In May 2017, the Fake Resistance’s four bishops1 falsely and publicly declared that God infinitely loves a creature (viz., the Blessed Virgin Mary).2 Then, in August 2017, Bishop Williamson repeated this same error (viz., that God loves a creature with an infinite love).3

Here are the words of the Fake Resistance’s bishops:

Mother of God, we commend our own selves also to your protection and to your all-powerful intercession with Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, but who is at the same time a Son who infinitely loves His Mother, and will do anything she asks.4

This present error is a further reminder not to trust the Fake Resistance—especially Bishop Williamson. He frequently teaches liberalism5 and his colleagues remain silent about his errors (and defend them). Faithful and informed Catholics should never trust the Fake Resistance without separately confirming the truth from a reliable Catholic source, just as they should never trust Pope Francis or Bishop Fellay.

When examining this claim (that God infinitely loves a creature), a faithful and informed Catholic might immediately see that the four Fake Resistance bishops must be wrong for four reasons:

  1. If God loved any creature infinitely, then He would love this creature as much as He loves Himself (which is false).
  2. It is perverse for anyone to love anything disproportionately to the goodness in that thing. But no creature is infinitely good. Therefore, no one should love any creature infinitely. To love any creature infinitely is perverse, i.e., inherently disordered. But it is impossible for God to be perverse.
  3. God’s love causes the goodness in what He loves. Thus, if (contrary to the truth) God were to love any creature infinitely, His love would make that creature infinitely good, which is impossible.
  4. God loves creatures for the sake of Himself. Whenever someone loves something for the sake of a second thing, he loves that second thing more than the first thing. Therefore, God (Who loves Himself infinitely) must love all creatures less than infinitely.

Below, we discuss each of these four reasons.

1. If God loved a creature infinitely, then He would love this creature as much as He loves Himself.

God loves Himself infinitely.6 If (contrary to the truth) God were to love any creature (e.g., His mother) infinitely, then He would love that creature as much as He loves Himself. This is because God’s love for Himself and His love for a creature (e.g., His mother) would both be infinite and therefore equal.7 Thus, it is perverse and false to say that God infinitely loves any creature, even His mother.8

Further, if someone were to (wrongly) suppose the even greater error that God loves everyone with an infinite love, then this would mean that God not only loves everyone as much as He loves Himself, but also that God loves everyone equally. This is a second error, and it results in the false consequence that God loves His mother equally with every person possessing only a much smaller amount of grace and that He even loves her equally with the worst sinner.

But the truth is that God loves better people (and things) more.9 If a person asserts that God loves everyone infinitely, this adds a second false consequence to that original error (viz., that God infinitely loves even a single creature).

Thus, because God does not love any creature equally with Himself, God does not infinitely love any creature (even His mother).

2. It is perverse for anyone (including God) to love anything disproportionately to the goodness in that thing. But no creature is infinitely good. Therefore, to love any creature infinitely would be perverse, i.e., inherently disordered.

Goodness is the object of love. Love should always be in proportion to the goodness in the thing loved.10 It is perverse to love something beyond the goodness in it. For example, a man sins by loving pleasure more than God, because, although pleasure is good, it is a good lower than God is and so should be loved less than God.

God is infinitely good and thus is infinitely lovable.11 But every creature has finite (i.e., limited) good12 in it and so is not infinitely lovable. Thus, no creature should be loved infinitely. Such infinite love would exceed that creature’s goodness.

Infinite love for a creature is perverse because it is a love out of proportion to the creature’s goodness. Thus, if God loved any creature infinitely, He would be perverse because His love would be inherently disordered. This is impossible.

Thus, God does not infinitely love any creature (even His mother).

3. God’s love causes the goodness in the things He loves. Thus, if God infinitely loves any creature, His love would make that creature infinitely good (which is impossible).

