12 days ‒ Emptying oneself of the spirit of the world - Day 10

Blessed are the pure in heart

Prayer to the Holy Spirit 

O Holy Spirit, inspire me. God’s love, engulf me. Holy Mary, my Mother, guide me in the right ways, look at me, and together with Jesus, bless me. Keep me from all evil, from all delusions and all threats. Mary, The Spouse of the Holy Spirit, obtain for me the grace of pure heart. Amen!

The Word of God 

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matt 5:8).

Meditation 

We are created by God to stare at Him and love Him. This is His desire so that we can spend eternity in His presence, looking at His glory. Unfortunately, after breaking the primaeval covenant with God, people could no longer look at God and live proximity with Him. But He is ceaselessly looking for us. This is what the whole Old Testament tells us about—God is searching for humans. And people also have this desire to see God, to search for His face.

Nowadays, influenced by the spirit of the world, some people say: there is no God because I didn’t see Him. Therefore, should we say that gravity doesn’t exist either because we cannot see it? We are bothered a lot by the fact that we don’t see D 10 61 God. It is striking when we talk with people who call themselves non-believers. Since people were expelled from Paradise, there was an unfulfilled yearning within them to see God. He is hidden, but we wish to see Him directly. And even though we may see God indirectly because we recognize the Creator through creation, we feel that it is not the same. The psalmist calls: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?” (Ps 42:2). This continual desire to look at God face to face was implanted in us because we are called to do it in eternity. Our eternity will be about staring at God. We have it inscribed in our spiritual DNA. The Hebrew word for “holy” (kadosh), describing God, means simultaneously “to be set apart.” And when Isiah prays before God and sees Him, he says: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isa 6:5). As a man experiencing his sinfulness, he was scared because he knew that no one sinful can stand before God who is infinitely holy. Only people of pure hearts may see God.

There are different spheres of purity: ritual purity, specified by the Law of Moses in the Old Testament, sexual chastity, moral integrity, and cleanliness of cult. But all these layers of purity are the effect of the most primordial purity, which is about spiritual purity—seeing God in every situation.

Therefore, all Christ did was to restore us to the Father. And as He got rid of the merchants from the temple, likewise, we need to have our hearts cleansed so that in the sphere of our desires, prayers, and expectations, we search only God’s will. When we look at Jesus’ life, we see that the Father became visible in Jesus, as Christ said: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). Seeing Jesus in every situation is the true purity of heart. And one may see only when one searches, for everyone who searches finds. Purity is about searching for Jesus’ presence and grace in every situation.

Mary’s pure heart in Magnificat: “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly” (Lk 1:52). Mary has a pure heart. The immaculate conception preserved her from the stain of sin. But she also, with her will, was constantly searching for God in every situation, and when she didn’t understand something, she pondered it in her heart. She is the model of being genuinely available for God. Her purity gave her total freedom in accepting God’s will. Mary didn’t search for herself. Thanks to it, she could serve the Lord and people in the sacrificial love. Therefore, right after the annunciation, while serving others, Mary gave priority to God, who rules over everything and grants graces as He wishes.

The struggle of standing up to evil: what does it consist in? To live God’s grace, we first need to recognize it in order to work with it. God’s grace is, simply put, Jesus, who comes to us and endows us. We struggle to keep a vigilant heart to recognize Him and not succumb to the lack of concentration, seeking to meet other people’s expectations or serving only our own ideas. So, the struggle is about recognizing God’s grace and working with it. We need to overcome the spirit of the world and our selfishness.

Spiritual reading 

“But we know that our heart is tainted, carnal, full of unruly inclinations and consequently unfit to house such a noble and holy guest. (…) What then can we do to make our hearts worthy of him? Here is the great way, the wonderful secret. Let us, so to speak, bring Mary into our abode by consecrating ourselves unreservedly to her as servants and slaves. Let us surrender into her hands all we possess, even what we value most highly, keeping nothing for ourselves. This good mistress who never allows herself to be surpassed in generosity will give D 10 63 herself to us in a real but indefinable manner; and it is in her that Eternal Wisdom will come and settle as on a throne of splendour.” 

St. Louis de Montfort, The Love of Eternal Wisdom, 210‒211

Homework 

Today, I will ask Mary to teach me how to search for Jesus in everything that will happen to me that day. 

Prayer of consecration 

I am all Yours, and all that I have is Yours, O most loving Christ, through Mary, Your most holy Mother. Amen!