Jesus offers
nine benedictions:
Three
pertain to
the Kingdom (the poor in spirit, the
persecuted, the calumniated).
Three
to consolation (those comforted, those satisfied, those obtaining
mercy).
And
three to possession (of land, of sight, of childhood).
But only one promises God Himself:
the pure in heart
Every other
blessing gives something other than, something less
than, God Himself.
This is kept
only for the pure of heart.
All the other
blessings pertain to God’s justice in the way of recompense, and
this justice is inseparable from His love.
But only this
one pertains solely to God’ love, and not His justice.
It is not
a matter of recompense: it is a spontaneous gift, the unsurpassable
gift, the most sublime gift, of Himself to those whose hearts are
a pure reflection of His own love. Having been created in the
imago Dei, the image of God, that image once again becomes,
as it had been long ago at Baptism, pure, free from sin, untainted
by selfishness – with nothing in the soul that is contrary to God.
The mirror is unblemished and reflects nothing other than God Himself;
it is the giving of God to the soul in
the soul – not in anything outside of it, but in the very soul itself!
These, St.
John, tells us, are the ones
“who ... have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood
of the Lamb.”
(Apocalypse 7.14). Spotless, unblemished before God.
Strive
for mercy, peace, meekness; thirst for holiness, for justice
— but seek first purity in heart ... and when you see God,
you will see the beginning, the purpose, and the end ... of all
lesser things.
Geoffrey K.
Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Printable PDF Version
Totally Faithful to the Sacred
Deposit of Faith entrusted to the Holy See in
Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti
verbum Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that you have but little power,
and yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My
Name.”
(Apocalypse 3.8)
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