We love a thing or a person because it is good.13 This is not so, with God. A creature is only good because God loves it and only in proportion to God’s love for it. The more He loves a creature, the more goodness He puts into it.14

The Persons in God share infinite goodness among Themselves but God shares limited goodness with creatures.15 If God infinitely loved any creature (e.g., His mother), He would thereby make that creature infinitely good, which is impossible.16

4. God loves creatures for His own sake. Whenever someone loves something for the sake of a second thing, he loves that second thing more than the first. Therefore, God (Who loves Himself with an infinite love) loves creatures (including His mother) with less than the infinite love.

God knows and loves creatures for His own sake. As declared in the Book of Proverbs: “the Lord hath made all things for Himself”, including man. Proverbs, ch.16, v.4.

God directly thinks of and loves only Himself.17 Because only God is infinite Truth and Goodness, only God is worthy of His own direct thought and love. Creatures are only worthy of God’s single, eternal thought and love insofar as He caused them and they reflect Him. Thus, God only knows and loves creatures because, knowing and loving Himself perfectly, He also knows and loves His works because He caused them and they reflect His goodness.18

When a person loves a second person for the sake of a third person, he loves that third person more than the second person. Thus, a man loves his wife’s relatives because he loves her. He loves them less than he loves her, because his love for her makes him love them.19

Similarly, God loves Himself for His own sake and loves creatures because they are His work. In other words, God loves creatures because He loves Himself, just as the man loves his wife’s relatives because he loves his wife.

God loves Himself infinitely but loves creatures (even His mother) less than that (viz., finitely) because He loves them for the sake of Himself.20 Thus, God does not infinitely love any creature, even His mother.

Conclusion

God does not infinitely love any creature (even His mother).

Especially in matters of our Holy Faith, we should speak truthfully. It is much better to say:

Any of those statements avoid the falsehood of saying that God infinitely loves her (or any creature).

A person speaks falsely when he declares that God infinitely loves His mother. Perhaps his error is an ill-considered exaggeration motivated by piety. The person might merely mean that God loves Our Lady “very greatly”. But we should speak truly and accurately about the things of God.

Sometimes people interpret a particular exaggeration not as a lie, but as an “exaggeration to make a point”. For example, a man could emphasize his familiarity with the city of Paris by declaring that “I’ve been to Paris a million times”, although he was actually there only fifty times.

But, especially in matters connected to our Faith, we should speak truthfully and not exaggerate. Thus, no one should ever say that God infinitely loves His mother, even if he intends “merely” to exaggerate and emphasize God’s love for His mother. Such an error is incomparably further from the truth than is the exaggeration of the man who says that he has “been to Paris a million times”:

Thus, it is false, and we should never say, that God infinitely loves His mother.

Again, this present error is a reminder not to trust the Fake Resistance’s four bishops, so careless as they are with the Catholic truth.

  1. Bishops Williamson, Zendejas, Aquinas and Faure ↑
  2. Quoted in the August 5, 2017, Eleison Comments #525 (emphasis added). ↑
  3. August 5, 2017, Eleison Comments #525 (emphasis added). ↑
  4. August 5, 2017, Eleison Comments #525 (emphasis added). ↑
  5. Read, some of Bishop Williamson’s heresies, in his own words cited to his own sources, here: Bp. Williamson & the False Resistance ↑

  6. St. Thomas explains that truth this way:

    The perfection of charity may be understood in two ways: first with regard to the object loved, secondly with regard to the person who loves. With regard to the object loved, charity is perfect, if the object be loved as much as it is lovable. Now God is as lovable as He is good, and His goodness is infinite, wherefore He is infinitely lovable. But no creature can love Him infinitely since all created power is finite. Consequently, no creature's charity can be perfect in this way; the charity of God alone can [be perfect], whereby He loves Himself [infinitely].

    Summa, IIa IIae, Q.24, a.8, respondeo (emphasis added; bracketed words added to show antecedents).

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  7. Infinite loves are all infinite, i.e., they are all unlimited. There is no greater or lesser when comparing one to another. For if we assumed contrary to the truth, that one “infinite love” were greater than a second “infinite love”, then the smaller “infinite love” would have a limit, i.e., it would be finite and limited as smaller than the other “infinite love”.

