Purity of heart is, in the Gospel, the threshold of a staggering promise: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"[1]. It is the sixth of the Beatitudes, and the Catechism sees in it one of the expressions by which the New Testament designates the very beatitude to which God calls us: "the vision of God"[2]. Yet of all the vocabulary of the spiritual life, few words are so badly understood today.
For the word "pure" has shrunk. Our age hears it scarcely in any sense but a sexual one — "to stay pure" would mean to abstain — or a hygienic one — a pure product, pure water. So "purity of heart" is spontaneously filed under sexual morality, as a genteel synonym for chastity; or else it is imagined as an absence: having no bad thoughts, feeling nothing troubled, keeping a sort of childhood innocence that life has not yet spoiled.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me." — Psalm 51:10[3]
In the Catholic tradition, however, purity of heart is far broader and far more positive than that. The Catechism describes it as the attuning of intellect and will to the holiness of God, "chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith"[4]. It is first the simplicity of a unified heart, without duplicity, wholly turned toward God — a heart that serves no "two masters"[5]. Far from being an absence, it is the condition of a presence: "purity of heart is the precondition of the vision"[6].
This article reviews the most frequent misunderstandings about purity of heart, grouped according to whether they concern its nature, the combat by which it is won, or the promise that crowns it ("they shall see God"). For each, it states the error in its current formulation, shows why it appeals, why it is false, then recalls what the Church truly teaches. This is not an article about chastity: chastity is only one of the three areas of purity of heart, and its own misunderstandings are treated elsewhere — see Common Mistakes About Chastity. Here, as in the twin articles of the series — Common Mistakes About Temperance and Common Mistakes About Interior Silence — we clear the ground: first learning to recognize counterfeit coins in order to better receive the true gold.
Why is purity of heart so misunderstood?
A biblical word reduced to sexual morality
The first misunderstanding is one of reduction. Purity of heart, in Scripture and in the Catechism, is a broad concept: it touches everything in man that can turn toward God or away from Him. But the modern ear, as soon as it hears "purity," thinks at once and exclusively of sexuality. "Having a pure heart" is then confused with "being chaste," and the expression is taken for a pious euphemism for abstinence.
Yet the Catechism is explicit: the "pure in heart" are those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness "chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith"[7]. Chastity is thus only one of the three areas — framed by charity on one side and love of truth on the other. A perfectly continent man who remains hard, deceitful or idolatrous of himself has not thereby a "pure heart"; while a tender, truthful, upright heart is already engaged in the purity the beatitude praises. Saint Paul said as much when he joined the three: "whereas the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith"[8].
"Whereas the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith." — Saint Paul, First Letter to Timothy 1:5[9]
The "heart" of the Bible is not feeling
Second misunderstanding, deeper: the word "heart" is heard in its romantic, modern sense — the seat of emotions, the organ of feelings. "Having a pure heart" would then mean experiencing fine sentiments, having only kindly impulses, feeling benevolent. Purity slides toward a matter of felt experience.
But the biblical "heart" is something else entirely. It means the centre of the person, the place of deep decisions, where man stands before God and chooses. The Catechism says it plainly: "The heart is the seat of moral personality"[10]. That is why Jesus makes it the source of all, the best as well as the worst:
"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander." — Jesus, Gospel according to Saint Matthew 15:19[11]
Purity of heart is therefore not the purity of feelings but the purity of that deciding centre: a heart whose intentions, choices and gaze are attuned to God. One may have a pure heart while passing through painful feelings, and have it soiled beneath fine sentiments. Everything is decided in the deep orientation of the person, not in the weather of emotions.
Errors about the nature of purity of heart
"Purity of heart is sexual purity"
This is the queen of errors, already glimpsed: to be pure in heart would be to be chaste, full stop. The sixth beatitude is identified lock, stock and barrel with sexual mastery, and it is concluded that a continent single person, or a faithful spouse, possesses the "pure heart" by the sole fact of continence. The error appeals because it simplifies: it reduces a vast requirement to one easily spotted area.
