he loves me, he has to love everyone."
OK, since God is love, he kinda "has to" love everyone— Fine!
But, here's the kicker! You didn't have to exist.
You're not a necessary being!
You're a CONTINGENT being, which means the ONLY REASON that YOU EXIST is because God WANTS you to exist!
Which means he loves you with a unique ... infinite ... and a infinitely unique love.
His affective love is completely the same, so, God loves all with an equal intensity.
BUT! He loves us all to varying degrees. Here's what I mean.
God loves us according to our need. God loves us all according to our need.
Another way to think about this is, think about the Gospel reading.
Here's the 99 sheep, here's the one sheep that goes off into the wilderness
and, so what does that one sheep in the wilderness need that the other 99, who are home, don't need?
They need a father, they need a shepherd, they need someone to go out after them!
And so, the more I need God, the more he loves me!
The more I need his strength, the more he gives his strength.
The more I find myself in weakness, the more I get his grace.
Another way to think about it is, think about your family.
If you have any siblings, you have parents, and so imagine in your family,
maybe you have parents who say, "No, I love all my kids equally."
But the reality is, they love each of you to varying degrees.
For example, I'm pretty well put together, I don't need a whole lot from my mom and dad.
I don't necessarily need them to call me and to check in with me.
I don't need them to drive to Duluth and see how I'm doing
or fix this up or fix this or help me out with that.
But, say I have a sibling, say I have a sister or a brother who actually is going through a hard time
and they actually need my parents to call them every night, while they process their stuff.
Maybe they need my parents to go to where they live and help them out.
Then, my parents are actually LOVING THEM more than they are loving me.
Because, they're loving their children, my siblings, according to our need ... our NEED for love!!
Now, we fall into the trap of thinking that God loves us based off of our performance,
that God loves us based off our strength,
our lovability, our "how adorable we are"
and, it's the exact opposite—
God loves us more if we need him more!
But also, if he wants to use us more, then he'll give us more grace.
And, so if he's given a mission to you, where you...(inhales)..
your mission is bigger than you, the he'll give you— out of his love— even more to accomplish that mission.
I think one of the limiting factors, though, is not God's offer of love, it's our capacity to enter into that love.
It's not God's GIVING us love, it is our ability to receive and enter into that love.
For some people, it's like a thimble and for some people, it's like a glass.
And, if the thimble's full, it's full as a it possibly can be. And, the glass, if it's full it's full as it possibly can be.
And, the thimble's not going to resent the glass for having more water in it, more in its container.
And, so if my heart is small, but it's full,
I'm not gonna resent someone who's heart is bigger that's full, I'm full. I can't get any bigger.
But there's a Dominican brother, his name is Brother Timothy Danaher.
Brother Timothy Danaher wrote this great article on this topic,
and in it, he gave the example about our capacity to enter into the Father's love.
And he uses the example of a couple who that goes to, say a football game.
So, here's the guy, here's Jack and Jill.
And, Jack he loves this sport, he loves this team.
This team, it dominates his life, he has his fantasy football league,
his pillow case has this team's logo on it. Like, he LOVES this team.
And, he gets a ticket to the championship game!
Two tickets! And, he gives one ticket to his wife. And, Jill, she loves Jack, so she's gonna go to the game!
Now, in the game, it's super intense, super close, and Jack's team ends up winning
and the stadium's just going nuts! Everyone's just super screaming, they're happy!
Jack is happy to the absolute max! Jill is happy to HER absolute max!
Now, their capacity to enter into that joy of that moment is going to be different.
Jill is AS HAPPY as she possibly can be as a non-fan at the championship game of this particular sport.
and Jack is absolutely as filled as possible with joy, as a fan!
Their capacity to experience this joy, is only limited, not by the opportunity, but, it's limited
by their capacity.
Same thing is true when it comes to our love for God and God's love for us,
which is good news for us.
Because, the good news is, we can grow in our capacity for God's love.
Think about, like a pearl diver or someone who dives down really deeply into the ocean.
At the beginning of their time as a diver, they have a certain lung capacity.
But, the more and more they dive, the deeper and deeper they go ...
their lung capacity increases. Their capacity to go deeper increases!
And the same thing is true for our love capacity (laughs) ...
is the more we enter into God's heart, the more our love capacity grows.
The more we see him in our brothers and sisters and love them, actively, the more our love capacity grows.
So, you might have a certain kind of love capacity right now, but the great news is ... it can grow!!
It can get bigger! It can increase.
Here's the last thing!
When people ask that question "Does God love some people more than others?"
I don't think they really want a theology lesson, I think what they want to know is this answer to this ONE question.
And the question THEY'RE asking is this ... "Does God love ME?"
And, the answer is yes!
That's it.
Does God love me ...
as much as he loves anyone else?
He could not possibly love you more.
The challenge for us is gonna be ...
how can I expand my capacity
to take as much of that love into my heart so I can give it back!
Not only to him, but to the other people he's placed in my life.
From all of here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike.
God Bless!