Heaven In Faith

The Chapel of the military camp where Elizabeth was baptized

26.  "Those whom God has foreknown, He has also predestined to become conformed to the image of His divine Son...."  And those whom He has predestined, He has also called; and those whom He has called He has also justified; and those whom He has justified, He has also glorified.  What then shall we say after that? If God is for us, who can be against us?.... Who will separate me from the love of Christ?"  This is how the mystery of predestination, the mystery of divine election appeared to the enlightened gaze of the Apostle. "Those whom He foreknown."  Are not we of that number?  Cannot God say to our soul what He once said through the voice of His prophet: "I passed by you and saw you.  I saw that the time had come for you to be loved.  I spread my garment over you  I swore to you to protect you, and I made a covenant with you, and you became mine."


27.  Yes, we have become His through baptism, that is what Paul means by these words: "He called them," yes, called to receive the seal of the Holy Trinity; at the same time we have been made, in the words of St. Peter, "sharers in the divine nature," we have received "a beginning of His existence"... Then, He has justified us by His sacraments, by His direct "touches" in our contemplation "in the depths of our soul; justified us also by faith and according to the measure of our faith in the redemption that Jesus Christ has acquired for us.  And finally, He wants to glorify us, and for that reason, says St. Paul, He "has made us worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in light," but we will be glorified in the measure  in which we will have been conformed to the image of His divine Son.  So let us contemplate this adored image, let us remain unceasingly under its radiance so that it may imprint itself on us; let us go to everything with the same attitude of soul that our holy Master would have.  Then we will realize the great plan by which God has "resolved in Himself to restore all things in Christ."