Blessed are the Pure in Heart

 

The Two Views of the Church

How do we see the Church? There are two views since there are two methods of seeing.

A statement that drives the "materialist" thinkers and investigators crazy, especially those with deconstructionist agendas, is "perception of Truth is primarily a matter of character" and "the perception of truth and purity are intrinsically linked." True repentance brings purity, but as long as one clings to self-justifying philosophical constructs, one is stuck with sin and "light" then is filtered through it and distorted by it. For such a one, rational constructs become the "measure of Truth," which is a very narrow and blind reality, when we consider that "the reality of being" quickly, in fact immediately, outpaces our ability to comprehend by rational means. Prof. Vladimir Lossky said (paraphrasing), "The point where knowledge of God begins, rational means of investigation suicide." Such analytical constructs may be very creative, seem most complex, and most spiritual, so much so that they tempt one to believe one has become enlightened by such "truths." For instance, the society that believes in the mythology of evolution also believes that because of their "high degree of evolving," they are due to experience utopian peace. That's the mythology, eternal progress to the apogee of utopian peace. That's the foundation of Francis Bacon's utopian vision, as he stated in The New Atlantis, and this is the foundation of all modern scientific delusions. As illogical as the premise may be, they find nothing strange in the proposition, "We are all descended from a monkey; therefore we should love one another." They are deaf, dumb, blind, and stupid, though they may sound so very intellectual. Their perceptions are clouded, and in the worst cases, their mind has become "reprobate."

 

This is what Saint Paul referenced when he used the word Reprobate.

Jer 6:28 They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.

Jer 6:29 The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.

Jer 6:30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.

It was this imagery Saint Paul was referencing when he said, "Rom 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind." He describes the physical, psychological, and spiritual symptoms of that reprobate mind, and the picture isn't pretty. Go to the first chapter of the Book of Romans and read it four yourselves. (He pictured in words what you witnessed in the first part of this video.)

When Truth said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God," He wasn't speaking of some time, far in the future. Here the word "see" has several levels of meaning. It means to see with understanding, like when something is afoot, some tomfoolery, and we haven't entirely caught on, then with insight, we come to see what the person is up to, and we say, "I see you." It has the meaning of grasping an understanding, as Pilate used the word when he washed his hands of Jesus' blood, saying to the Jewish rabble, "I am innocent of this man's blood, see ye" In other words, "grasp this fact." The chief priest used the same word in the same sense when Judas confessed that he had shed innocent blood by betraying Jesus. He returned to them and threw the thirty pieces of Silver at them, disowning the blood money. Their response was, "What is this to us, see thou" or in the vernacular, "It's not our problem – get it!" Jesus used the word about things far in the future and soon to happen. Jesus used the word, telling Nathaniel not to be surprised that he had seen him (comprehended, understood him) under a fig tree but that soon he would see (comprehend) heaven open and angels ascending and descending. Some who had witnessed the empty tomb used the word to explain that they all would see Jesus shortly in Galilee. This seeing is "seeing and knowing." They would not just see some image of Him, some wisp of an image upon a vapor. No, they would "see" the man they knew and perceive it to be him, and as Saint John testified, they would hold Him with their hands, listen to His voice, and feel His touch.

The ability to perceive (see and know) Truth and Spiritual sight are synonymous. Some view "spiritual perception" as a faint, foggy, nebulous consciousness where one must live in nervous agitation to accomplish, where one lives in fear of "missing the leading of the Holy Spirit," a state that requires undue concentration, exhausting mental and emotional energy, destroys the ability to act and react in society in a cogent and sociable way. (We all know such pseudo-mystics) The fog that clouds spiritual perception is one thing and one thing only, and that one thing isn't lack of mental and emotional effort or even lack of I.Q. Points; that one thing is sin. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Discipline is required to break old habits, to become "watchful," and to learn to guard the door of the NOUS; this is true because the degree we are damaged by sin dictates the depth of our blindness and the difficulty of the path to spiritual maturity.

In Christ: Faith, Hope, and Love are powers creating spiritual vision. Faith can cover sins and create right and hopeful motives. Love covers sins and gives Hope. Even in the face of final judgment, spiritual sight is filled with HOPE. As terrifying as the Apocalypse of Saint John is to most Protestants, to the humble Christian who sees God, ultimately, it is most hopeful and faith-engendering, and the Orthodox Christian steps inside that Apocalypse, that Revelation of John the Revelator and worships the God he sees.

