The light joins with the vessels according to the degree of their repair, which will be completed in the future.
Light enters the vessels progressively, in proportion to the degree of repair. The complete joining is reserved for the cycle's end.
Op. 41 said the Line cannot fully join the Residue until the three-stage mission is complete. Op. 42 makes the operational claim more precise: the joining is progressive. As the vessels are repaired stage by stage, the light enters them in proportion. The chapter resolves an apparent paradox between Op. 41 (light cannot join until purification is complete) and Op. 37 (damage/repair are rooted in the breaking from the outset).
The resolution is gradual entry. The light does not wait until the end of the cycle to enter; it enters as the repair proceeds, in proportion to the degree of each stage's completion. At the cycle's beginning, very little light enters (the vessels are still mostly broken); at intermediate stages, more enters (some repairs have been accomplished); at the cycle's end, the full light joins (the repair is complete).
This means human service is cosmically real. Every act of repair lets a corresponding amount of light enter; the cumulative effect of human service across the cycle is what gradually completes the joining. The cosmic government is not waiting passively for the cycle's end; it is actively working with the human contribution moment by moment.
The pastoral force is also worth noting. Op. 42 names the torment of the grave and Israel's faith in long exile as features of the cycle's middle phase. The cycle is real suffering, real darkness, real exile. The progressive entry of light is what makes the suffering bearable — not by minimising it, but by locating it within an arc whose endpoint is genuine completion.