The Clean of Heart
A Reflection by Fred Schaeffer, OFS
I was struggling with the sixth verse of the beatitudes (Mt. 5:3-11), “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. So perhaps this is as good a time as any to examine this maxim, this instruction from the mouth of Our Lord. "Purity of Heart" is a complex theme. It is not the organ of the heart we are making clean, but our Will. We have a Will given to us by God, and we have the duty to keep that Will purified, by not attaching ourselves and our actions to persons, places and things. Here we are referring to the exercise of the moral virtue of chastity. All people share this obligation, married, unmarried, clergy or lay persons. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: #2348 "All the baptized are called to chastity. The Christian has "put on Christ," the model for all chastity. All Christ's faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life. At the moment of his Baptism, the Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity." To accomplish this, we must learn self-mastery (see CCC 2395 "Chastity means the integration of sexuality within the person. It includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery".)
For anyone who seriously desires to become a friend of Jesus, it is counterproductive to dwell consistently on images and ideas that threaten to draw us away from Jesus. I asked myself, "Does that include seeing people who are beautiful, on a beach?" If the sight of beautiful people create in us erotic thoughts then, as a practical matter, pursuing these thoughts isn't helpful to priests and religious, and lay people who are serious about their spiritual life. I know this is a very "counter-cultural statement" but it is true. In order to be a true friend of Jesus we strive to practice temperance and total detachment from anything worldly.
When we are clean of heart, the Beatitudes state, then we shall see God. That doesn't mean that we shall see Him in visions, but it does mean that we will have a strong sense of His Presence in our lives. We see Jesus with the eyes of our soul, when we surrender our will to God. Jesus gave us the gift of a free will, knowing that His love will draw that gift back to Himself as reciprocal love. St. Thomas of Aquinas states: "when the eye of the mind is purified by the gift of the Spirit one can, see God.” (I II, 69,2, ad 3). The eye of the mind cannot see God when the field of view, is cluttered up by disturbing images and debris.
Every person, from time to time, suffers from this spiritual blindness. It occurs when we find ourselves in a rut, a periodic time of spiritual unrest, when we are lukewarm, and when the actions by the Holy Spirit, in our lives, go unnoticed. When these weaknesses are realized, we could avail ourselves of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and go on from there. What also impairs our spiritual vision is when we succumb to sins of pride. By failing to recognize danger signs that could impair our relationship with God, that special friendship with Him, by telling ourselves that what we are doing is perfectly alright, when we know it isn't, then we are committing an act of pride. We are telling God that we know better. If we remain attached to our own worldly views, and stubbornly refuse to accept God's goodness and love, then the special relationship with Our Lord will falter.
The Lord gave us a free will, so that we may choose to follow Him. Following Jesus is a deliberate decision on our part. Let us pray that all of us make the right decision, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will. Let us pray: “Create a clean heart in me, O God” (Psalm 51)
Fred Schaeffer, OFS 2007
Rev. (shortened) June 9, 2026
Bibliography:
John, Paul II. Catechism of the Catholic Church. 2nd ed. United States Catholic Conference, 1997