Oct 4 Sat
Why is it important to live with purity of heart?
According to Saint John Paul II, the purity of the heart is not merely the repression of desires, but a renewed gaze through grace that discovers in the body the reflection of God’s gift. This is also the foundation of consecrated virginity and celibacy for the Kingdom.
This has a Biblical foundation.
Jesus proclaims in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Mt 5:8). Purity, then, is not limited to a moral aspect, but is a condition of spiritual vision: a clean heart allows us to recognize God in ourselves, in others, and in the world.
Saint Paul adds: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, to discern the will of God” (Rom 12:2). Purity is an interior renewal that allows us to look at things with the eyes of Christ.
Saint John Paul II emphasized that purity is not simply the control of impulses, but the positive capacity to love. A pure heart sees in the body of another, not an object of use, but a person to whom God has entrusted a gift and a mission.
Purity is, therefore, a path of authentic love that frees us from the utilitarian temptation and from any reduction of the person to an object of pleasure.
The heart purified by the grace of the Holy Spirit allows a new perception of the body:
- One’s own body is no longer lived with shame or distrust, but as a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19).
- The body of the other is recognized as a subject of love, not as an object of use or consumption.
- Sexuality is integrated into love, according to God’s creative design.
Saint John Paul II explains that this purity “matures to the extent that man learns to see the other with his heart, discovering the spousal meaning of the body.”
True purity consists in learning to see people as Christ sees them. He contemplates man and woman with creative and redemptive love, without possession or selfishness.
A pure heart is capable of reproducing that gaze, which heals, dignifies, and liberates. Therefore, purity is a relational virtue, expressed in the way we love, speak, and relate.
Thus,
- Christian purity is not repression, but the fullness of true love.
- It educates sensitivity and effectiveness, integrating desires into charity.
- It allows us to see God not only in prayer, but in everyday life and in every human encounter.
- It makes authentic communion between people possible, overcoming possessive selfishness.
The purity in heart is not merely a blessed moral requirement, but moreover a promise of deep vision: to see God in the world, in others, and in one’s own body.
Purity is the key to rediscovering the spousal meaning of the body and living the true freedom of love. Thus, the purified heart learns to see as Christ sees and anticipates, already on earth, eternal blessedness: seeing God face to face (cf. 1 Cor 13:12).