1054. I will see it means it is a stage in which they can be reborn, as indicated by the fact that seeing someone, when the Lord is said to do so, is being aware of what the person is like. The Lord, after all, has known everyone from eternity past and has no need to "see" what we are like. When we are such that we can regenerate, the Lord is said to see a person, and to lift his face on a person as well.
When we are not able to regenerate, however, the Lord is not said to see or to lift his face but to avert his eyes or face — although it is not the Lord who turns away but we ourselves who do. This is why verse 14 above, which treats of the whole human race (including many who cannot regenerate), does not say "when I see the bow in the cloud" but "when the bow is seen in the cloud."
This matter of the Lord's seeing is similar to his remembering, which in a deeper sense means having mercy, as stated in §§840, 1049. See the earlier explanation [of divine sight] in §626.
