Christ's Reward for Purity

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

Katharos, the Greek word translated as pure, means free from that which corrupts or soils. It is associated with the idea that adulterated things can be purified by fire. Physically, heat kills germs and disease. Back in Christ's time, fire was one of the few ways to clean a wound. Boiling impure water makes it drinkable. Philosophically, this lead to the idea that fire burns away what is corrupt. This might have been led to the idea of Purgatory, where we suffer temporary fire of punishment to burn away our sins so that we can be pure enough to see God.

The heart in Christ's time like our own was a metaphor for the personal center of all physical and spiritual life. Being "pure of heart" means having an unsullied soul, a spirit free from guilt or desire. The pure of heart includes two groups. It is the innocent, who like children, have never known sin and corruption. But it is also the purified, those who have suffered been through the fire that has burned away our sins.

Those who are pure can see God. What does this mean? What does it mean to see a spiritual being that has no physical form? The Greek word for "see" is optanomai, which not only means seeing with the eyes, but perceiving with the mind and to experience. So, people who have pure hearts can peceive God and experience God.

Interestingly, in the form that is used of optanomai also means both to see and be seen. So another way to translated this phrase would be to say that the pure of hear will be seen by God. Of course, by definition, God sees everyone of us, but something beyond that is being described here. Our purity, our freedom from defect, puts us in the presence of God and joins us with God so that we can perceive and be perceived. Purity is a way that we share in the divine.

Again, we should point out that from the timeless perspective of Christ's, by becoming pure, we can experience God, but by experiencing God, we can also become pure. The perception of God becomes like a trial by fire that can burn away the corruption within us. The idea may talk to what happens after our death, passing through Purgatory, but it also refers to what can happen in our lives, as we pass through suffering and loss.