This was the third part of the lecture series. Of course, things are missing from what was presented, including some visuals that I drew to help make things more clear. Again, I do not have time to put this into paragraph format, so you'll have to make due with the bullets. Also, please see God's Vision of Love 1 and 2 for the complete context of these talks.
"Purity of Heart"
The Beatitudeso Matthew 5:1-17 (Read)
o Christ Fulfills the law by revealing True Love – Remember at the beginning of this class as we spoke about the beautiful original state of man and God’s intention in creating him, the “originals” before the fall? We also said that Christ, being the apex of history, the climax of the love story between God and mankind, the ultimate covenant where original sin and death are finally destroyed, brings something new. When we live the holy life we are invited to by Christ there is in some sense a return to that original state, but there is something even more dynamic occurring. This is what we hear in the Beatitudes. This is exactly what Jesus means when he says he “fulfills” the law. He has brought love, in all of its power and glory, into the law. Now mercy and compassion and love in its passion are the crowning jewels of a holy life.
o Each of the Beatitudes is a necessary guide, a light for us as Christians to find our way on the path to holiness – but we want to focus in a special way on “blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.”
Readjusting our Glasses – the Interior Gaze
o Genesis 3:1-10 (Read)
o If we go back to the first class once more and remember the beauty of original innocence and nakedness, what was the dramatic difference between Adam and Eve’s knowledge of one another and their knowledge after the first sin? It is the event of concupiscence, the staining of their vision by sin with lust and selfishness.
o We all understand that sin has a hold on us personally and as a whole in society. It is especially clear that concupiscence strangles the life out of human sexuality, as tv/movies/music, etc… reveal to us all the time. People are not integrated wholes, but pretty faces or toned bodies or skimpy clothes or only certain parts of the body…this is accepted and even expected.
o We may also be sensitive to shame. Shame is our natural response to the awareness of the effects of concupiscence on human sexuality. Even in Genesis, immediately after Adam and Eve’s “eyes are opened” and they understand their nakedness in the darkened state of sin, they cover themselves and hid themselves precisely because of this nakedness.
o There is much going on here, to say that “there eyes were opened” and that they understood that they were naked – where before they could freely look at one another in their naked bodies and see an integrated person, the whole other person, in no way without fear or any lust (as we said with original nakedness and innocence), now they were unable to see one another in this pure light, and were looking with eyes of sinful man rather than with the sight of God.
o So when Jesus says so specifically that the “pure of heart” will “see God,” the parallel seems easy to understand. Of course, this is just one context of Christ’s words, but there is an invitation here for us to seek to be “pure of heart” so that our vision will be cleansed and so that we can see with God’s vision, with his love.
o The Pope refers to the “interior gaze” of man, a sense in which Adam and Eve are able to see into one another, to know the person in the naked body as male and female, but as the whole person, with purity and love. Christ points us back to this peaceful gaze and also points us to how we learn to love and see one another in this holy light once more. The Beatitudes teach us to live in virtue, and to allow this virtue to build into our habitual way of life, so that we can be truly “pure of heart.”
Virtues – Purity, Chastity
o This call is very specific to real life and has practical applications and implications for us no matter what our state of life.
o As we have said, Christ calls us specifically to look at our lives honestly before God. We must consistently pray for the grace to be pure of heart. Purity of heart will always lead to a purity of the body. And we need to pray for the virtue of chastity, that we will also aid our interior purity through our physical modesty and holiness. We need to frequent the sacraments, especially Reconciliation, and we need to honestly examine our consciences to be aware of the ways we do lust after or degrade others or fail to see them in truth and love.
o These virtues act as a healing for our concupiscence…for every weakness and temptation we endure in purity of heart and body, we regain and strengthen our defenses by praying for and practicing chastity and purity.
Continence for the Kingdom
o We will talk in detail next week about the marriage, and so today I want to say a few things about virginity and consecration of self for the Kingdom, for Christ.
o There are so many things that could be said and feel free to ask questions if I don’t cover something, but I think there are two vital things to be pointed out concerning this call.
o One – Consecration of yourself through priesthood, religious or consecrated life, and therefore, a life of celibacy/virginity, is for the Kingdom. It is of the utmost importance that this end is understood. We’ll talk more about this is a moment.
o Second – This call to celibacy does not negate or exist in competition with the good of marriage – in fact, it sheds light on the good present in marriage while at the same time being its own good.
o St. Paul tells us that the life of virginity is the highest good for us to aspire to here on earth, but that there are many qualifications and that this does not injure marriage.
o It is such a good because-
a.) You are living in your physical body now what you will one day life in heaven – a life wholly and totally devoted to the worship of God. You are making present for others the hope and reality of Christ’s promise for all who believe, that in the Beatific Vision there will be a unique fulfillment of the person, a deep and perfect understanding of self-in-relation-to-God. We can only imagine what such a union will be like in its glory, but priests and religious witness to us each day of this hope that we should all share in.
b.) Part of the power of such a witness is the sacrifice of the world for the Kingdom – the “better life” – this means that what is being sacrificed is a good, because it isn’t a sacrifice if there is no effort in letting go. So very strongly the vocation to celibacy for the Kingdom at the same time affirms the beauty and good of marriage as it is the good that must be sacrificed.
c.) Being for the Kingdom means not only this witness of our hope of the future, but also accepting that there is a different form of Motherhood and Fatherhood (spiritual) brought to anyone who is called to be a “Bride of Christ” or to be in the image of the “Bridegroom for the Church.” Priests become “fathers” for us all – there is a specific spiritual fatherhood that is part of the grace and charism of the Sacrament of Holy Orders just as there is a special grace of for men who are physical fathers in the Sacrament of Marriage. Religious sisters are examples of the wise virgins who are awaiting the only true bridegroom, Christ, and who aid the lay faithful in preparing themselves for his coming in their witness and their prayers for us all.
d.) Lastly, it is important to note that St. Paul, and the Church, teach us that this is a specific call and a specific grace to live in celibacy for the Kingdom. It is a mystery for all of us that each Christian has a call to a life of holiness that is specific to their unique person, but that is another gift of God. Some are called to sanctify a mini-church, a family, through husband and wife and their children, and others are called to work for the sanctity of the greater Church, for all of us as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Modesty and Purity
o It is easy to understand how what we have said about Christ’s invitation to us and challenge to us to be “pure of heart” so that we can one day “see God” and also gain the purity of heart and sight now to see one another with a holy interior gaze, also leads to our living out a similar chastity and continence for the Kingdom depending on our state in life
o Even though we may not be a religious, consecrated or a priest, all of the lay faithful share in the invitation to be examples in our world of the beauty of living for the Kingdom as much as possible.
o The most specific way this applies to our conversation is modesty in our dress and behavior, and purity in our physical actions (appropriate to our state in life.) If we are married this means being faithful to the vows we have made, faithful to our spouse, being open and honest with them, seeking to see and love them in wholeness and purity of vision. If we are single or dating this means dressing to reveal our true value and beauty, which would not be dressing to assist another in reducing us or failing to see us as a whole person. It would also mean not speaking, dancing, etc.. that would make it difficult for someone to love you in purity.
As always, we keep in mind that the entire context of Creation, Humanity and Salvation History, the whole story of love between God and man, is summed up in the life and Person of Christ, the Son of God. From Guadiem et Spes we read -
“The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain their crown.” – G et S, 22
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