We live in a complex world and there are many, many things that compete for our affections. Sometimes the temptation is frontal, heads on; sometimes it is much more subtle. But either way, our hearts easily become divided or filled with things and affections other than God. It is not that we don’t want to follow Christ and be a Christian, it’s just that we want to do other things as well, and God falls to second place or below. It’s a consumer world and God is just one more commodity, and he often isn’t very high on our “I want” list. Marketplace thinking permeates every aspect of our lives, having the power even to shape our commitments – our marriages, our family time, how we use our money, time and resources. It shapes our perception of what is valuable and important.
We live in a world that is preoccupied with SELF. It’s all about ME: my goals, my wants, my needs, my preferences. Some of us may have been socialized not to say it out loud, but it is there nonetheless. For almost all of us, it is all about taking care of number one and those who matter to me. This means security and happiness and satisfaction and joy. Or so we think and act.
But the truth is that being busy producing, pursuing, and consuming can be a substitute for facing the deeper questions and realities of life. The testimony of Jesus and the Scriptures and countless millions of others is that, in truth, God is the only reality that ultimately matters. The real antidote for the busyness of our lives and the answer to our deepest questions has to be sought outside the consumerist world. God is the only one that can really satisfy life’s deepest hunger and desire for meaning and contentment. All the other idols of life will ultimately fail. And they fail because all of today’s false gods—pleasure, success, entertainment, popularity, wealth, etc.—bring momentary happiness but impoverish and fragment the soul.
Early in his ministry Jesus described this focus on God when he said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). For Jesus, the “heart” was not simply a pulsating organ inside your chest, but the truest self. The heart is that part of you that desires, feels, grieves, hungers, delights. The heart is that place where you exercise your freedom, where you decide. The heart is the place where you meet God or avoid meeting God. Purity of heart means that our primary focus and allegiance is to be given to God and God alone. The pure of heart do not let themselves be torn apart in a thousand different directions; they are singular, they are focused on one thing. As Brother Lawrence wrote so long ago: The heart must be empty of all other things, because God will possess the heart alone; and as he cannot possess it alone without emptying it of all besides, so neither can He act there, and do in it what he pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him.
Recognizing that it isn’t all about me, that life is about what place God has in my life and how my life is lived in relationship to God brings liberation and clarity. It breaks the bondage of consumerist thinking and opens us up to the wonder and the awesomeness of life. Purity of heart is not doing good things or avoiding sin, it is about cultivating a relationship with God that touches every area of life.
There is a story, probably just a legend, but a powerful one, that when Thomas Aquinas, one of the most profound theologians the church has ever had, was on his deathbed, a voice was heard from somewhere above: Thomas, you have written well of me. What reward would you ask for yourself?” And Aquinas replied, “Nothing but yourself, O Lord.” The pure in heart love God and want nothing more than to grow in that loving relationship. And as they do, it is reflected in the way they treat others and the world.
Reflect: Does God seem distant and irrelevant in your life? Have you ever prayed for God to show himself to you, to let you know that he is in fact at work in your life? When God seems absent or shrouded in mystery and we can’t seem to feel or know God’s presence, we have to stop and consider whether it is because God is absent or because our hearts are not pure. This doesn’t mean that we have to be sinless to have the blessing of God’s nearness and friendship. That is not what the Gospel says. But if we want to know God, we need to ask God to search our hearts. He knows what’s there – do we? Are we willing to have him show us what stands between us and him, whatever it may be? To those who pursue God wholeheartedly, God promises the greatest of all blessings: Himself.
“Lord, you have examined us and you know us. You know everything we do; from far away you understand all our thoughts. You see us, whether we are working or resting; you know all our actions. Even before we speak, you already know what we will say. Examine us, O God, and know our mind; test us, and discover our thoughts. Find out if there is any evil in us and guide us in the everlasting way. Create in us a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within us.” [Psalm 139:1-4, 23-24; psalm 51:9-10 (Adapted)]
