Thought of the Day September 9, 2019 Purity of heart
In reference to purity of heart, Pope Benedict weighs in and says:
“The heart—the wholeness of man—must be pure, interiorly open and free, in
order for man to be able to see God. Theophilus of Antioch once put it like
this in a debate with some disputants: ‘If you say, “show me your God,” I
should like to answer you, “show me the man who is in you.”…For God is
perceived by men who are capable of seeing him, who have the eyes of their
spirit open….Man’s soul must be as pure
as a shining mirror.’”
He goes
on to say one of the ways to discern the purity of our heart is in the area of
our relationships. He says: “Each one of us must learn to discern what can
“defile” his or her heart and to form his or her conscience rightly and sensibly,
so as to be capable of ‘discerning the will of God, what is good and acceptable
and perfect’” (Rom 12:2).
The most
important relationship that we have is with God. Reflecting on this
Jesus said:
“For where your treasure is,
there also will your heart be.” . Reflecting on this, Pope Francis says: “Our hearts can be
attached to true or false treasures, they can find genuine rest or they can
simply slumber, becoming lazy and lethargic. The greatest good we can have in
life is our relationship with God. Are you convinced of this? Do you realize
how much you are worth in the eyes of God? Do you know that you are loved and
welcomed by him unconditionally, as indeed you are? Once we lose our sense of
this, we human beings become an incomprehensible enigma, for it is the
knowledge that we are loved unconditionally by God which gives meaning to our
lives.”
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