God loves athiests. That is good enough for me. Why does He love them. He has at least 5 good reasons: Psychological, Social, Intellectual, Spiritual and Divine reasons:
1) Psychological:
God understands that psychologically many people are inhibited from believing because of childhood experiences or lack of childhood experiences. For example, if a child has a mean or distant father who always unaffirms and belittles the child, then it would be hard for that child now come to be an adult to envision a loving God as his or her Father. Also if a family member abused a child sexually and emotionally - especially if these abusers were known to believe in God, then the child would be turned off to a God who had not been able to protect her or him.
2) Social:
When a young adult sees or reads about Hitler's killing of 40 million people and Stalin's killing of 60 million of his own people, he wonders how a good God could allow such a thing. Social evils of all kinds prove to him or her in their m ind that a good God just cannot exist. But God draw tremendous good out of evil...some times more good than existed before the evil. God does not take back free will but knows how to bring a greater good out of evil such as when Maria Goretti gave her life instead of giving in to a young man, she was canonized a Saint and converted her assailant who became a lay Franciscan and lived in a monastery all his life after being released from prison. He and Maria's mother both attended the Canonization of Maria Goretti. She is the model of youth purity and love for God.
3) Intellectual:
Atheists really are seekers of Truth. They rely on the god of Reason as the soul foundation of human existence. They believe in what they can see and only what they feel is reasonable. They try to prove that Jesus did not exist and that God did not create the world; humans merely evolved. Yes, humans may have evolved, but the human soul that has free will must be a immediate Creation of God. Aristotle who is the Apostle of Reason believed in God and in the human soul as being indestructible. Aristotle said that man has a spiritual power to abstract and make universal definition which is a totally spiritual ability. He said the soul is a simple entity and does not have any parts but is a complete whole. It cannot fall apart. It is immortal. It had a beginning but will have no end. He said that the soul could live outside of the body when the body dies. He reasoned to all of this. So believing in God is actually very reasonable. God is the Creator of Reason. Reason tells us we have free will. Psychologist and Neurosurgians have explored the human brain to try and locate the area of the brain that controls free will. They admitted they never have found it. They cannot because free will is in one's immortal soul. Everpart of our body and all the faculties of our soul come from God Mind and Creative Love for us. One day - in this life or in the next - Atheists will realize that "without God Atheists would not exist." One day they will love God. God lovingly waits for them.
4) Spiritual:
Not every one prays. "Religion" means having a relationship with God. Talking to God for a believer is very normal behavior. Some children are not taught to pray. God can handle not getting a phone call from his children. He wishes they would check in from time to time so He can say to them: "I love you." But just as we parents love our kids if they call or not, so God loves us no matter what. He can wait. He knows that all His kids will see Him face to face after they leave this world. So, for all eternity they will know He exists. But the real question or issue is not God's Existence but rather God's Love for us. Knowing we are loved by God is the most important knowledge we can have in this world.
5) Divine:
This reason for the existence of God's pertains to God's reason to Create and Love us. There is a Latin phrase that answers the question "Why did God make us in the first place?" The Latin phase says: "Bonum est diffusivum sui." which means "Goodness has a tendency to go out of itself." God was perfectly happy. Then why would He create the Big Bang from nothing tha brought everything into existence? God was perfectly happy in Himself; but want to share life with others. Being God, He does things on a very grand scale. After billion of years, the earth was ready for the creation of human kind. He designed man and woman and told them to multiply. These humans had free will. He warned them not to eat of the fruit of good and evil because they would die. When they did freely sin, God did not punish them by giving them death. God only told them they would die if they ate of the fruit and He did not want them to eat of it. He knew that if they committed this great sin of disobedience that their souls would die as to their relattionship with God and that their souls - being so closely bound to their bodies - would effect death to thier bodies. It took Adam nearly a 1000 years to die because his body was so perfect. God's plan was to allow his children to enjoy this earth and learn to truly love and care for one another and then He would just take them to Heaven when they were ready and had loved much. His plan never had any death in it. We all have now inherited the fallen nature of Adam and Eve. But God told Adam and Eve that He would send a Savior to bring them back to Paradise. This is so true because on the cross, Jesus said to the repentant good thief: "This day you will be with me in Pardise."
So, then, why do I love Atheist? I love them because they just do not yet see God in nature and in their own bodies and in their ability to love. All the powers of body and soul are gifts from God. I feel there is Hope for every Atheist. Let me tell you a true story to illustrate my Hope for them:
In the 1920's there was an unusal married couple: a devout Catholic wife joined to her anti-Catholic atheistic husband. Eventhough there were totally opposites spiritually, they did still love each other very much. The wife saw her husband write and publish books against the Catholic Church and God. He was religious in his atheism. Of course, since God cannot be proven to not exist, he had to rely on his great faith in the non-existence of God. His wife waged her own spiritual war against his atheism by praying for him - not scolding or showing angry. Quite the contrary, she felt she would lead him to Christiantiy by her love and devotion and unconditional love for him. She decided to mirror God's love for him. So, she really loved him both romatically and spiritually. She loved him totally just as God loves us. Coming to the realization that it would take great suffering to be offered in atonement for his sins and to reinforce her prayers, she seriously asked God to send her a great suffering that she could offer up for him. She was becoming the embodiment of Jesus' words: "There is no greater love than this than to lay down one's life for one's friend."
In a matter of months her stange new pain allerted her husband to take her to the doctor. In the 1920's, there was no such thing as our modern "pain management". Her diagnosis was a great surprise to her husband but not at all to her. She had cancer and it was spreading rapidly. This was before the time of kemo or nutritional treatments. In a way that was good because Kemo is a poison and produces two others cancers - especially Lukemia. [My sister-in-law had ovarian cancer and was offered Kemo but was told of the risk of Lukemia. She felt she had little options. She took the Kemo, contracted Lukemia and died of it. Kemotherapy is an industry that kills the immunine system and can give additional cancers. It killed my beloved sister-in-law, Judy.]
Now that the husband was the reason for his wife's actual suffering which was added to her prayers, his hardness toward the Church and toward God was about to receive a mortal blow. She rapidly got worse and soon lay dying in much pain. She never wavered in her love for God or her husband. She was suffering to break through the walls of his mind and heart and soul. Before dying, she told him to come and put his ear near her mouth because she was too weak to speak loudly. She whispered into his ear this prediction: "I love you. After I die, you will become a Dominican priest." He said to her that he loved her so very much but that he hated God and the Catholic Church. But she protested that all her suffering offered up for his conversion cannot fail...could not be for nothing. With her words still ringing in his ears, she died in his arms.
On a business trip to Lourdes France, he was looking at the pilgrims with pity and stared at the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes that dominated this shrine that has seen the spiritual and physical cures of many. As he was gazing at the statue a miracle took place in his soul. He received the full and total gift of Faith! Suddenly he knew for certain that not only was there a God but God loved him so much as to give him this new spiritual sight to see Him!
He was so awed, excited and joyful that he started to run down the street. He kept running until he saw an open door way. He ran in right into the arms of a Dominican priest. "Father!" said the widower, "There is a God!" "I know," said the priest. The man said in reply: "No, Father, you do not understand. There really REALLY IS A GOD!" The priest then heard the whole story of his wife's suffering and her prediction. The priest said, "You have been through so much sorrow and now this miraculous experience. Why not stay with us a month or so to rest and just be peaceful and heal from the loss of your wife." The man agreed and moved in.
After more than a month had passed, the Dominican priest decided to take the widower to Rome to have him receive to humbly ask for and receive forgiveness for the many books he had published against the Church. The man was notorious just as St. Paul was before his conversion.
The Pope readily gave his forgiveness. Still the pontiff sadly expressed the fact that felt he was still very notorious - known to all as an a-theist ["against God"] and anti-Catholic. But the Domincan priest praised the man's repentance, new-found faith and now deep desire to become a priest. At first the Pope thought that it may be scandalous for him to become a priest because of his reputation in the theological world. But the Dominican priest humbly told the Pope that this man's vocation was authentic and deeply desired. There was absolutely no doubt in the man's mind that God wanted him to become a priest. The Pope said to the man: "I now give all my authority regarding you to this your Dominican priest who champions you. Whatever he askes for you to do, that is myself asking you to do it. Obey him as you would obey me."
With that interview completed, the widower entered the Dominican seminary and was so zealous to learn everything he could learn about God. He was soon ordained and was not assigned to a parish but to a Dominican Retreat House to give retreats to other priests! In every retreat that the new priest gave, he always included the story of his wife's love and sacrifice for him and how totally right she was about everything. One of the priests who made a retreat under him was Fr. Fulton J. Sheen who would become the Archbishop who would win an emmy for his series "Life is Worth Living" on Television. The Servant of God, Bishop Sheen, personally and with all his glorious style told the whole story of the new Dominican priest in a way even more beautifully than the new Dominican priest told it because Bishop Sheen knew the total significance of God's merciful love for Atheist.
But that was in the 1920's. Let's look at an current example that took place in 2011:
Jennifer Fulwiler has written a blog called "From Atheist to Catholic" [If you google her name or just "From Atheist to Catholic", you can get her whole story. But here at least a few quotes from her writing:
1) "I always thought it was obvious God did not exist"
2) "Thanks to meeting my husband, I learned that belief in God is not fundamentally unreasonable."
3) "I have always been a truth seeker, which is why I was an atheist."
4) "I approached life with much arrogance and pride. I now realize that pride is the most effective way to block out God so that one doesn't see him at all."
5) "Community, there is nothing like it in atheism. I never understood what people meant by memebership in the Catholic Church is being part of the Body of Christ; but now I readlly get it."
6) "By being part of the one, holy Catholic Chruch, there is a palpable connection I now have with other Catholics, even people I don't know."
7) "It is amazing to experience that connection and community!"
Given those two above stories of avowed athesit making there way home to the Catholic Church, I now really know why I do very much love atheists? I love them because God loves them!!
One last word to atheists who are reading this, do not be discouraged by your life before becoming open to God. Here is a quote Deacon Tony gave me today:
"I don't have to beat myself up over my mistakes. All I need to do is humble myself and ask for God's forgiveness in order to begin again becoming the person God wants me to be." Now is a good time to begin a new journey to God. His word says in Proverbs:
"My son, my daughter, with true humility have self esteem and prize yourself as you ought."
Let us pray:
Father please look upon every atheist and ignostic in the world - from sea to sea - with Your penetrating Love - Your Holy Spirit. Give them all comfort and assurance of Your Love and understanding. Please be patient with all of us, until we can get it right. Be a loving Dad who watches His play in the sandbox of this life. Help us to share our toys with each other generously. Help us to love each other.
Help all to understand that if one finds a true friend, one finds a treasure; and You Father are that Friend. As you let a man from atheism to becoming a Dominican priest through the love of his wife and a young lady to come from atheism to Catholicism through the love of her husband, please send every atheist and ignostic a great messenger of Love to lead them to peace of mind and all truth so that all atheists and ignostics and those who have lost their faith will come to realize how much You love them. Give them the surprise of Your Love and affirmation. Please send Your Providence to bring tham all the love they desparately need so that they can move from Human Love to Divine Love - which was Your very Plan in the first place! All this we ask in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Love, Pio
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