God authors both faith and hope because He IS Love. These, then, are the energies whereby Truth may be viewed even over the impending destruction of the body, which countless martyrs have witnessed, and over the corpses of genocide, as Father Gregory Petrov so clearly demonstrated in his hymn, Glory to God from Age to Age, and as Saint Maria of Paris showed as she voluntarily walked into the gas chamber, exchanging herself for the pregnant whore of a NAZI concentration camp prison guard; So as precious Corrie Ten Boom witnessed walking out of the same death camp to become a "vagabond" for Christ, as she traveled in abject poverty teaching Christ and Christ only, walking in the Light she grasped.

The polar opposite, Cynicism, despondency, despair, hopelessness, and bitterness, which Satan will so readily feed us, are powers of blindness, which make it impossible to perceive God working in history or working in the lives of saints or working in the Church, or working in both the sins and righteous acts of nations, communities, and individuals, even ourselves. We may have some hazy notion of "goodness" and assume ourselves attached to it. That is very common today and not entirely wrong, but it indeed can become a lying idol. "The joy of enjoying and fullness of living springs from a heart filled with thanksgiving" is an old and wise saying filled with Light. It holds echoes of the Wisdom of Solomon. But without sight of God, having no means to grasp thankfulness, the joy of enjoying turns into excess and vanity – as King Solomon described so truthfully and lived so sadly.

Saint Symeon, the New Theologian, spoke honestly about his conversion as a young man (teenager); stepping out of the waters of baptism in an almost innocent state, he was immediately given the gift of perceiving the Divine Light without wisdom to appreciate its worth he sank back into a dissolute lifestyle and forgot all he had seen and all he had been taught. He said of his beloved teacher, upon whom he had seen the Divine Light rest, "On my occasional visits, he appeared as any ordinary, even feeble, old man." Why? Because the perception of Truth is primarily a quality of character. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." The opposite is true, "Cursed with blindness are those weighted with sins."

Saint Demetri of Dallas, in a private moment, expounded to me the miracle of the Church's Sacred history. He said,
"Judged by the standards of secular history, the Church has been reactive, existed, and moved in history due to worldly pressures, just like any other entity. So the argument is made that the church was driven by the tensions of socio-economics, migrations of peoples, strains and stresses of empires, ambitions of despots both inside and outside the Church, sociological trends, availability and use of natural resources, epidemics, and pandemics, etc., etc., etc. On the other hand, sacred 'history,' if we may call it that, demonstrates God's work and will in history, the miracle of the Church's survival and growth, Christ's continual presence with us, and the work of the Holy Spirit in the twists and turns of history as reflected in the progress and health of the Church, the Church's constant production of saints, millions of them both known and unknown, and despite the dangers of history the wholeness of the Gospel being held safely in the bosom of the Apostolic Tradition, written in hearts as opposed to mere marks on a page. We are not archivists; we are living letters as the Life of the Church is in us." - Saint Dimitri of Dallas, Related by Archpriest Symeon Elias - aka Butch Robinson. The occasion was a conference in Dalton, Georgia, sponsored by Glorious Ascension Monastery. I remember the author of "Orthodox Psychotherapy: the Science of the Fathers - Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos was there.

The former view (secular history) is cynical, absent hope, ranked with heartbreaking stories of barbarism, bloodshed, greed, folly, progress only by necessity, and only by measures of cunning treachery and savagery. Secular History is examined and told as the survival of the most artful and wicked. The latter, the sacred history of the Church demonstrates, Faith, Hope and Love – the fulfillment of God's promises in the chaos, the demonstration of the Love and Power of God, despite Satan's best efforts to destroy ALL, as God the Father continues to put down His enemies.

Who and What we have become is demonstrated in our grasp of this very thing. Faith, Hope, and Love are still present in the church, but it requires something to see it. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God," in their families, in their neighbors, in their communities, in the struggles of the culture and society, in the heartache and hellish battles of wars, in the greatness and foolishness of leaders, in the flow of history, in the eyes of innocence, in the darkness of the sinful, and the light of the Saints. In fact, the only way to understand the insanity of the wicked is in the light of the Saints.

"And remember, I am with you always, day by day, until the Close of the Age." This is the promise given to the Apostles and those who genuinely follow them – to the people of the Apostolic Tradition.