The Pure of Heart

Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.

 

Last year, there were four teen-age suicides in my city.  Three of the students attended Long Beach High; the other one was a student at St. Stanislaus.  There were different "reasons" for all of the deaths, and as in most cases, no one really knows "why;" no one saw it coming in any of the cases.  By the time of the third death at Long Beach High, the entire school was in shock -- so much so that, according to the report of one student, there is no longer any bullying at all in the school, for any reason at all.  If someone begins to bully another student, all the others rush in to stop the bullying immediately.  There is a heightened awareness throughout the school of the loneliness and isolation experienced by some teens as they struggle with their identity and sense of belonging.

 

What is remarkable in the face of such tragedy is that it opened the eyes of some teens to "see" what they could not see before -- the suffering of those around them.  The student in my class who was reflecting on the phenomenon of four suicides among people he knew told me that at all four funeral services, a rainbow appeared.  The rainbows in every case were documented by cell-phone pictures of many teens who all saw the image.  Some of them were consoled by the rainbow, taking it as a sign that their friend was now at peace and in the arms of God.  Other teens scoffed, saying the rainbow at all four funerals was a coincidence.

 

My guess is that the ones who saw a sign of God's love in the rainbow were the same ones who later became more sensitive to the suffering of others around them.  The ones who "do not believe in signs" are probably the same ones who will continue bullying others if they are not stopped by their peers.  If they cannot see God, they cannot see other people either.

 

From the beginning of the Scripture story, there has always been a division between those who "see" God in history and in the times and those who do not---between the believers and the scoffers.  Not all of the Israelites, despite their election, were "pure in heart;" not all Christians, despite their call, are "pure in heart."  Purity of heart refers to those who love the Lord with their whole heart, their whole mind, and their whole strength -- and that purity leads to love of neighbor as well, as is clearly evidenced in the high school today. 

 

Of course, this kind of purity is a journey.  Few of us begin by loving God "with our whole heart."  Like Eve, we are drawn to the glittering beauty at first of many other things.  But in tasting the bitterness of the things that held out the promise of joy and pleasure, we begin finally to turn away from the emptiness of things that cannot satisfy us.  For most of us, there is some kind of awakening to the consolation of God, to the beauty of His love and compassion, at some point in our lives.  For most of us, as we turn to God, we find that He alone is all we have been searching for, that in Him is rest, friendship, goodness, peace, love, and joy.  And as we bond with Him, He shares with us the riches of His creation and of His friends -- all things are ours, because we are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

 

The teens in my class Sunday night were all grieving over the fact that their friends died without hope of a better future.  One of the biggest guys in the class -- built like a linebacker-- said, "Man, if they could only have believed in God, that He had a plan for their lives!"  This guy has begun to experience God in a whole new way this year, as he has followed the prompting of the Holy Spirit to give up Yearbook as his extra-curricular activity and to take up choir, something he still laughs about, given his build.  Yet, from the moment he joined the choir, he told me he "fell in love."  Now, five weeks into choir membership, he has been chosen to sing "Ave Maria" at a state exhibition in Jackson.  He has found his soul and his first love.  And all because he opened his soul to the leading of the Holy Spirit, as he himself acknowledges.

 

This young man is "pure of heart;" he now wants God to direct his life and to lead him in right paths, for he has discovered for himself that God's ways are not our ways, but they are the best ways.  He is an inspiration to me and to the whole class.  God has changed his life, and I suspect that now he will change the lives of others around him.