Is God a vengeful God? Or is He a forgiving God? Does He love us only when we’re good? Or does He love us unconditionally?
These are just some of the questions we grapple with when it comes to the love of God.
While we may all agree that God is love, we may struggle to believe that God can still love the worst sinners. How can a good God love what is evil? Or what has light anything to do with darkness?
Perhaps this all started with our childhood beliefs. Growing up, we may have thought about religion as a system or rewards and punishments. For as long as we obey the commandments, we’ll be rewarded. But the moment that we disobey God, He’d cast us away to be punished.
Isn’t this similar to how we perceived school to be? When we exhibit excellent work, we’re rewarded with medals and trophies. But once we fail to meet our school’s expectations, we may be strictly reprimanded or even expelled.
Is that the same with God? Does God stop loving us when we’re bad?
Many people agree. And because of this belief, many also turn away from Him in despair instead of seeking His forgiveness and love.
It is a great burden, after all, to feel ashamed after living a life of sin. We may feel that God doesn’t love us anymore or worse, that He hates us! Why go to Him when we’d only be rejected in the end?
But if God is Love, will He ever cease loving? And if He is a Father, does He ever stop being one?
Let us recall that sin entered the world long ago when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Even after that, however, God never ceased loving us. Instead of condemning everyone to hell, God made a plan of salvation so that all may be saved.
“Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:7-8 (NABRE)
Jesus Christ loved us and died for sinners who didn’t even know Him!
And for Jerusalem, Jesus has these words:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” – Matthew 23:37 (NRSVCE)
Jesus compared Himself to a hen gathering her young, a mother who cares for her children. Even after so much disappointment, Jesus still feels this deep sorrow for them.
Even for those in hell, God still shows His mercy and love in ways we may never understand. While He could have taken away their memory and every trace that they have ever existed, He retains their identity and the knowledge of the life they have lived. He even allowed them to continue resisting and detesting Him, respecting their self-chosen lot for eternity.
And this, Jesus accepts not with a cold heart, but with a sorrowful and broken heart.
Here is what He said to St. Faustina about those who chose to turn away:
“There are souls who despise My graces as well as all the proofs of My love. They do not wish to hear My call, but proceed into the abyss of hell. The loss of these souls plunges Me into deadly sorrow. God though I am, I cannot help such a soul because it scorns Me; having a free will, it can spurn Me or love Me. You, who are the dispenser of My mercy, tell all the world about My goodness, and thus you will comfort My Heart.” (Divine Mercy In My Soul, 580)
Love does not cease to be love. And a Father does not stop being a father.
How could God ever stop loving when He is Love Himself?
He loves us. He created us in His own image and likeness.
“And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:27 (DRA)
He prepared heaven for us to abide with Him forever. But what does He do when some of us do not want to return to the Father’s house?
If you are feeling the weight of your sins at this moment, and if you have ever felt the desire to finally have peace and reconcile with your Father, don’t be disheartened. Do not lose hope!
No matter how great your sins may be, they can never outmatch the depths of God’s love and mercy.
Your Father waits for you this very moment. All that He requires is that little nod, that little opening in your heart so that He can enter therein and abide with you. Will you believe in the Father’s love for you today?
“And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven; but struck his breast, saying: O God, be merciful to me a sinner. I say to you, this man went down into his house justified…” – Luke 18:13-14 (DRA)
“[Let] the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy. My daughter, write about My mercy towards tormented souls. Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy.” – Jesus to St. Faustina (Divine Mercy In My Soul, 1146)
“If the greatest sinner on earth should repent at the moment of death, and draw his last breath in an act of love, neither the many graces he has abused, nor the many sins he had committed would stand in his way. Our Lord would receive him into His mercy.” — St. Therese of Lisieux
You may also want to read the following:
Will the Majority of People Go To Hell?
What Did Jesus Do When He Met a Sinner Condemned To Die?
7 Ways That God Loves Even the Bad People
Jocelyn Soriano writes about relationships and the Catholic faith at “Single Catholic Writer”. She wrote the books 366 Days of Compassion, Defending My Catholic Faith and Questions to God.
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