”Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God”

Today at Holy Mass in the Gospel of Mark Jesus tries to explain to the disciples the miracles of the loaves…And the disciples “don’t get it”…..”Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?”…..In this exchange between Jesus and the disciples - Jesus also diagnoses the problem - Hardness of Heart - This is what keeps the disciples from understanding and this is what keeps us from “seeing”; hearing and understanding God to this very day……The unbelieving secular world measures a person’s analytical abilities and raw intelligence as the means by which a person “understands”……..When it comes to the ways of God, this has little to do with it - Some people reading this reflection may find such a statement hard to digest, due to the conditioning of our society around the importance given to a good education…….Remember - Jesus did not pick the most “capable of men” to be his first disciples - These twelve men had little to no formal education - Jesus picked men who the secular world overlooked and disregarded - Jesus saw “something” in these men and if I were to guess what that “something” was - Jesus saw their hearts and there willingness to be molded…….This is why he choose them…..Yet - Today in the Gospel even these “hand picked men” do not understand what Jesus was trying to teach them - But notice - Jesus did not give up on them……How quickly we give up on others…..Thinking we somehow are superior to them….While we as practicing Catholics may “see” certain aspects of the Holy Spirit at work in the world - We clearly do not “see” everything….Yet - We “throw stones” at others - At least I find myself doing this at times……No matter who we are - No matter how close we have come to God - We still live “behind the veil” of heaven and the earth....Even the best of us only “see” and understand  partially…This is why we must be patient with one another and bear with one another…..Jesus diagnosed the problem for our lack of understanding - Its a heart issue…The issue that exists to this vey day….”Blessed are the pure of heart - For they shall see God”…This is why we must strive to purity our hearts - This is more important them approaching our Catholic faith from an academic prospective - We can not “read our way” to a pure heart

“Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord; and my Father will love him and we will come to him”

As a father of five young children, when my children do something wrong and I address it, they usually tell me they love me in an attempt to “cover-up” what they did wrong and avoid consequences….When this happens I usually respond with this statement to them - “Show me you love me - Love is not a word - Love is an action”….Many people today express their faith with their words - But do they live their faith with their life? - Do they understand what it means to be Catholic? - “I desire mercy not sacrifice” - Remember that line from Scripture?…..The closer we get to God - The more our life will reflect the Holy Spirit to others - This has everything to do with our heart…..From a human prospective, we can not make our heart’s pure…We need divine assistance - This comes in the form of frequent Confessions and frequent reception of the Eucharist……..And in time, our “hearts of stone” will be transformed into “hearts of flesh”……Remember the story of the Good Samaritan?…..Two people passed a wounded man by on the side of the road and one of the men was a Levite (a priest) - But it was the Samaritan who stopped to help the man - What did the Samaritan “see” and understand that made him stop?………..Our position in life, our education, and our status has nothing to do with the purity of our heart and only when our heart is pure will be “see” God in others and understand the words of Christ taught to us in his many parables - To the unbelieving world, what the Samaritan did was “foolish” but to God, the Samaritan, who an outcast himself “got it” - The Samaritan understood the meaning of love and mercy……..Books will never teach us this lesson….Its a “heart thing” - So tend to your heart - Strive to make it pure

“Blessed the man whom you instruct, O LORD, whom by your law you teach, Giving him rest from evil days”

Today at Mass Jesus tells us that if our hearts are hard, we will never truly understand him…….Some people approach their Catholic faith from an intellectual prospective - That is a good thing, don’t get me wrong but this approach does have limits…..Being Catholic has less to do with books and an advanced education then it does with purity of heart…Jesus tells us - “Unless you become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of God”…..A child has a pure heart and sees the world through the “lens” of purity……As Catholics this should be our fundamental aim - To return to childlike innocence - And we can only do that be living Sacramentally - Only God can restore us to this innocent state and in order for that to happen, we must cooperate with him…We must “make room” for the Holy Spirit to animate our life….Not all who “see” understand because they are “looking” through the wrong lens - We must “look” through the lens of our heart - And the cleaner our heart becomes - The more we will “see” and the more we will understand……….........”Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God”……………JMJ