Posted by Ortho John on September 25, 19100 at 05:11:49:
In Reply to: Ways of Perfection: Ignatius, Pantheism, etc posted by johnboy on September 24, 19100 at 10:27:54:
A recurrent salient aspect of all Church teachings and magisterial commentary regarding the economy of salvation, that has really come across to me in my studies of same, is Her emphasis on how very much She desires, in and with Christ, that ALL be saved. We are animated in true solidarity with utmost compassion to extend God's love and mercy to EVERY soul and, like Jesus who would have incarnated and experienced His passion, death and resurrection for JUST you or just me, the Church as Mystical Body would have come into existence and would perdure in its salvific mission, with ALL of its manifold ministries through all of salvation history for just YOU or just me. On fire with the love of a Beloved, with the unceasing love of a parent for a child, like the Shepherd in pursuit of the one lost sheep, the Mystical Body even as subsisting in the visible structure of our Church on earth, today, would continue to endeavor with all of the energies expended down through millenia to minister God's love and mercy and saving power to JUST you. The Church teachings clearly express the importance, the grave concern, of matters of salvation. These are not "issues" to be dealt with casually or dismissed with lightly. Even if most every inefficacious human behavior were nothing but a mistake, an error from illness or poor formation, were seldom authentic sin, we would not countenance and could not abide with the possibility of even one soul misusing its freedom to reject cooperation with grace, of one human saying no to God for eternity. To quote Michael Jackson: "It used to be, I and me, now it's US, now its WE." And to think, Michael was singing about a pet rat! All are our brothers and sisters. All are our children. All are destined to become our Beloved. None are predestined and that is why, our beloved Little Flower, the great Carmelite Mystic, requested the opportunity to work until the Eschaton for souls. In the experience of authentic solidarity, compassion extends to all and Our Lady is truly a Mother of Sorrows. When I begin to care as deeply about the vibrancy and aliveness of the ecclesial love life of my coworkers and neighbors, in the same measure as I do about "my own in this world", solidarity has taken hold and true compassion will ensue. I then seek enlightenment out of great compassion for others and what my enlightenment can do for them and, yes, "my own in this world" dissolves even as the "true glory" of our persistence as individuals, as particular singularities, or as singular particularities perdures. This is not how we view nirvana in the East, but, in the West, it is orthodoxy, or "true glory". That's ALL we want now, isn't it? True Glory for All!