Last week, we looked at the Greek words eros and agape and explored how God can build on and transform our human desires for human communion into divinely-powered acts of self-sacrificial love. We never leave behind our nature, created good but subject to weakness, but strive by God’s grace to become more fully human like Jesus our model. In doing so, one model for this transformative process is expressed in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:8). This introduces an often misunderstood concept in modern culture: chastity or purity.

   We can applaud the “purity culture” attempt within certain Christian circles in the 1990s and 2000s to safeguard youth from the dangers of sexual depravity. However, the repressive practices based in fear and the dirtiness of sex left many teens and young adults poorly equipped for adult love and married life. The burden of purity also often fell disproportionately on young ladies instead of young men. For all these reasons, purity was mocked by the broader culture as a mere repression of one’s sexuality out of fear of Hell (think of Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) mocking the iron chastity belt of Maid Marian).

   The sixth Beatitude states, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:8). Christ declares of the lustful man, “he has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt. 5:27-28). This purity that the blessed have and the lustful lack is not merely a repression of a bodily instinct (though self-control is required for virtue), but a wholeness and integrity of life that flows into one’s action. For an object to be pure is to have no defects, blemishes, or admixture of anything else. Pure gold has no copper, bronze, or any other metal. It is fully and totally one thing. So the one who is pure of heart has a heart fixed on one object: God himself and everything else through that godly lens. This purity of heart, a grace from God, enables a man or woman to appreciate reality as it truly is and so restrain the fallen instinct to possess another as an object instead of relating to them as a person.

   Two notes on purity and chastity in modern Church life. First, these virtues apply to all people equally, and it is the duty of each of us to aid this virtue in others. Dressing beautifully and handsomely is encouraged when worshipping God who deserves our best appearance. However, dressing immodestly (revealing more of the body than is needed or appropriate) shows a lack of love for others by tempting them to lust. Secondly, guard your eyes away from images, videos, and shows that lead you toward that lust. What goes through our eyes is stored within our memories long after the object has disappeared from our senses. If you struggle with impurity in Internet usage or reading material, know that you are not alone and that freedom is possible. Reach out to me for helpful resources on winning this battle. It will require sacrifice and determination, but all are called and capable of the purity of heart that Christ desires for us to be able to see, know, and love God and so love others as he loves us.



   -Fr. Stephen