When Thérèse of Lisieux was a little girl, she had a tough time choosing which items she wanted. One day, somebody brought a gift basket to her and her sister Celine. When she saw the various ribbons, scraps, and little toys, her sister chose one small item. Therese, in contrast, picked up the whole basket and proclaimed, “I choose all.” She later saw that this event had a great spiritual significance for her interior life. Rather than focusing on a single virtue, sacrifice, or path to holiness, she desired everything that God willed for her. She embraced both joys and sufferings with complete surrender. Holiness does not mean praying every litany and devotion that comes your way. But it does mean embracing whatever God asks of us. This is the beginning of a pure heart.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God (Mt. 5:8).
A Pure Heart is a Repentant Heart
To achieve this purity of heart, we need to turn away completely from sin. Repentance is more than regretting the consequences of our actions. We must learn to reject evil because it damages our relationship with God and prevents us from responding fully to his love. When we seek God with a pure heart, we learn to rejoice in what is good, even when we gain no personal advantage from it.
A Pure Heart is not a Divided Heart
A pure heart, a clean heart, is one that serves God with the whole heart. We can often divide our heart and our desires among several different things. We cannot serve God and simultaneously keep a part that is completely for us. God wants our whole heart, without reserving a place where we do not wish to allow him to enter. It doesn’t mean that we never struggle, but rather that we do not want to keep any part of ourselves closed to God’s grace.
A Pure Heart is Unafraid to be Tested
A pure heart is ready to be tested. I have always been fascinated by the verses of the Psalms that ask God to test us.
Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my thoughts (Ps. 139:23).
It sounds like a frightening proposition. Do I really want God to know me this deeply? So often, we can be ashamed of our secret thoughts and feel that we do not want God to enter into the recesses of our being and know us. We prefer to keep it a secret. And yet, it is impossible to hide anything from God. We see this from the very beginning, when Adam and Eve try to hide from God after falling into sin.
So what is the benefit of asking God to probe our hearts if he already knows everything? By inviting him in, we invite God to shine his light on what remains hidden in our hearts. We allow him to reveal our sins, purify our intentions, and heal our disordered desires. A pure heart begins with the humility to let God reveal the truth about ourselves.
A Pure Heart Guards its Desires
A clean heart desires purity. We are all prone to fall into sin, and we experience temptations that can draw us away from God. We cannot always control the thoughts or temptations that arise, but we can be careful about what type of content we feed to our imagination. We cannot always control the temptations that arise, but we make choices every day about what we willingly allow into our imagination and encourage our hearts to desire. When we guard our imagination and respond faithfully when tempted, we cooperate with God’s grace in forming a pure heart. Even our struggles become opportunities to grow in virtue.
We live in a world that teaches us to desire impure things. But the world always overpromises and underdelivers. Only by seeking Christ can our hearts be finally fulfilled.
A Pure Heart Desires to See God
Holiness is the crowning achievement of a pure heart, a chaste heart, a clean heart. What Jesus promises through this beatitude comes true. When we want to see God, we are willing to forego other pleasures that end up getting in the way. The elite athlete knows that certain foods and habits can undermine the goal toward which he or she is striving. Purity of heart is not an end in itself, but rather prepares us to see God.
If we pursue purity of heart, we are well on our way to holiness. All Saints’ Day reminds us that the number of people who have sought God with their whole hearts goes far beyond the list of saints that we know. The French author, Leon Bloy, reminds us:
The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint (Léon Bloy, “La pauvre femme”).
Like St. Thérèse, let us learn to say to God, “I choose all.” We know that we are imperfect, yet we desire to give ourselves entirely to the one who is perfect and loves us. Let us turn our eyes away from everything that draws us away from him and focus them on Christ, until the desire to see God becomes the desire that guides our lives.
Father, all your posts are excellent, but this is one of your best posts yet.