Purity of Heart

On the morning of the Resurrection, certain women disciples of Jesus went to his tomb to anoint his body with the traditional myrrh.  They encountered into an astonishing and alarming site:  The immense stone which sealed Jesus’ tomb had been rolled away.  Inside the tomb they encounter a “young man” clothed in white sitting at the right side where Jesus had been laid.  He addressed and informed them:

…Do not be alarmed:  You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified.  He is risen!  Behold the place where they laid him.

A troparion of the day declares this:

The angel came to the myrrh bearing women at the tomb said:  Myrrh is proper for the dead; but Christ has shown himself a stranger to corruption!  So proclaim:  the Lord is risen, granting the world great mercy.

The Myrrh Bearing Women were expecting the expected, but they found the unexpected.  They came to the tomb expecting to find a corpse, but encountered the Miracle of miracles:  “Christ is risen from the dead!”  Did they know of the raising of the son of the widow of Nain?  They surely witnessed the raising of Lazarus from the dead and his emergence from his tomb.

The witnessing of these two miracles done by our Lord brought about shock and awe to those present at these miracles.  Likewise, the experience of the Myrrh Bearing Women brought to them an equal response, and how could they wrap their minds around this news?

However, after 2,000 years we know the story.  It’s old news:  we’ve read the book and seen the movie.  Therefore, we treat it as well known history.  The element of awe is no longer there for us.  So, I want to give you and me a cold slap in the face.  We who are asleep need a major jolt of spiritual caffeine!  Let’s review a theological and ontological fact given to us by St Paul:

We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, that we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6: 6).

We are also united to his resurrection.  Therefore, we share in his new miraculous life.  It is to be our understood reality by which we live.  Hence, in his epistles he gives us further instruction:

If then you have been raised with Christ [the construction of the phrase assumes the positive], seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Colossians 3: 1 – 4)

Given these facts, St Paul then explains to us the need for the corresponding lives we are to live,

Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you:  immorality, impurity, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.  On account of these the wrath of God is coming.  In these you once walked, when you lived in them.  But now put them all away:  anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth.  Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his practices and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his creator…Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, if one of you has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive.  And over all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.  And become thankful (Colossians 3: 5 – 10, 12 – 17).

Be reminded, then of this hymn of Pascha:  “Thy Resurrection, O Christ our Savior, the angels in heaven sing — enable us on earth to glorify thee in purity of heart!”  Purity of heart — our Lord states this:  “Blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God (St Matthew 5: 8).  The holy king David gives us this:

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me…Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit (Psalm 50/51:  10, 12).

Consider the Eucharist.  Here is another sacramental and ontological reality which is to have us pursue purity of heart:

Therefore, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you do not have life in yourselves.  The one who is eating my flesh and is drinking my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him in the Last Day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  The one who is eating my flesh and drinking my blood abides in me and I in him (John 6: 53 — 56).

Jesus’ resurrected life is worked into our mortal being by faithfully consuming his Body and Blood given to us via Communion.  He indwells us, and we are in him.  Thus, we become his body, and must live out Christ’s life before the world.

“Enable us to glorify thee in purity of heart!”  That’s nice, you may say, but how?  I can speak only from my own experience and from the lessons which I have learned.  Let me begin with this statement which comes from St Paul:  The struggle is in the mind.  We read this from the Prayer of the Hours:  “…Set aright our minds; cleanse our thoughts.”  Therefore, we must throw away habitual thoughts that continue to keep us in the trap of habitually impure actions that are contrary to our existence in Christ Jesus.

Jesus Christ Conquers

We know the people, circumstances, settings, etc., which trigger automatic responses.  These automatic responses arise from the corruption, or impurity that still resides within us.  Thus, we need to have a holy game plan which can be used to overcome such habits.  I inform you of one of my triggers:  shopping.  In a store, especially a large and busy store, I can become impatient, irritated, and generally cranky.  So, while I am in the parking lot, still in my car, I must inform myself of my game plan:  I will choose to be patient, peaceful, and joyful.  I must inform myself to pray for all I will encounter and ask God’s blessing to be upon all I pass by — my fellow shoppers (who may be impatient, irritated, etc.).  These words from St Paul also form my game plan:

See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always pursue the good both for one another and for all.  Rejoice always.  Pray constantly.  Give thanks in, with, and for all things for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5: 15 – 18).

Choose to seek the good for all.  Choose to rejoice, even if you may not feel inclined to do so given the circumstances.  Choose to pray in all settings, and in every hour.  Choose to give thanks even in a negative or challenging setting; and within the company of people who my be inpatient, irritable, and cranky.  By doing so we extend Christ himself into the space and time we occupy.  By choosing to implement such a game plan we bear Christ to all, and we form Christ within us — the one who is the source of our purity of heart.  Thus, we imitate Christ and become Christ-like.

By our lives lived in concert with Christ, and as we pursue purity of heart, we can ask the Myrrh Bearing Women to pray for us.  Living in his purity, let us surprise the Myrrh Bearing Women with our growing purity of heart!

The following is a corresponding sermon:  

In Christ,

Fr Irenaeus