In his Apostolic Letter "On Preparing for the Jubilee of the Year 2000," Pope John Paul II writes:
"The whole of the Christian life is like a great pilgrimage to the house of the Father, whose unconditional love for every human creature, and in particular for the 'prodigal son' (cf. Lk 15:11–32), we discover anew each day. This pilgrimage takes place in the heart of each person, extends to the believing community and then reaches to the whole of humanity." (no. 49)
These words introduce the Pope's description of the "Year of the Father" in 1999, the third and final year of preparation for the Great Jubilee. In this year we are invited to rediscover the basic grace of the Christian life—that, in and through Jesus Christ, we are on a pilgrimage to God the Father.
This pilgrimage begins with the experience of the reconciliation to the Father that Jesus won for all humanity on the Cross. Through this reconciliation we discover, like the prodigal son, the unconditional love of the Father. Upon this foundation of being reconciled to the Father, the pilgrimage to Him continues and takes place essentially "in the heart" of the believer. The goal of this pilgrimage is heaven itself. John Paul writes that the spiritual goal of this year is to see things "in the perspective of the Father who is in heaven" (no. 49).
Thus, in this year of the Father, the Pope focuses our attention on reconciliation with the Father, on the heart as the place of communion with the Father, on our pilgrimage to heaven and on the extension of the Father's love to all in the Church and world. It is a deeply biblical vision that brings to mind St. Paul's prayer to God the Father in Ephesians 3:14–21. The Apostle asks that the Father strengthen us in our inner being [the heart], so that with all the saints we may have "the power to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth" of the Father's love and so "be filled with all the fullness of God." The height of the Father's love is found in heaven itself. The depth of His love pierces to our heart—that part of us made for God, which only God can touch and fill. The breadth and length of the Father's love extends beyond the individual believer to the whole Church and thence into the world.
The Prodigal Son Our essays in this "year of the Father" consider in turn each of the aspects of our pilgrimage to God that are described by the Pope. In the last issue of this magazine we pondered the grace of reconciliation with the Father by considering the parable of the prodigal son. This essay focuses on the believer's pilgrimage to the Father that begins after this experience of reconciliation. The goal of this pilgrimage is heaven, and the way of this journey always passes through the human heart. Therefore, the two aspects of this pilgrimage to the Father that we must consider are "heaven" and the "heart."1 Our reflection on these two realities will begin with a look at the teaching on heaven and the heart in Hebrews 8–10. Then we will consider more deeply how to acquire purity of heart. Through this meditation, we will see how great a need there is for Christians today to recover a lively awareness and experience of both heaven and the heart. Without these twin graces we cannot experience the fullness of the life the Father desires to share with us.
Can mere human beings experience anything of heaven while here on earth? Or is all the Christian talk about "heaven" just pious words to encourage people while they "tough it out" here on earth? Most people today, even many Christians, would be skeptical that anyone can experience here on earth something of the life of heaven. Perhaps a few saints have such unusual experiences, but the average believer must live his or her Christian faith on earth with little more than a vague hope of future joy in heaven. How different is the perspective of the letter to the Hebrews about heaven! This powerful letter rivets our attention on the position of Jesus at the right hand of the Father in heaven. The whole letter, therefore, is written from a heavenly perspective. Throughout the letter, the author urges his readers (all Christians) to exercise their faith, that they might experience the things of heaven. In short, the letter to the Hebrews presumes that Jesus Christ offers every believer the grace to know him as he is united with his Father in the glory of heaven. This means that every Christian can taste here on earth something of the life of heaven. We can know the glory and triumph of the risen Christ and that we are united to him unshakably through faith and baptism. Through this union with Christ in glory we can also know the Father in heaven and experience His love for us. Unlike the Jews at Mount Sinai, we "have not drawn near to an untouchable mountain" but "to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb 12:18.22).