    The infinite has no proportion to the finite, since the infinite incomparably exceeds what is finite. However, something infinite can be called equal to a different infinite thing (of the same kind) because neither of them has any limits. Thus, one can say that the Father loves the Son just as much as the Son loves the Father, because neither love has limits.

    Thus, since two infinites are equal, they have the same proportion to each other as two finite, equal things have to each other.

    Therefore, because two infinites are equal, they can be compared one to the other as having the same proportion (viz., equality), as one finite thing has compared to another finite thing which is equal to it.

    Here is how the Summa explains this truth:

    Although there can be no proportion between finite and infinite, since the excess of the infinite over the finite is indeterminate, there can be proportionality or a likeness to proportion between them: for just as a finite thing is equal to some other finite thing, so is an infinite thing equal to an infinite thing.

    Summa Suppl., Q.92, a.1, ad 6.

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  8. St. Thomas also explains the mutual love of the Divine Persons surpasses God’s love for all creatures “combined”. Here is how St. Thomas explains this truth:

    God loves Christ [Who is a Divine Person] not only more than He loves the whole human race, but more than He loves the entire created universe: because He willed for Him the greater good in giving Him “a name that is above all names,” in so far as He was true God. Nor did anything of His excellence diminish when God delivered Him up to death for the salvation of the human race; rather did He become thereby a glorious conqueror: “The government was placed upon His shoulder,” according to Isaiah 9:6.

    Summa, Ia, Q.20, a.4, ad 1 (emphasis added; bracketed words added for clarity).

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  9. Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas explains this truth:

    It must needs be, according to what has been said before, that God loves more the better things. For it has been shown (Ia, Q.2, a.3), that God’s loving one thing more than another is nothing else than His willing for that thing a greater good: because God’s will is the cause of goodness in things; and the reason why some things are better than others, is that God wills for them a greater good. Hence it follows that He loves more the better things.

    Summa, Ia, Q.20, a.4, respondeo (emphasis added). ↑

  10. Here is how St. Thomas states this truth: “A thing is lovable in proportion to its goodness”. Summa, IIa IIae, Q. 27, a.5, respondeo.

    St. Thomas also explains that same truth regarding charity in particular:

    The perfection of charity may be understood in two ways: first with regard to the object loved, secondly with regard to the person who loves. With regard to the object loved, charity is perfect, if the object be loved as much as it is lovable. Now God is as lovable as He is good, and His goodness is infinite, wherefore He is infinitely lovable. But no creature can love Him infinitely since all created power is finite. Consequently, no creature's charity can be perfect in this way; the charity of God alone can, whereby He loves Himself.

    Summa, IIa IIae, Q.24, a.8, respondeo (emphasis added)

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  11. Here is how St. Thomas states this truth: “God is infinitely lovable, since His goodness is infinite.” Summa, IIa IIae, Q. 27, a.5, respondeo. ↑
  12. Here is how St. Thomas states this truth: “all goodness possessed by creatures is finite, falling short of the infinite goodness of God.” Summa Contra Gentiles, vol.2, ch.45, §5. ↑

  13. Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas explains this truth: “Our love is based on a creature’s goodness. For a thing is not good because I love it, but rather I love a thing because it is good.” St. Thomas Aquinas, Lectures on St. Matthew’s Gospel, ch.17, §1436.

    St. Thomas explains that truth more fully, as follows:

    God loves everything that exists. Yet not as we love. Because since our will is not the cause of the goodness of things, but is moved by it [viz., by the goodness in the thing] as by its object, our love, whereby we will good to anything, is not the cause of its goodness; but conversely its goodness, whether real or imaginary, calls forth our love, by which we will that it should preserve the good it has, and receive besides the good it has not, and to this end we direct our actions: whereas the love of God infuses and creates goodness.

    Summa, Ia, Q.20, a.2, respondeo (emphasis added and bracketed words added to show the antecedent). ↑

  14. Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas explains this truth: “God’s love is the cause of the goodness in things.” St. Thomas Aquinas, Lectures on St. Matthew’s Gospel, ch.17, §1436 (emphasis added).

