Sermonette: May 16, 2022

Jesus says that those who are forgiven much will love much but “those who are forgiven little will love little” (cf. Luke 7:47). Does this mean that we have to be forgiven for great and many sins before we can have great love for God? In other words, do those who did not commit many sins love God less than those who have been forgiven for their many sins? One of my favorite saints, Therese of Lisieux, never committed a serious sin in her whole life. She gives clarity to this question by telling two stories. In the first story, a doctor’s child trips over a stone in her path that causes her to fall and break a limb. Her father comes to her immediately, picks her up lovingly, and heals her limb. His child, completely cured, shows gratitude and love for her father! In the second story, the same father, who, knowing there is a stone in his child’s way hastens ahead of her and removes it, but without anyone seeing him do it. The child, unaware of the misfortune her father saved her from, does not thank him and will love him less than if she had been cured by him. However, if she should come to learn the danger from which she escaped, will she not love her father more? Therese then writes, “Well, I am this child, the object of the foreseeing love of a Father who has not sent His Word to save the just, but sinners. He wants me to love Him because He has forgiven me not much, but ALL. He has not expected me to love Him much … but He has willed that I know how He has loved me with a love of unspeakable foresight in order that now I may love Him to folly!” (Story of a Soul, 83-84) She shows that God’s mercy is for all. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Jesus’ love is available for those who repent of their great sins and for those who, through God’s mercy alone, learn that they were preserved from falling into great sin.