The teaching in Hebrews about heaven is closely related to its teaching about how the sacrifice of Jesus Christ opens the human heart to the Father's love. The human heart seeks love, but the love of earthly things leaves it scattered and dissatisfied. Only the love of God brings true rest to the heart. Today, many people have turned away from God and therefore suffer from loneliness and a restless heart. Many theories of psychology also teach that the human heart is a mass of jumbled desires that necessarily leave us dissatisfied and subject to contradictory impulses. Again, how different and refreshing is the perspective of the letter to the Hebrews about the human heart. Through his own experience of forgiveness and reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ, the author knows that the blood of Jesus purifies the human heart. When something is purified and made clean, it is able to function properly. In the same way, when the human heart is purified by Christ's blood, it is no longer bound by contradictory desires that frustrate human fulfillment. Instead, the pure heart sees God—it's true happiness.2 And in this new and radiant vision of God with the heart, the person is set free to love and worship God. As the author proclaims, "the blood of Christ cleanses our conscience of dead works to worship the living God" (Heb 9:14).
It is clear from just this brief summary of the letter to the Hebrews that the Christian experience of God the Father requires a pure heart that focuses one's life upon the loving communion of the Father and the Son in heaven. Something of the life of heaven is already accessible to us, but our ability to exercise our faith for heavenly things depends upon the condition of our heart. Let us examine more closely what the letter to the Hebrews teaches us about heaven and the heart.
Hebrews 8–10: The Blood of Christ Opens the Way to the Sanctuary: Chapters 8–10 of Hebrews present the heart of its teaching about the power of Christ's sacrifice to open heaven for mankind and the human heart to God's love. In chapter eight, the author quotes Jeremiah 31:31–34, which prophesies that God will establish a New Covenant. And the grace that characterizes the New Covenant is precisely that God will write His laws "on their hearts." The following chapters in Hebrews present a detailed account of how this prophecy was fulfilled by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that established the New Covenant.
Old Testament Foreshadowings of Christ's Sacrifice: Abel, Melchizedek The author describes how the various parts of the Jewish Temple were used in worship. There was a place for the worshippers to assemble and then there was the "Holy Place," in which the priests offered the daily sacrifices. But behind the curtain of the "Holy Place," there was another section of the Temple called "The Holy of Holies." Only the High Priest could enter "The Holy of Holies," and he could do that on only one day of the year—Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement (see Heb 9:1–10). These interesting facts about the Jewish worship in the Temple during the Old Testament are seen by the author of Hebrews as a picture or "sketch" (Heb 10:1) of the grace that is given in the New Covenant by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The author relates the Temple design and worship to both of his points about the opening of heaven and the human heart by Jesus Christ. The Jewish Temple and its sanctuary (the Holy of Holies) are only a foreshadowing or "copy" of "the true sanctuary" in heaven itself (Heb 9:24). The rituals of worship and sacrifice in the Temple have not "revealed" the way into the true sanctuary of heaven. Similarly, these sacrifices of calves and goats do not cleanse the hearts of worshippers, but only bring about an external purification (Heb 9:6–10). But through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the very depths of the human heart are cleansed and the living way to heaven is revealed.
But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things that have come,… he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself up unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God! (Heb 9:11–14)
Just as Jesus Christ enters the sanctuary of heaven through his death and resurrection, so by his blood he enters and purifies the human conscience, that "sanctuary" within the depths of the human heart. By the preaching of the gospel "the word of God" reveals to human beings the radiant love and power of Christ's sacrifice, which "penetrates and divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow" until it reaches the very "thoughts of the heart" (see Heb 4:12–13).
When our heart is so pierced with the truth about Jesus' death, we are able to acknowledge our sin with humility and to accept the definitive forgiveness and cleansing of sins by the Father. We see that Jesus' sacrifice is perfectly effective, in two ways. First, his sacrifice has opened our hearts to the Father's reconciling love. And, second, Christ's sacrifice has opened heaven to us. The purpose of both these graces is the same: that each believer from the depths of the heart would be able to know, love and serve the Father in heaven. Since our hearts have been purified, the author of Hebrews exhorts us to follow the living way, opened by Jesus, into the sanctuary of heaven itself.
