Pilgr-image 10 - Purity of Heart

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. – Matthew 5:8

…once you’ve turned to Jesus, don’t turn back and look at yourself. Don’t wonder where you stand with him. – From a story by Brennan Manning about St Francis of Assisi

One of the things that is a challenge about walking with my dog is that she doesn’t like anyone walking behind us.  So if she notices another person hiking or a person walking their dog, she is continually looking back, stopping, checking things out.  It can be a bit frustrating.  Sometimes we even “pull over” (as I call it) to let those other folks go by, often with a bit of an apology about my dog who doesn’t like others behind her.  Even though I don’t know if she understands what I am saying, I am often asking Scout “Can you stop looking back?  There’s nothing to worry about back there!” 

I wonder if God says the same to us each time we look back wondering where we stand with God…each time we look back and worry that the shame of our past is going to catch up to us or that sin isn’t forgivable or whether we wonder if God really loves us just as we are.  In my mind, I know that God is saying, “Just keep walking ahead… I love you.  You are accepted.  You are forgiven.” 

This quote from Brennan Manning is part of a larger story he shares about a conversation between St Francis and another monk named Leo which starts with the question, “Leo, do you know what it means to be pure of heart?”  After Leo shares about how he views purity of heart as living a perfectly faithful life, Francis responds, “Leo, listen carefully to me. Don’t be so preoccupied with the purity of your heart. Turn and look at Jesus. Admire him. Rejoice that he is what he is – your brother, your friend, your Lord and Savior. That, little brother, is what it means to be pure of heart. And once you’ve turned to Jesus, don’t turn back and look at yourself. Don’t wonder where you stand with him.”

Brennan Manning wrote several books that changed my life, notably The Ragamuffin Gospel and The Furious Longing of God.  In the background of both books and in this story with St Francis is something summed up by a theologian named Paul Tillich who said, “Simply accept the fact that you are accepted by God.”  That is purity of heart, knowing that we are loved, accepted, forgiven.