    St. Thomas explains that truth more fully, as follows:

    God loves more the better things. For it has been shown (Ia, Q2, a.3), that God’s loving one thing more than another is nothing else than His willing for that thing a greater good: because God’s Will is the cause of goodness of things; and the reason why some things are better than others, is that God wills for them a greater good. Hence it follows that He loves more the better things.

    Summa, 1a, Q.20, a.4, respondeo (emphasis added). ↑

  15. Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas explains this truth:

    Just as God poured out goodness in creatures through creation, so in His Son through generation, since He communicates all goodness to His Son; hence creatures are blessed by participation, but He gave all His goodness to His Son; “The Father loveth the Son: and he hath given all things into his hand” (St. John’s Gospel, 3:35).”

    St. Thomas Aquinas, Lectures on St. Matthew’s Gospel, ch.17, §1436.

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  16. St. Thomas explains that truth this way:

    For God is able to make any creature better, yet He cannot make a creature of infinite goodness: because infinite goodness is incompatible with the notion of being created, whereas determinate goodness is not, however great it be.

    St. Thomas Aquinas, De Potential Dei, Q.3, a.14, ad 6 (emphasis added).

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  17. St. Thomas explains that truth this way: “In God, [His] intellect, and the object understood [Himself], and the intelligible species, and His act of understanding are entirely one and the same.” Summa, Q.14, a.4, respondeo.

    St. Thomas adds: “There must be will in God, since there is intellect in Him. And as His intellect is His own existence, so is His will.” Summa, Ia, Q.19, a.1, respondeo.

    Further, “In God, there is love”. Summa, Ia, Q.20, a.1, respondeo. But because (as St. Thomas explains), “God is truly and absolutely simple”, His one act of love is the same as His one act of knowing, and the same as His own being. Summa, Q.3, a.7, sed contra, quoting St. Augustine.

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  18. St. Thomas explains that truth this way:

    God necessarily knows things other than Himself. For it is manifest that He perfectly understands Himself; otherwise His existence would not be perfect, since His existence is His act of understanding. Now if anything is perfectly known, it follows of necessity that its power is perfectly known. But the power of anything can be perfectly known only by knowing to what its power extends. Since therefore the divine power extends to other things by the very fact that it is the first effective cause of all things, as is clear from the aforesaid (Ia, Q.2, a.3) God must necessarily know things other than Himself. 

    Summa, Ia, Q.14, a.5, respondeo (emphasis added).

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  19. St. Thomas gives this same example of loving others, even our enemies for the sake of our friend, whom we love more:

    Friendship extends to a person in two ways: first in respect of himself, and in this way friendship never extends but to one's friends: secondly, it extends to someone in respect of another, as, when a man has friendship for a certain person, for his sake he loves all belonging to him, be they children, servants, or connected with him in any way. Indeed, so much do we love our friends, that for their sake we love all who belong to them, even if they hurt or hate us; so that, in this way, the friendship of charity extends even to our enemies, whom we love out of charity in relation to God, to Whom the friendship of charity is chiefly directed.

    Summa, IIa IIae, Q.23, a.1, ad 2 (emphasis added).

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  20. God can and does love his mother more than other creatures and even love her more than all other creatures “put together”. But however fabulously great and incomparable is God’s love for His mother, that love is not infinite. Here is how St. Thomas explains this truth:

    For God is able to make any creature better, yet He cannot make a creature of infinite goodness: because infinite goodness is incompatible with the notion of being created, whereas determinate goodness is not [incompatible with being a creature], however great it be.

    St. Thomas Aquinas, De Potential Dei, Q.3, a.14, ad 6 (emphasis added; bracketed words added to show the antecedent).

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  21. Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas explains this fact: “The infinite has no proportion to the finite”. St. Thomas Aquinas commentary on Aristotle’s treatise De Coelo, lecture 14, §139.

    St. Thomas puts this same truth a little differently, when he teaches: “There can be no proportion between an infinite and a finite weight, although there is a proportion between less time and more time, provided the time is finite ”. St. Thomas Aquinas’s commentary on De Coelo, lecture 12, §121.

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