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.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse