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

Today at Holy Mass Jesus is once again confronted by the religious leaders of his day….Let’s think about this conflict objectively for a moment…The religious leaders were the elite of society - They were highly respected and highly educated….And they are engaged in a  heated debate with an uneducated carpenter - “A Nobody!”…..Think about that for a moment!…..And the Carpenter says this to these elite men…..“If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad”…..This carpenter is telling the religious elite in Jewish society - “You do NOT know who God is!”……That is a shocking statement to hear if you were in the crowd hearing this debate in real time….But it should also lead us to think about what Jesus said today……Do we really know who Gods is? - I mean really!…I state that outside of an academic sense because the Catholic Church contains the fullness of truth…I want to look deeper then just the academic understanding of who God is for the purposes of this reflection - Because to understand who God really is, we must evaluate our understanding from the stand point of the human heart - Because that is all that matters - The human heart!…When we stand before God and are judged at the end of our life, God will “weigh our heart”…..Many people today, both inside and outside the walls of the Catholic Church claim to know who God is - Again, from an academic standpoint, many of these people have “all the right answers” - But is their heart pure? - Is my heart pure?…..What is the condition of our heart?!!?…..If we listen to Catholic Social Media, which I am apart of as a co-host on a radio show in the New York City Metropolitan Area….Listen closely to what is said - And listen to how many things are said - The tone - Are these words reflective of God’s Sacred Heart?………In the Gospel of St Matthew, this idea is addressed….“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name? ’Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you”……We can boil down “who God is” in one word - Love…If our intentions and life’s example are not mirrors of Love - We are not “of God” - We are a mere shadow of “who God is”….Love is the measure and its the only measure that matters, both now and in the end!

“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts”

The Universal Church proclaimed St Therese of Lisieux, the 19th century French Carmelite nun a Doctor of the Church….St Therese’s “Little Way” revolutionized the thinking of our Catholic faith in many ways….At the heart of what St Therese wrote was this idea…....Doing little things with great amounts of love……If you read the Diary of this young woman, you will find that Therese from the prospective of the world really did not do anything extraordinary…..But it was how she did - “The Little Things” - With her whole entire heart what made Therese extraordinary…..Her “Little Way” is how we know “who God is”…..The measure is not “what we do” - Its “how we do it” and if we do it with love…..That is how we know who God is!….When I was serving as the driver for Mother Teresa’s sisters in Manhattan before I was married, I arrived at their convent one Saturday afternoon….Three of the sisters were headed to a poor woman’s home as I was walking in the door….Sarah, the woman the sisters were going to visit was a poor old woman….The three sisters were going to spend the afternoon cleaning Sarah’s apartment and doing her laundry…..In all my years as a Catholic, that simple act of kindness blew me a way! - I will forever remember it - And if we step back and think about it - No one spoke about it on a Catholic Social Media - No one wrote a book about it - No attention was given to that simple kind gesture at all - But God saw it! - And what the Missionaries of Charity did for Sarah was done with great amounts of love…..People who understand - “Who God is” - Do things like what I just noted the Missionaries of Charity did for Sarah - Often those people are “invisible” to society at large and what they do does not garner any attention because “no one cares”…..So why do people do those “small things?” - Because they see God in their neighbor and they see God in their neighbor because they see God in the Blessed Sacrament…And in order to “see” in this manner - We must purify our heart…..Because true “sight” comes from a pure heart……And God sees our heart - We can not “fool” God…..So if we want to know “who God really is” - We as Catholics must work on purifying our heart….Then we will “see” and then what we do will be pleasing to God.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death”

Today at Mass St John tells us something we should think long and hard about - “Looks can be deceiving”…..The religious leaders of Jesus’ day made themselves out to be close to God - But their hearts were very far from God - And Jesus calls them out!…..”You do not know him”……..So how about us? - Do we know who God is?…..Now I am not talking about measuring how much you know “about God” - You can have “all the answers” and still fail the test!…..I am asking this question from the prospective of the human heart - Do you know who God really is?……The answer to that question is often found in the small gestures…In what we do with our time…..In how we spend our money…In the sacrifices we make…In how we use the gifts given to us in service to our family and the world around us…….Jesus tells us very clearly in the Gospel of St Matthew - “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be”……The condition of our heart tells the world everything it needs to know……And if we want to know “who God is” - We have to get the “heart-part” of us right before we get the “head part”………”Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God”……..JMJ