John Cheng-- I –
1. “Does your life say I love you to Jesus?” (https://mapleridge
church.org/does-your- life-say-i-love-you-to-jesus/) Therefore, for all
the serious followers of Jesus, it is always important to ask themselves
such a reflective question, i.e., “Does my life say I love you to Jesus?”
until its perfection in Heaven.
[Note: Learning from various Catholic Saints and mystics of the
Church, we should say “I love you” to Jesus many times a day,
especially after receiving the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament. Likewise, we should say “I love you” many times a day to
God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Further, we can say “I love
you” to Our Heavenly Mother, to our Guardian Angel, as well as to St.
Joseph, St. Michael, and to all the other Holy Angels and Saints in
Heaven. For the fulfillment of the Second Greatest Commandment of
God towards others, we can also say “I love you Jesus” through our
kind words and action to others.]
2. St. Paul witnessed: “For it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives
in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2:20) Hence, the
Process of Salvation is a process for all individual persons to learn to
live as if they no longer live, but God lives in them in Christ and
through Christ, until its perfection in Heaven.
3. “He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of
all creation.” (Col 1:15) Therefore, the Salvation Process for each
person who has been created in God’s holy image (cf. Gen 1:25-26) is
a process of seeking to resemble Jesus more and more each day, until
its perfection in Heaven.
4. “His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’” (Jn 2:5)
Therefore, the whole Salvation Process is a process of realization of
the salvific plan of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who has been given
by God to all of us as the Mother of the whole human family, until its
perfection in Heaven.
[Note: It must be made clear that the salvific plan of the Mother of
God is exactly the same as the salvific plan of Christ, since she is
without doubt the best of the best followers of Christ.]
5. The Process of Salvation, individually and collectively, is a process of
becoming increasingly immaculate as Our Heavenly Mother the
Immaculate Conception who has lived her whole life as a perfectly
sinless and holy image of God, until its perfection in Heaven.
6. The Process of Salvation is the process for each human person to
come to realize and live his/her true self as a holy image of God (cf.
Gen 1:25-26), until its perfection in Heaven.
7. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love,
as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and
sacrifice to God.” (Eph 5:1-2) Therefore, the Process of Salvation is a
process for all human beings to learn to imitate God in Christ and
through Christ as God’s beloved children, i.e., in seeing things as God
sees, and doing things as God would, until its perfection in Heaven.
[Note: This is not easy at all. Hence, countless practicing Catholics
have been going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation as often as once a
month or once every two weeks.]
8. The Process of Salvation, individually and collectively, is a process for
all individuals to learn to be prudently and prayerfully imitating the
shining examples of the Saints of God who have lived their life as
ideal holy images of God, until its perfection in Heaven.
9. The Process of Salvation is a process of the Incarnation of the Word of
God for all creation, until its perfection in Heaven when there will be
a new Heaven and a new earth (cf. Rev 21:1-6; Acts 3:21; etc.).
[Note: The Christian West tends to focus the Incarnation of the Word
of God for the salvation of all humanity, whereas the Christian East
traditionally includes the Incarnation for all creation. Accordingly, all
things will be restored, except for those conscious creatures who have
willfully rejected God’s plan of salvation (cf. Rev 21:7-8; etc.).]
10. Indeed, one may say that Salvation Process is a process of
Incarnation in which the Son of God became human so that human
beings may become divine (cf. CCC, 460), i.e., to become divinized
and filled with God’s divine nature (2Pet 1:3-4) or God’s divine
energy (according to Eastern Catholic tradition), until its perfection in
Heaven.
11. The Process of Salvation is a process of the Infinite-finite-union in
the sense that the Infinite reaches out to create the finite in order to be
in everlasting union with the finite.
[Note: However, each finite being in the finite realm has to possess the
same nature as the Infinite who is infinitely holy. Otherwise, no union
between the Infinite and the finite is possible. Apparently, Christ in
His Divine-human nature may be described as the Infinite-finite being
through whom the Infinite has created all finite beings; and again, it is
through the Infinite-finite that all the finite beings can go back to the
Infinite in everlasting union with the Infinite (cf. Col 1:15-20).]
