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Santiago Trail in Cahors, France
Francios-Louis de Blois writes [everyone] can attain to the very highest wisdom of mystical theology and union. For this matter no unusual powers of mind are required, but purity and humility of heart, liberty and detachment of mind, with fervent love, are the only qualities necessary.
Purity of heart. It's why men and women of every class left high society and made for the desert cell. Its why men and women of means and learning left the universities to enter monasteries. It's why you and I continually seek to know God better--because only through a purified heart can we see God.
Theresa of Avila wrote a whole treatise on the journey to the inner sanctum of the heart. I contend that we don't have to understand these "stages" necessarily, just be willing to continue that journey come what may. In my life time, I have met wonderful men and women who started out on the journey toward developing a greater consciousness of God, made impressive and sometimes heoric changes in their lives, and then, somehow, got stuck. Perhaps it was disappointment in those they set so much store in, perhaps it was a crisis of faith, or perhaps they hit a pot hole and decided to just stay down and indulge in self-pity. Whatever the reason, they gave up the journey and became content with the rest stop, became satisfied to remain "stuck" and look at the destination from a distance, no longer ardently seeking the forward momentum. Memories were enough, memories of better days and more satisfying lives, as they sat around the fire of discontent and passed around the drink of self-pity or defeat. And while they thought they were cherishing their memories of better days, they were losing it, losing it in the drink of self-pity, which always taints the truth of the story.
Purity of heart isn't something we acheive. It is an ongoing act, one that comes with the journey. If we show good will, ardent desire and pure honesty, we can keep from staying down after stumbling. And each effort toward good or desire for God or act of rising makes the heart a bit cleaner and the vision closer to the Truth. And what is light, after all, but the product of a burning fire, a fire burning within, that purifies, enlightens, and guides?
Purity of heart. It is not automatic. But if you are sincere, you will surely possess it, as surely as the sun will shine or the moon will rise. As surely as God is good. As surely as Truth is Truth.
Wonderful blog. My wife and I are studying John Cassian's "Conferences" (about 400 AD) in which there is this quote on purity of heart"
ReplyDelete"For, as I said, the farmer who has for his aim to live free from care and with plenty, while his crops are springing has this as his immediate object and goal; viz., to keep his field clear from all brambles, and weeds, and does not fancy that he can otherwise ensure wealth and a peaceful end, unless he first secures by some plan of work and hope that which he is anxious to obtain. The business man too does not lay aside the desire of procuring wares, by means of which he may more profitably amass riches, because he would desire gain to no purpose, unless he chose the road which leads to it: and those men who are anxious to be decorated with the honours of this world, first make up their minds to what duties and conditions they must devote themselves, that in the regular course of hope they may succeed in gaining the honours they desire. And so the end of our way of life is indeed the kingdom of God. But what is the (immediate) goal you must earnestly ask, for if it is not in the same way discovered by us, we shall strive and wear ourselves out to no purpose, because a man who is travelling in a wrong direction, has all the trouble and gets none of the good of his journey. And when we stood gaping at this remark, the old man proceeded: The end of our profession indeed, as I said, is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven: but the immediate aim or goal, is purity of heart, without which no one can gain that end: fixing our gaze then steadily on this goal as if on a definite mark, let us direct our course as straight towards it as possible, and if our thoughts wander somewhat from this, let us revert to our gaze upon it, and check them accurately as by a sure standard, which will always bring back all our efforts to this one mark, and will show at once if our mind has wandered ever so little from the direction marked out for it."
Thanks, John. Wonderful quote from Cassian. He is considered such a bedrock in monastic spirituality, and I'm quite impressed that you and your wife are studying him. It is from his writings that I have taken the journey of purity of heart, as he sees it as absolutely essential for all christians. It's like washing a window, and then finding that right there in front of you is someone you didn't see because the window was dirty. So with our heart...God is there, and by purity of heart, we can finally see him.
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