“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed” (1 Jo. 3:2).
It’s good to know that we are the beloved children of God. That’s what it says in our reading today, after all, from the First Letter of John. St. John wants his readers to know that God loves them and that they have been born from him: that is, they have come from God as offspring are brought forth at birth. What a happy moment, that people celebrate on their birthday. No one remembers being born, yet parents remember for us.
In the same way, Christians are God’s children, beloved for who they are rather than for what they’ve done. God’s love is a gift, not something earned. In baptism we become the children of God: something that we remember each time we renew our baptismal vows. We’ll do that today as a part of baptism and confirmation. It’s a little bit like a birthday celebration. We’ve received the gift of life in Christ through baptism, and it’s good to recall it. We are the beloved children of God, and we remember this truth today.
Yet in our reading St. John doesn’t leave us there. You might think that simply saying “God loves you as his own child” would be enough, with nothing more to be added. I think it’s true to say that God loves us as we are, but there is more on offer. As John goes on to say, “What we will be has not yet been revealed” (1 Jo. 3:2). There is something more ahead for us that we haven’t yet come to know.
The Christian life demands transformation: radical change and renovation. God loves us as we are, yet God’s love does not leave us unchanged. There is still a future ahead for us. Like the child who is born, we too must grow to maturity. We can’t remain children. We must become something more; something that is not yet clear to us.
We can’t know what we’ll be like in the future, though we know we will be the same person. For Christians there is a similar challenge, of becoming what we are not yet and which we cannot yet know. What we will become is not something opposed to what we are; it’s not a complete contrast. There are points of continuity. God loves us now, and will love us in the future: of that we can be certain. But as it says in our reading, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed” (1 Jo. 3:2). There is something more ahead that we cannot completely calculate.
Our reading does not leave us clueless, however, with no idea of what is to come. St. John writes, “What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is” (1 Jo. 3:2). When God created human beings, as it says in Genesis, he made them in his image and to his likeness (Gen. 1:26). So when we hear that we will be “like” him, there is the fulfillment of a promise made long ago when human beings were first created.
Jesus Christ is the One who will be revealed, when he comes again in glory. It says in the Creed that “by him all things were made,” including human beings. The promise is that we will be “like him” (1 Jo. 3:2), by whom we were made at first. But when the serpent tempted humanity in the garden, he also promised them that they would be “like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). What followed was a disaster. The devil could not deliver on the promise that we would be like God, but Jesus Christ can. God made us, and now Jesus is remaking us. We will like him, for we will see him as he is.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matt. 5:8). Our Gospel reminds us that the Christian life demands transformation. Pure hearts are demanded, the pure hearts of the saints, in order to see God. Our celebration of baptism and confirmation is an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace, given to cleanse our hearts and to let us see. The goal is purity of heart and clearness of vision. Grace is given in the sacraments in order to make this transformation.
Grace is God’s power and presence in our lives, given as a free gift, so that we can follow Jesus. God is giving us grace today so that we can be God’s beloved children. In baptism, we reject the devil and his temptations, just as Jesus did in the wilderness. We are set on a new path, as the beloved children of God. When Jesus is revealed, we will be like him for we will see him as he is.