I read the following this morning in John 1:12-13 (RSV):

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

I’ve known of this passage for many years as an Evangelical, and I was always perplexed by the phrase “gave power to become”. If I was writing the verse, I would have said, “… to all who received him, who believed in his name, he made children of God.” I thought that once you received Christ, that is once you believed in him, you were saved. That’s it. The rest of this life is just for getting other people saved.

Now as a Catholic, I understand the verse the way it is written. First of all, the new birth described at the end of the passage is understood by Catholics to refer to the sacrament of baptism. John has more about it in chapter 3, verse 5:

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

The Catholic understanding of baptism is that it is the beginning of the Christian life. It is a washing with water, but also of the Holy Spirit, where we are cleansed from sin, united with Christ, and given the gift of the Holy Spirit, including all of the spiritual blessings we need for our Christian life. In one sense, we are made children of God at that point, but in another sense, we are given the power to become everything that God intends us to become through a process of growth that continues the rest of our lives. Physical birth is a great analogy. The new baby is fully human, and is fully a child of its parents. However, it is just beginning the process of becoming an adult human. The baby is mostly potential; it is the totality of the child’s life that will show what it truly is.