Blessed are the pure in heart sermon mgr

Seventh Sunday after Easter 2013 May 12, 2013 Father Mark Greenaway-Robbins

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Mt 5.8 1719 The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts: God calls us to his own beatitude. This vocation is addressed to each individual personally, but also to the Church as a whole, the new people made up of those who have accepted the promise and live from it in faith.

1720 The New Testament uses several expressions to characterize the beatitude to which God calls man: - the coming of the Kingdom of God;16 - the vision of God: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"17 - entering into the joy of the Lord;18 - entering into God's rest:19 “There we shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall love and praise. Behold what will be at the end without end. For what other end do we have, if not to reach the kingdom which has no end?�20 20 St. Augustine, De civ. Dei 22, 30, 5: PL 41,804.

1721 God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise.

Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature" and of eternal life.21 With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ22 and into the joy of the Trinitarian life.

1722 Such beatitude surpasses the understanding and powers of man. It comes from an entirely free gift of God: whence it is called supernatural, as is the grace that disposes man to enter into the divine joy.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 1723 The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement - however beneficial it may be - such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love:

How do we find that purity of heart which leads us to the vision of God? The Threefold Way from the Ancient Church – the Tradition of the Church. Three emphasis in the pilgrims Way, the Way of discipleship: Via Purgativa / Katharsis - Purgation Self-examination Discover the prevalence and power of evil in our lives Seek: purified, purged, debugged, liberated and transformed Via Illuminativa / Fotosis - Illumination Enlightenment Receive the light of God’s truth and love in our lives Via Unitiva / Theosis – Union Taken into God and God fills us Our will becomes increasingly one with God’s will

What does practicing purgation look like?

Clue in the monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience: Poverty: examine power of money and possessions in our life; Chastity: examine the power of lust in our lives, that is our preoccupation with pleasure and selfgratification.

Obedience: examine the power of pride in our lives, that ore-occupation with ourselves and power.

Way of purgation is: -to practice humility and service rather than pride and power; -practice generosity and simplicity rather than greed; -practice self-control and a willingness to suffer for a good cause rather than lust for pleasure an comfort.

Resilience, determination, courage and perseverance to say no to three of the most powerful forces in our lives.

We must keep practicing purgation and by God’s grace we may journey also into the way of illumination.

How may we practice the way of illumination?

If we could see ourselves and others through God’s eyes, everything would be so different for the world.

This is the way of seeing everything in the light of God.

As purgation works in our lives we grow in freedom whereby we hunger and thirst for truth, justice, goodness and beauty.

Practice dwelling in the light of Christ through reading Scripture, especially through lectio divina; practicing contemplation, practicing the presence of God in all our daily living, fellowship and worship.

Our daily life, the life of work and prayer become one. The practice of living in the light of Christ infuses our whole day.

The Way of Union is a gift as with the other two aspects of the threefold way. … When I was a child a farrier came regularly to my father’s farm.

I can remember being entranced as a young boy. He would prepare the horses and the ir hooves and have ready a kind of gas fired bbq in which the iron shoes for the horses hooves were placed.

He would pull them out of fire glowing red and shape then on his anvil to fit the hoof exactly.

If iron is placed in a fire long enough, the nature of the fire overshadows the nature of the iron and the iron begins to “catch” the nature of the fire. The iron partakes in the nature of the fire until it becomes light and heat itself.

So it is with us and God. As we practice the way of purgation and illumination we are overpowered by the nature of God and we join God in being infused as it were with the light and radiance of the divine life.

The Way of Union, which we reach through purgation and illumination makes us on fire with the glory of God. Living a glorified life, a life in union with God is not for our own benefit but for others.

Such a life gives inspiration and hope for those setting out on the way of purgation.

Such a life gives light to those in the Way of Illumination.

Blessed indeed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart for seeing God is to share in that beatitiude which is God. Blessed are the pure in heart because they have chosen to journey the threefold way of purgation, illumination and union.

We have only two choices in this life:

Do you choose to journey the threefold way of purgation, illumination and union?

Or do you reject Christ who is the way, the truth and the life?