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xi   Second Reading Sat OR Wk 12 Blessed are the pure in

               heart, for they shall see God


               Bodily health is a good thing, but what is truly blessed is not

               only to know how to keep one’s health but actually to be
               healthy. If someone praises health but then goes and eats food
               that makes him ill, what is the use to him, in his illness, of all his
               praise of health?

               We need to look at the text we are considering in just the same

               way. It does not say that it is blessed to know something about
               the Lord God, but that it is blessed to have God within
               oneself. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

               I do not think that this is simply intended to promise a
               direct vision of God if one purifies one’s soul. On the other
               hand, perhaps the magnificence of this saying is hinting at

               the same thing that is said more clearly to another
               audience: The kingdom of God is within you. That is, we
               are to understand that when we have purged our souls of

               every illusion and every disordered affection, we will see
               our own beauty as an image of the divine nature.

               And it seems to me that the Word of God, in these few words,
               was saying something like this: In you there is a certain desire
               to contemplate what is truly good. But when you hear that

               God’s majesty is exalted high above the heavens, that his glory
               is beyond comprehension, that his beauty is beyond
               description, that his very nature can neither be perceived nor

               be understood, do not fall into despair or think you can never
               have the sight that you desire.

               So if, by love and right living, you wash off the filth that has
               become stuck to your heart, the divine beauty will shine forth in
               you. Think of iron, which at one moment is dark and tarnished

               and the next, once the rust has been scraped off, shines and
               glistens brightly in the sun. It is the same with the inner core of
               man, which the Lord calls the heart. It has been in damp and
               foul places and is covered in patches of rust; but once the rust

               has been scraped off, it will recover itself and once more



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