I love that we complain about the price of gasoline when we are paying for water.
Think about it. gasoline goes through a tremendous process in the fetching to processing to transportation phase until it gets to your car. Water comes from the tap. Yet we are willing to pay more for water in a bottle if the bottle says that it is "pure."
Why is pure so important?
Why is being pure of heart so important?
Probably because when our heart is pure we are able to more fully engage God. See, our hearts tend to be filled with kinds of junk that take us away from God. We are continuously pursued by the world which offers us stuff, money, things, people, all types of things that can "divide" our hearts. It takes away our focus. It keeps us from looking for the Divine, from pursuing the God who wants nothing more than to love all of us and provide us with what we need.
Instead we let our hearts drift.
This is why we find it so difficult to worship.
This is why we find ourselves lusting and using other people.
This is why we find ourselves having difficulty making God a priority in our planning for the future.
We are not focused. Think about it it terms of productivity. Right now, as I am sitting to write this reflection, there are hundreds of little thoughts that are poking me in the head with little pitchforks, trying to get me to check a host of different things.
How are my daughters doing? (They are fine.)
How is my wife doing? (She's working. She's fine.)
How is the friend that I need to call? (Probably still sick and you can call him later.)
Maybe I should make that call about the speaking engagement that I have. (You can talk to them later.)
What if I have an email that needs to be answered right now? (It will still be there later.)
What if I have a text message, or a Twitter message, or something somewhere that I need to be doing? (All of which can be done later.)
Maybe I need to pray some more before I write this...
Now we've found it. What makes water pure? A lack of contaminants. Why are we not pure of heart? Because we haven't exposed ourselves to the Living Water enough to realize that we are "busy about a great many things." We can be busy but we are, in the end, accomplishing nothing.
We are not allowing ourselves to do what we need to do because we have not done the first thing that is needed.
We have not prayed.
The first requisite to being pure of heart is to pray. It is to engage God so that God will purify our hearts. God will purify our hearts by allowing us opportunities to reject the impurities. The only way to know that water is really pure is to test it. To run it through a filter so that all the impurities can be exposed and filtered out. It is during the course of this process that we get impatient, frustrated, upset with ourselves thinking that we are not doing things right.
If only I was a saint I would be much better at this!
Remember that we are not doing this because we are now saints. We are doing this so that we can become saints. We are doing this so that our hearts can be purified so that we can focus on the one thing.
Multi-tasking is fine if we are able to keep focused. I think that very few of us have the ability to be that focused and to multi-task. How much more could we accomplish if we were pure of heart? How much more could we accomplish if we were focused?
We would certainly be worth more than the price of gasoline, or even that expensive bottle of water.
Allow God to remove the impurities so that your focus can be on what is important.
Questions for Reflection:
- Is being pure of heart seen as a good thing in society today? Do you think that people would accomplish more or less if they allowed themselves to be that pure?
- Oftentimes being pure of heart means to be sinless. Do you see how being focused on God, loving Him above all would lead to being sinless?
- What are the things of this world that need to be "filtered" out of your heart?
- What would your Church or community look like if it was "pure of heart"? How can you help them accomplish that?
- What concrete steps can you take to purify your heart?
- Fast from something for the day that you really truly love that is not God. This has to be seperate from your vocation, but something that distracts you from the pure love of God.
- Take the opportunity to pray and list out all of the things that come to mind that you think are more important than you praying. These are the things that keep you from being pure of heart. Lift them up in prayer.
- Make it a point to limit your to-do list each day to three things. Do not work on more than one thing at once and keep your work area clean. Do not start another project or job before you finish the other one, or completely set it aside.
- Make prayer a priority for you every day. Do nothing until you pray. This may take the form of an extensive prayer in the morning or a prayer before you do anything else.
- In your vocation, or search for a vocation, ask yourself or your spouse or the people in the community that you serve if they know that you love God first. If the question comes back as "why" then let that lead to a discussion about your own priorities in your vocation.
Simply worship God throughout the day. Allow your soul to connect with God. If you don't know what to say, simply say the name of Jesus. Or repeat the word Alleluia. Allow the Holy Spirit to work.
Psalm 38:21-22 In times of lust:
Do not forsake me O Lord, O my God be not far from me! Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation!
A Prayer for the Gift of Prudence (to be said in the morning)
Jesus, artful Master of Parables, your prudence eluded the hypocrites. Your actions were known before creation, displaying all the wisdom of Your prudence. Eternity must have attened to minutia. Being prudent in Your best interest, You considered all potential consequences, securing the outcome of Your earthly life. Grant me the prudence to always be cautious and sensitive to the basic needs of others. Jesus, You have shown great foresight, prudence truly originates from Your Being. Amen.
Augustine's Prayer for Purity of Heart: (to be said at noon)
Almighty God, in whom we live and move and have our being, you have made us for yourself so our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Grant us purity of heart and strength of purpose, that no selfish passion may hinder us from knowing your will or no weakness in doing it; but that in your light we may see light and in your service find perfect freedom, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