12. The Process of Salvation is a process of the Incarnation of the
“Infinite of Infinite” (Archbishop Raya, Christmas. Combermere,
Ontario: Madonna House Publications, 1997, p. 4) to become the
‘finite of finite’ in order to create, redeem, and unite with all finite
creation, in particular human beings (cf. Col 1:15-20), until its
perfection in Heaven.
13. The Process of Salvation, individually and collectively, is a process
of encountering and experiencing the infinite love of God in and
through Jesus Christ, until its perfection in Heaven. To that extent,
Catholics who believe and practice genuinely the Real Presence of the
God-Man in the Holy Eucharist are very blessed. They are the people
who have most genuinely encountered and experienced the infinite
love of God here on earth.
[Note: To be sure, for Catholics who desire to truly encounter and
experience the infinite love of God in and through the Eucharistic
Presence of Christ, they have to spend sufficient time (or learn to
waste their precious time sufficiently) before the ever radiant Real
Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, for example, by doing a
Holy Hour daily or weekly. In fact, it would be very ideal if they could
do an all-night adoration monthly or at least once in a while.]
14. The Process of Salvation is a process of God the eternal, uncreated,
living, omnipresent Infinite Perfection of all perfections who has been
reaching out from uncreated eternity to share with all creatures His
divine perfections in Christ and through Christ, until its perfection in
Heaven.
15. The Process of Salvation, individually and collectively, is a process
of encountering and experiencing the immense infinity of God until its
perfection in Heaven. Blessed, for example, are those natural scientists
who believe in God and have encountered and experienced the
immense infinity of God in their scientific works.
16. “It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are
children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow
heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may
also be glorified with him.” (Rom 8:16-17) Therefore, the Process of
Salvation for all individual persons without exception is a process of
the inheriting all the riches of God according to our created capacity,
until its perfection in Heaven.
17. For all individuals and communities, the Process of Salvation is a
process of practicing the very integrity and uprightness of God who
will redeem us out of all troubles (cf. Ps 25:21-22) until its perfection
in Heaven.
18. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our
sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn 1:9) By all
appearances, since the Church is a divine hospital to take care of our
spiritual life, in particular our sinful wounds, the Sacrament of
Confession or Reconciliation has become the Intense Care Unit (ICU).
We may, therefore, say that the Process of Salvation for all the
believing Catholics is a process of taking the ICU of the Church very
seriously until its perfection in Heaven.
[Note: Notably, “God created man for incorruption, and made him in
the image of his own eternity, but through the devil’s envy death
entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it.”
(Wisdom 2:23-24) In her Diary, paragraph 741, St. Faustina said that
what she was sharing about one’s eternal self-condemnation away
from God was merely “a pale shadow of the things I saw. But I
noticed one thing: that most of the souls there are those who
disbelieved that there is a hell… I, Sister Faustina Kowalska, by the
order of God, have visited the abysses of hell so that I might tell souls
about it and testify to its existence.”]
19. “If I ascend to heaven, thou art there! If I make my bed in Sheol,
thou art there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the
uttermost parts of the sea, even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy
right hand shall hold me.” (Ps 139:8-10) Hence, the Process of
Salvation for each human person is a process of learning to interact
with God frequently and lovingly in his/her personal thought, prayer
and action, until its perfection in Heaven.
20. “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called
children of God; and so we are.” (1Jn 3:1) Therefore, the Process of
Salvation is a process in which God the Father has invited each human
person created in His image to become His beloved child in Christ and
through His Church, until its perfection in Heaven.
21. The Process of Salvation is a process for all individuals and
communities to come to experience and participate more and more of
the eternal uncreated nature of God who is Ipsum Esse Subsistens (a
concept of St. Thomas Aquinas which means Infinite Self-Fulfillment
Itself --- https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/uram.36.3-4.
103), until its perfection in Heaven.