See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.  What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.  And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.  Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.  You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.  No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.

"Beloved, we are God's children now."

    "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son...so that we might receive adoption as sons...So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir, through God." (Galatians 4.4-7)

"What we shall be has not yet been revealed."

    "The whole created world eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God." (Romans 8.19)

"Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure."

The descent into sin is a descent into hopelessness.  This is not saying that the sinner is a hopeless case: no soul is beyond Christ.  Rather the sinner is not "hope-filled" in that the steep, narrow path of faith from which hope issues forth has been abandoned.  Concrete acts of virtue, the deliberate effort of faith result in deep hopefulness, a hope so deep it is staggering and mysterious in its goal: total union with God Most High.  Only the most daring and courageous soul, imbued with God's grace, is so bold as to set forth on such a path.  The lover seeks to make himself pure because the Beloved is all pure.  The struggle of purity is therefore one completely filled with hope.

A prayer-

    Lord God let me be filled with hope this day by climbing the path of faith, seeking purity in all things.