But that is to confuse the part with the whole. Chastity, the Catechism teaches, is one of the paths of the combat for purity — the one that makes it possible "to love with upright and undivided heart"[12] — but it does not exhaust purity of heart, which also includes charity and love of truth[13]. Reducing one to the other produces two mirror-image illusions: believing one's heart pure because one does not sin against chastity, while keeping a hard, double or deceitful heart; and conversely, despairing of ever having a "pure heart" because of one's sexual struggles, whereas purity is also worked at through truth and love. The misunderstandings proper to chastity — confusing it with prudishness, with repression, with an affair for singles — are treated in Common Mistakes About Chastity; they are not repeated here.
"Having a pure heart means having no bad thoughts or temptations"
An inward variant, very widespread among delicate souls: purity of heart would require that no bad thought, no troubling image, no temptation ever cross the mind again. So long as one is assailed by unwelcome thoughts, one would believe oneself impure. The error appeals because it takes seriously Christ's word about the thoughts that come out of the heart[14]: if evil comes from the heart, should not a pure heart be empty of all evil?
But that is to confuse temptation with sin, and trial with defeat. The baptized, the Catechism recalls, "must continue to struggle against concupiscence of the flesh and disordered desires"[15]: purity is not the absence of combat, it is the combat. A thought that arises is not yet consent; evil lies not in being tempted, but in complacency — "refusing all complacency in impure thoughts"[16]. The purest saints were the most tempted. Purity of heart is therefore not measured by the tranquillity of the imagination, but by the orientation of the will which, crossed by a thousand thoughts, refuses to linger on them and returns to God. On how not to confuse suffered temptation with consented fault, see also Common Mistakes About Chastity.
"Purity of heart is a natural innocence one keeps or loses"
An error of nostalgia: purity would be a native candour, a freshness the child would possess and the adult would have "lost" by growing up, sinning, coming to know evil. Once lost, it would be unrecoverable, like a virginity of the soul. The error appeals because it feeds on a true intuition — the innocence of childhood has something evangelical about it — and on sincere regret.
But Christian purity of heart is not a birth capital to be squandered: it is a gift of God which His grace can create and re-create at any age. Even the most laden sinner can cry with David: "Create in me a clean heart, O God"[17] — and the Catechism comments that God can "give spiritual life to sinners by creating a pure heart in them"[18], as He brought forth light from darkness. The word "create" is decisive: it is not a matter of restoring an old stock, but of receiving a new heart. Purity is therefore never definitively lost to whoever asks for it; it is offered in baptism, restored by penance, and ceaselessly renewed by grace. As for the innocence of "little children," the Catechism cites it not as a bygone age but as an attitude to take up again: "Continue in simplicity and innocence, and thou shalt be as little children, who know not the wickedness that destroyeth the life of men"[19].
"The pure heart is the cold heart, without desire or passion"
An error of caricature, which discourages the living: the pure person would be an extinguished being, without impulse, desire or passion — a sort of frozen ascetic who had killed all affectivity within. Purity would resemble amputation. The error appeals because it confuses mastery of desires with their extinction, and because certain rigorist presentations have indeed given purity a gloomy image.
But it is exactly the reverse. The Catechism binds purity to the capacity to love: chastity "lets us love with upright and undivided heart"[20]. The pure heart is not the one that no longer loves, but the one that loves better — with an undivided, non-possessive love that does not use others as instruments. The purity of vision the Catechism recommends does not close its eyes to the world: on the contrary, it learns to "accept others as neighbours" and to perceive "the human body... as a temple of the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of divine beauty"[21]. Far from cooling, purity warms and clarifies: it makes love possible by purifying it of covetousness. The purest hearts in history — the Virgin, the great saints — were not dry hearts but hearts ablaze.