Since the blood of Jesus assures our entrance into the sanctuary by the new and living path he has opened for us,… let us draw near in utter sincerity and absolute confidence, our hearts sprinkled clean from the evil which lay on our conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. (Heb 10:19–22)
If Jesus Christ has truly opened the human heart to the Father's love and has given human beings a power to taste even now the life of heaven, it follows that the basic task of the Christian life is to abide in this new life. We have been given a precious gift. Two ways of life are open to us. We can grow in the life of the heart and direct our lives to heaven. Or, we can ignore these graces and live a natural, earthly life. The teaching in the letter to the Hebrews is written for people who are committed to living in the grace offered by Jesus. It is written for people who have believed the preaching of the gospel that God is offering humanity a new life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is written for people who are praying and trying to grow in this new life. The letter to the Hebrews joyfully proclaims that in this new life given by Christ it is possible for every human being to acquire purity of heart and to taste even here on earth the life of heaven. But the letter also warns us that abiding in these graces of the new life will require a spiritual struggle on the part of every believer.
The Human Heart:
"the Garden Within"
"Where does prayer
come from? Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the
whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture
speaks sometimes of the soul or spirit, but most often of the heart
(more than a thousand times). According to Scripture, it is the
heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of
prayer are in vain… The heart is our hidden center, beyond the
grasp of reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the
human heart and know it fully… The heart is the place of
encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place
of covenant." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos.
2562–2563)
Perhaps the most important aspect of this spiritual struggle is simply to grasp God's vision of the human heart. In the past, the Church communicated a true vision of the heart in many ways, including architecture. The cloister or garden that is found in many monasteries and missions is actually an image of the human heart. The garden cloister is surrounded on four sides by buildings, which symbolize the external life of the human being—the life of work and activity. The garden within is a symbol of the heart—a place to retreat and commune with God. Together, the buildings and the garden within communicate an image of the human person. All the activity and work of the person (the buildings) border the garden within (the heart). The spaciousness and beauty of the garden within—its flowers, fountains, and chirping birds—symbolize the richness and greatness of the human heart when it is open to God and united to God. The more a person experiences this life of the heart, the more his or her work and activities will be imbued with the same living presence of the Father. This spiritual life, rooted in the heart, requires a proper relation and balance between the exterior and interior, between our work and prayer, between interaction with the world around us and living communion with the Father. Just as the garden cloister is the very center of the monastery or mission, so the heart indwelt by God must be the source and center of all aspects of our human life.
The modern world is generally ignorant of this understanding of the human heart. By way of comparison, the architecture that expresses the modern world's understanding of the person is the skyscraper or office building. In these buildings we see how much the modern world values man's activity. The style itself emphasizes what we can do, how high we can build. There is almost nothing to suggest that human beings have an interior life that needs to be fostered and protected. Perhaps an office building will have a terrace with a couple trees, where harried workers can grab a few moments of rest from the fast pace and tension of work. But this is a far cry from understanding and fostering the life of the heart. Although there are many good things about the modern economic system and the technology that it has spawned, it remains that the greatest casualty of this whole way of life is the interior life of human beings. We no longer know how to be still and listen to the voice of God the Father in the depths of our heart. We pay such little attention to cultivating an interior life that our hearts have become shriveled—a far cry from the vision of the heart as a spacious, beautiful garden where we rest in God. The condition of the human heart has become the great spiritual problem of the modern world. And it is a struggle just to become aware of what we have lost. Indeed, one Orthodox bishop has declared that the whole of modern civilization "is a civilization of the loss of the heart. And a person cannot understand what he has not in his heart. The heart has died, … and we cannot perceive [its] presence."3
The basic struggle of the spiritual life is therefore to remember always that God desires to dwell in our hearts and that to abide in this grace we need to acquire purity of heart. Within this basic struggle, spiritual writers have described three aspects of the effort to acquire a pure heart. The first aspect involves the purification of the heart. The second aspect involves the illumination of the heart with the light of God's revelation. The third aspect involves the union of the heart with God—that is, "resting" in God. Let us look more closely at each of these aspects of purity of heart. Throughout the following discussion, let us also remember that the fruit of purity of heart is nothing less than loving union with God the Father.
