In the beginning...

Hi everyone and a Happy Pentecost!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog.  This is my first blog, so please bear with me as I begin this process!  I entitled this blogspot "Purity in Heart" based on the Scripture and Jesus' words, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt 5:8).  What does it mean to be pure in heart?  How are we to live out this great calling to holiness?  And what did Jesus mean when he said that the pure of heart will see God?  These are just some of the many questions I hope to address in this blog, and I welcome your input in response to these questions!  I'll try to cover a wide variety of topics and touch upon the theme of purity either directly or indirectly as much as possible.

Here are some of my thoughts....

In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve lived in a state of original innocence and were truly "pure in heart." They were pure in heart because they were sinless.  Before the fall, "the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed."  And yet everything went downhill when the serpent entered the scene and spoke to Eve, inciting her to distrust God and to consequently sin.  After having partaken of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve realized their nakedness and hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. 

Here is the conversation:

"But the Lord called to the man, and said to him, 'Where are you?' And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.'  He said, 'Who told you you were naked? (Genesis 3: 9-10)"

I include this conversation between Adam (which in Hebrew means "man" or "mankind") and God because it shows us how sin both separates us from God and also brings us to a place where we are tempted to hide from God.  Sin is damaging for so many reasons, and primarily among these: SHAME.  As for Adam and Eve, shame causes us to turn away from God at a time when God most especially desires to turn to us in order to offer forgiveness and healing.

"Oh happy fault, oh necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a redeemer!"  Jesus gives us the grace to become "pure in heart" again after we fall - again and again- and he calls us to this great holiness and makes it attainable through the grace he incessantly provides.  Despite our weaknesses, failings, and imperfections, Jesus offers to all people his infinite grace and mercy - grace capable of transforming hearts and making them pure again. 

There is no sin too great for the mercy of God - God's love and mercy can overcome all things.  In fact, as Jesus says to St. Faustina, "The greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy."  I don't know about you, but what consoling words.  Jesus, you mean to tell me, the worse off I am, the greater right I have to your forgiveness and love?

My only point is that Jesus can make anyone pure again, and it begins right in one's heart.  The temptation to struggle against is that of hiding from God as did Adam and Eve after the fall.  When we hide, we lose.  The Lord still sees and knows our sins, but how can he heal us if we don't show him what hurts inside? 

Going back to Adam and Eve, have you ever noticed how kind and merciful God is to them after the fall and the discovery of their nakedness?  God makes for them garments of skin, and clothes them.  He looks into their hearts and sees their shame and sorrow, and says in so many words, "I still love you.  I will help you." 

Adam and Eve had original innocence before the fall, a fruit of grace and also a participation in the inner life of God (Theology of the Body, Blessed John Paul II).  They lost this after having partaken of the forbidden fruit at the prompting of the serpent.  They fell from grace and yet a few lines later in the proto-evangelium, God promises them a way to be reconciled to Himself again through grace - in the dying of Jesus on the cross.

Just a few thoughts and at the very least for my own self an encouragement to pray to the Lord for the grace to be pure in heart and for the grace not to hide my weakness and littleness from him. 

"Everything is grace!"  St. Therese of Lisieux