Errors about the combat for purity
"Purity of heart is obtained by willpower alone"
A voluntarist error, inherited from a certain stoicism: it would suffice to grit one's teeth, discipline oneself hard enough, will energetically, to conquer a pure heart by one's own means. Purity would be a performance of the will. The error appeals because it flatters the pride of effort, and because the combat for purity truly demands firmness.
But the Church ranks purity among graces, not among exploits. The Catechism lists the means of the combat — chastity, purity of intention, purity of vision — but crowns them all with prayer[22], and cites in this connection Saint Augustine's decisive admission:
"I had thought continence to be a matter of my own strength, a strength I did not know in myself — and I was fool enough not to know... that no one can be continent unless Thou give it." — Saint Augustine, Confessions, VI, 11, 20[23]
Purity of heart is therefore not first seized but asked for: "Create in me a clean heart"[24]. Effort remains necessary — discipline of feelings and imagination, refusal of complacency[25] — but as cooperation with grace, not as solitary production. Believing one will make oneself pure by main force is the illusion that always precedes great falls; recognizing that one cannot without God is the beginning of true purity.
"Purity is a purely inward affair: gaze and body have nothing to do with it"
A disembodied error: since purity is "of the heart," it would be played out entirely within, owing nothing to the body, the eyes, gestures or manner of life. One might feed any gaze, consume any image, so long as "the heart stays pure." The error appeals because it looks profound: it despises outward "details" in the name of interiority.
But the Catechism holds inside and outside together. Purity of heart is also won "by purity of vision, external and internal; by discipline of feelings and of imagination"[26], and it calls for modesty, which "guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons"[27] and inspires even the choice of clothing. Wisdom warns that "appearance arouses yearning in fools"[28]: what the eye lets in works upon the heart. There is even, says the Catechism, a purity of the social climate to be promoted, which "brings freedom from widespread eroticism"[29]. Heart and body are not two watertight compartments: one does not keep a pure heart by surrendering one's eyes to everything. Modesty is not prudishness; as part of temperance[30], it is the concrete safeguard of the heart — a subject developed in Common Mistakes About Temperance.
"Only intention counts; what I look at is indifferent"
A variant of the preceding one, but inverted, and just as widespread: what would count is intention — if my intention is good, what I watch, read or consume does not matter. "Purity of intention" is invoked to disqualify all vigilance over one's gaze. The error appeals because it leans on a truth — intention is indeed decisive — which it immediately mutilates.
For the Catechism distinguishes two complementary purities, never opposed: "purity of intention," which "consists in seeking the true end of man" and in seeking "to find and to fulfill God's will in everything" with "simplicity of vision"; and "purity of vision," which disciplines the senses and refuses "all complacency in impure thoughts"[31]. One does not dispense with the other. Claiming that good intention covers everything is to forget that images and objects shape the heart in return, and that one does not long "seek" God with simplicity of vision while feeding one's gaze on what soils. True purity of intention includes custody of the eyes; separated from it, it is but an alibi.
"Purity of heart is reserved for consecrated persons and virgins"
An error of discouragement, which excludes lay people and spouses: purity of heart would be the appanage of monks, consecrated persons and virgins; married people, plunged in flesh and world, should give it up. The error appeals because it confuses purity of heart with physical virginity, and because it sounds humble ("it is not for me").
But the beatitude of pure hearts is promised to all: "Blessed are the pure in heart"[32], without distinction of state of life. The purity Christ praises is that of the "undivided" heart[33] — a heart that loves God above all — and it is accessible to spouse as to monk, in and through their respective states. It is even the very heart of the universal call to holiness: a father who loves with upright heart, who keeps truth and fidelity, lives purity of heart as truly as a contemplative. John Cassian, gathering the teaching of the desert Fathers, made it not the privilege of an elite but the goal of every life strained toward God:
"The end of our profession is the kingdom of God; our immediate aim and route by which to reach it is purity of heart, without which it is impossible to attain that end." — John Cassian, Conferences, First Conference (Abbot Moses)[34]
Fasting, vigils, solitude, Cassian adds, are but instruments at the service of this goal; the goal itself, purity of heart, is offered to whoever walks toward the Kingdom, whatever his path.