The Purification of the Heart: The first aspect of purity of heart is experienced through ongoing purification of the heart. Jesus began his preaching by calling people to repent and turn from sin. This is not simply repentance from actions that are sinful. As the letter to the Hebrews teaches, the Lord came to purify the depths of our hearts. It is our hearts that are defiled when we embrace and accept evil thoughts. As Jesus taught his disciples:
"Wicked designs come from the deep recesses of the heart: acts of fornication, theft, murder, adulterous conduct, greed, maliciousness, deceit, sensuality, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, an obtuse spirit. All of these evils come from within and render a man impure" (Mark 7:21–23).
When people first begin to respond to Jesus' call, it is natural that their repentance focuses upon sinful actions. It is in our sinful actions that we see how much we are opposed to God's will. But as we grow in the Lord, our repentance should become deeper, reaching even the consent to sin that we give in our hearts when we entertain sinful thoughts. We need to call on the Holy Spirit to experience this purification within our hearts. When we are tempted, the Spirit desires to remind us that we are children of God and that our hearts are the Father's shrine. The Spirit moves us to cleave to Jesus Christ and to call upon his holy and powerful name. The Spirit also gives us courage to exercise Jesus' authority over sin and Satan, so that in and with the power of Jesus we command the devil to depart. These are the interior spiritual activities that enable us to reject and cut off sinful thoughts—the "wicked designs" that are suggested to our hearts by our own desires and the temptations of the devil. This work of purification is especially directed against the "capital sins"—the seven sins that are seen as the source of all sins: gluttony, lust, avarice, anger, sloth, envy and pride.
Purification of our heart requires vigilance. We always need to pay attention to what is going on in our hearts and minds. The shrine of our heart is like a treasure. If we do not maintain watch over our heart, it is easy for desires to arise and grow and thereby pollute the heart. When not checked, such desires snowball until they dictate our thoughts and deeds. We all know the sad results of this: a mind racing with angry or jealous thoughts, impulsive words or deeds, impulsive eating, drinking or shopping. In the struggle to purify our hearts, in addition to repentance, it is also important to cultivate humility, sorrow over sin (even tears), interior recollection ("stillness of heart"), and the healing of our memories from the wounds and effects of past sins. All of these contribute to the purification of the heart.
The Illumination of the Heart: The second aspect of purity of heart involves the illumination of the heart with the light of God's revelation. The human heart not only needs to be cleansed and healed of sin. It also needs to be filled, or enlightened, with the Father's truth and love. The spiritual activities mentioned above that bring about the purification of the heart also help to open the heart to God's light. Through repentance and purification the heart becomes docile and thirsts for God's truth. This thirst is satisfied through prayer, meditation, spiritual readings, and the effort to see creation, especially other persons, in the light of God's revelation. Again, all these activities require the grace of the Holy Spirit. When a person thirsts for God's truth and begs the Holy Spirit to teach and enlighten him, the heart will be illuminated with divine light as it opens itself to God in prayer.
