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MATTHEW 5:8 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 5:7Matt 5:9
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The pure in heart are those whose desires, motivations, and will are undivided in their orientation toward God — the single eye of Matthew 6:22, the undistracted love of Matthew 22:37. Psalm 24:3–4 asks who may ascend the mountain of the Lord and answers: the one who has clean hands and a pure heart. The vision of God — the beatific vision — is the eschatological fulfillment of all encounter with the divine: what Moses could not receive (Exodus 33:20), what the pure in heart will receive. 1 John 3:2 promises that when Christ appears, we shall see him as he is, because we shall be like him. The likeness and the vision belong together: only those who have been made pure in heart will be capable of seeing the pure God.

Church Fathers on Matthew 5:8

The merciful loses the benefit of his mercy, unless he shews it from a pure heart; for if he seeks to have whereof to boast, he loses the fruit of his deeds; the next that follows therefore is, 'Blessed are the pure of heart.'

Ambrose · 4th century · in Luc., vi, 22

Purity of heart comes properly in the sixth place, because on the sixth day man was created in the image of God, which image was shrouded by sin, but is formed anew in pure hearts by grace. It follows rightly the beforementioned graces, because if they be not there, a clean heart is not created in a man.

Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria) · medieval compilation · ap. Anselm

By the pure are here meant those who possess a perfect goodness, conscious to themselves of no evil thoughts, or again those who live in such temperance as is mostly necessary to seeing God according to that of St. Paul, 'Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God.' For as there are many merciful, yet unchaste, to shew that mercy alone is not enough, he adds this concerning purity.

Chrysostom · 4th century
Read all 10 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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