PURE OF HEART – MK 7:14-23

Dear Father, we have unclean hearts,
filled with so many evils and such disorder…
and when we speak, it is from the heart we speak,
often words that are hurtful to another,
that serve to shield and protect ourselves
and to build up the walls of isolation.
When we act it is also from the heart,
from the intention conceived deep within,
and our movements express what is inside,
often vanity and pride, self-absorption,
a carelessness about the beauty and need of others.

Ah, dear Father, what are we to do,
when the heart, the very seat of worship,
the place of prayer and of love’s response,
is impure and defiled by our sins?
“Blessed are the pure of heart,”
Jesus said, “for they shall see God.”
God almighty, God of beauty and love!
We too want to see you, to gaze upon your face!
But with our impure hearts, the light is too blinding;
indeed, we do not, often, even recognize it as light.
Ah…loving God, I feel as if I hear you saying:

It is true, My child, that your heart is impure,
that it bears within it so many disordered movements,
but I want you to know that I understand your wounds.
You bear in yourself the scars of sin:
those which have been received as a burden
by all who belong to the human race,
those which are the result of your own choice,
and those, child, which have been inflicted upon you.
But you need to know, and to understand,
that your wounds are not the deepest part of you.
They do not define you in your identity,
nor constrain you from your destiny,
if only, child, you desire Me and My life.

There is a deeper place in the heart
—in the very heart that bears these wounds!—
in which I look upon you and love you unceasingly.
And you must understand, beloved child,
that I see your wounds, your sins, your pain,
in the light of your beauty as My precious one,
and not the other way around.
Your wounds cause My heart to ache,
not because they cause Me disgust,
or cause Me to turn away and reject you in hate,
but because I see how they hurt you, child,
and constrain you from My gift for you,
from a gift which, by My grace,
do you not also most desire?

Lay your heart before Me, My beloved.
Are you willing to be vulnerable,
to open up your interior to Me,
to My own vulnerable and loving touch?
I can heal you, I can purify you,
I can touch, transform, and transfigure your heart,
so that the deepest truth I have implanted in you
—this beauty and truth that I already see—
may blossom forth in radiant beauty
and shed its light through all that you are.

Look at My beloved Son, vulnerable before you,
unveiling in love and trust His inner Heart.
Look at Him who is deeply wounded,
wounded and hurt by the wounds of sin.
And yet look at One who is pure of heart!
Look at Him whose wounds are transformed by Love,
and now allow the healing Light to pass through!
And take refuge, dearest, dearest child,
in His wounds which welcome you.