In prayer, it is very important for believers to leave behind their own pre-occupations and to ponder God's attributes and His eternal and unshakable plan of salvation. This plan originates in the mind of God before creation. It is fulfilled through creation, the covenants in the Old Testament, the incarnation of the Son of God and his redemptive death and resurrection, the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Church, and finally the return of Jesus Christ in glory at the end of history. The fullness of God's light is especially concentrated in His Son, Jesus Christ. That is why Christians need to fix their gaze constantly on Jesus, pondering the "mysteries" of revelation in the events of his life—his incarnation and birth, his hidden life, his baptism, his miracles and preaching of the Kingdom of heaven, and most especially his death, resurrection and ascension into glory. The goal of all prayer and meditation on Creation and Scripture is to acquire the heart and mind of Jesus Christ. This is what is meant by the illumination of the heart with God's light. As the heart becomes progressively transformed and illuminated it dwells more and more in God. As this occurs the third aspect of purity of heart opens to view.
The Union of the Heart with God: Every human being is created for union with God. This union with the Most High is sealed in the depths of the human heart. That is why Jesus promised that "the pure of heart" would "see God" (Matt 5:8). A heart that is purified of the drives and memories of sin and enlightened with God's truth is capable of abiding habitually in the presence of God. This "rest in God" brings peace and joy to the person and opens the person in love towards others. In addition to prayerful devotions or meditation on Scripture, the person who experiences this union with God also experiences a new dimension of prayer—simply to rest in God's presence. "As a child rests in his mother's arms, even so my soul rests in you, my God" (Psalm 131:2).
Blessed are the Pure of Heart, for they shall see God.
Purity of heart leads one to deeper and deeper union with God. The pure heart is characterized not only by its habit of resting in God, but also by specific activities that protect, foster and deepen this union with God. St. Mark the Ascetic describes three activities of the heart, two of which pertain to the workings of the pure heart and one of which characterizes the defilement of the heart. The pure heart works first according to nature by finding in itself the cause of evil thoughts and confessing these to God. The heart works contrary to nature when it forgets God and fights with others. Finally, the pure heart works above nature by tasting the fruits of the Holy Spirit and bringing forth works of love, humility and compassion.4 "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faith, meekness and self-control… Since we live by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's lead" (Galatians 5:22.25).
Whether at rest in God or working according to nature or above nature, the pure heart is aware that it is beloved by God and that by sheer grace it has become the dwelling place of the Father. From deep within the heart, the person is moved by the Holy Spirit with utmost tenderness and love for the Father. St. John of the Cross describes this loving union with the Father by the pure of heart as a continuous receiving of the breath of life from God.
"The soul united to God and transformed in him draws from within God a divine breath, much like the most high God himself. And God, abiding in the soul, breathes forth the life of the soul as its exemplar. This I take to be what Paul meant when he said: 'Because you are children of God, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' This is what takes place in those who have achieved perfection."5
God the Father has created us in love for Himself—for perfection. Without purity of heart we cannot abide in loving communion with the Father. Through the work of Jesus Christ, the Father has made us His sons and daughters. He has sent His Holy Spirit into our hearts that we might know and love Him and direct our lives to heaven. These graces must take deep root in our hearts if they are to bear fruit for God's glory. The Holy Spirit offers to all believers the grace to seek purity of heart and to cry out in love, "Abba, Father." Let us therefore enter our hearts, "the garden within," responding to these divine gifts as the letter to the Hebrews exhorts us:
"Since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary [of heaven and the heart] by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he has opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near [to the Father] with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." (Hebrews 10:19–22)
— Father Gerard Beigel was the Associate Pastor at St. Leonard's Church in Fremont, California, and wrote regularly for The California Mission.
2 This is one of the blessings of the Kingdom of heaven announced by Jesus: "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God" (Matt 5:8).
3 Bishop Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, Orthodox Psychotherapy: the Science of the Fathers, trans. by Esther Williams (Birth of Theotokos Monastery, Levadia, Greece, 1994), p. 125.
4 Bishop Hierotheos, Orthodox Psychotherapy, 127–128.
5 St. John of the Cross, "A Spiritual Canticle," in The Liturgy of the Hours, vol. 4, pp. 80–81.