What We Shall Be

Fr. Frederick Edlefsen

In today’s second reading, St. John says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).  Our true selves and our destiny are, for the most part, unknown. 

“Magnum mysterium mihi suam.”  “I am a great mystery unto myself,” said St. Augustine.   Every person is a mystery.  However, Baptism gives us a supernatural destiny.  Confirmation gives us a supernatural mission.  The Church calls this “Sanctifying Grace,” a Gift of the Holy Spirit through which God fulfills his purposes within us.  This is the root of a personal transformation.  It painfully matures us over time.  Sanctifying Grace completes and fulfills us after death, and it blossoms in the general resurrection of the dead at Christ’s Second Coming.   

Our identity lies hidden beneath the surface of “who” we think we are. “Your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).  We must be purified to know ourselves.  Christ reveals “who we are.”  Our task is to cooperate with Sanctifying Grace.  By meditating and persevering in the grace of Baptism – Sanctifying Grace – we detect the Holy Spirit’s gentle whispers, even when we suffer.  To know God and ourselves, we must pass through perilous trials of temptation, failure, and feeling abandoned by God.  For most of us, this journey takes a lifetime.  In the practical wisdom of our ancestors, “Too old too soon; too smart too late.”   And yet, we grow old in grace and wisdom.   

G.K. Chesterton once said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.”  We must be clumsy Christians before we become holy Catholics.  “Strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12: 9).  Christ gets the credit.   He reveals you to yourself, despite your brokenness.   Per St. Paul, “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).”