“Happy are people who have pure hearts, because they will see God.”
Matthew 5:8 (Common English
Bible)
Jesus
teaches, “Happy are people who have pure hearts, because they will see God.”
The “pure heart” is a faith that is “backed up by convictions, whose outward
deeds match their inner commitments.”[i]
What Jesus is saying is that those who
have “pure hearts” will have a faith that is real and vital. It is a faith
experienced in the deep recesses of the heart, a faith that influences every
moment of our lives. Such a faith confronts the God of the Holy Bible as an
inescapable reality. Vagueness and doubt dissipates, senses become alert as
though biting into something hot and spicy, and confidently we know that God is
right in the midst of the present moment.
This is not a
faith that simply believes in God or has opinions about God. The church has
multitudes of people who do that. It is one thing to recite the creeds of the
church and utter words of belief, as almost all of us do. It is quite another
thing to say, “God is in this place! I feel God’s presence.” That experience is
like taking notice of a beautiful piece of art, imagination stirred by the rich
use of colors or the complexity of brush strokes or standing on a beach
watching a sunrise as if you had never seen one before. No one argues with a
beautiful piece of art or with a sunrise. It is simply experienced.
The
critical difference is awareness. Consider a conversation I had some years ago
in Pasadena, California. During my graduate studies there, I commented to a
resident what a joy it is to wake each morning, pour a cup of coffee, and enjoy
the beautiful mountain range. At that comment, my friend looked-up at the
mountains, with no discernable emotion, and said, “After living here for a
while, you no longer notice them.” My friend acknowledged the presence of the
mountains but they were not real to him. He had lost his capacity to notice them
and have them move him deeply by the beauty that they generously shared day
after day. His heart was not pure. Rather, his heart, muddied by the multitude
of the small and large things that occupied his thoughts, fell numb.
Anything
real to us results in emotional vividness. If such emotion is absent, we may
question if we are paying attention, eyes wide open expecting the unexpected
and anticipating wonder. Belief can be a profound matter, even courageous when
such statement of belief may result in marginalization or persecution. However,
often our beliefs lie at the surface of our lives, very present but lacking any
meaningful impact on us. Perhaps attention to responsibility, to fulfilling
daily tasks, or simply cynicism and exhaustion of the daily grind has narrowed
our focus. Experiencing the uncommon in the ordinary requires a pure heart,
that is, a heart released on occasion from the urgent tasks always before us,
and open to the nuances of the present moment. It is what the Bible speaks of as
stillness before God. Such a heart sees God in a child playing, in nature, in
ordinary situations, and in opportunities to be useful to others.
Joy,
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