Errors about the promise: "they shall see God"
"Seeing God is only for after death"
An error of postponement: the promise "they shall see God" would concern only the hereafter; here below, purity of heart would be an effort without visible reward, its fruit awaiting heaven. The error appeals because it is partly true — the face-to-face vision is indeed reserved for glory[35] — and because it sounds modest.
But the Catechism insists: the promised vision begins even now. "Even now" the pure in heart are enabled "to see according to God, to accept others as 'neighbours'" and to perceive the body as "a temple of the Holy Spirit"[36]. The summary is lapidary: purity of heart "even now enables us to see things according to God"[37]. The more the heart is purified, the more it sees — it discerns God's presence in beings, in events, in the beauty of the world. Saint Irenaeus already marvelled at this promise which, humanly impossible, becomes possible by God for those who love Him:
"But according to His love and kindness towards men, and His almightiness, He grants even this to those who love Him, that is, to see God..., for that which is impossible with men is possible with God." — Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, IV, 20, 5[38]
Praise itself, the Catechism notes, "participates in the blessedness of the pure of heart who love him in faith before seeing him in glory"[39]. The reward is therefore not merely deferred: it is inaugurated, a clarity that grows as the heart is unified.
"The pure heart is naive: it does not see evil"
A last error, subtler: to be pure would be to be naive, not to see evil, to take everyone for good, to lack discernment. The pure person would be innocent in the pejorative sense — a being who understands nothing of the world's cunning. The error appeals because it wrongly opposes purity to lucidity.
But Scripture affirms exactly the contrary: purity enlightens the gaze. "To the pure all things are pure"[40], not because they close their eyes, but because their upright heart sees each thing according to its truth, without soiling it with covetousness or suspicion. Saint Thomas Aquinas moreover links the sixth beatitude to the gift of understanding: he distinguishes a twofold purity, that of the heart cleansed of disordered affections, and that of the mind "cleansed of phantasms and errors," disposing it to receive God's truth[41]. Saint Augustine had described this virtuous circle in which purity of heart opens the intelligence:
"By believing, they obey God; by obeying, they live well; by living well, they purify their hearts; and by purifying their hearts, they understand what they believe." — Saint Augustine, On Faith and the Creed[42]
The pure heart is therefore not blind to evil: it sees it better than anyone, precisely because it is not its accomplice. Its purity is not ignorance but transparency — a gaze nothing troubles any longer, able to see God in what others do not see.
"To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted." — Saint Paul, Letter to Titus 1:15[43]
Error and truth at a glance
The table below sums up the misunderstandings reviewed: on the left, the error in its current formulation; in the middle, what makes it false; on the right, what the Church truly teaches, with its source. It reads line by line, like a swift antidote to received ideas.
| Common error | Why it is false | What the Church teaches |
|---|---|---|
| Purity of heart is sexual purity | Reduces the whole to a part: chastity is only one of three areas | "Charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth" (CCC § 2518)[44] |
| Having a pure heart means having no temptation | Confuses suffered temptation with consented sin | The baptized "must continue to struggle"; evil lies in complacency (CCC § 2520)[45] |
| Purity is a natural innocence one loses | Confuses a birth capital with a gift ceaselessly re-created | "Create in me a clean heart, O God" (Ps 51:10; CCC § 298)[46] |
| The pure heart is cold, without desire | Confuses mastery of desire with its extinction | Purity makes it possible "to love with upright and undivided heart" (CCC § 2520)[47] |
| Purity is obtained by willpower alone | Forgets that purity is first a grace asked for | "No one can be continent unless Thou give it" (Augustine; CCC § 2520)[48] |
| Purity is purely inward | Separates the heart from the gaze and body that shape it | Purity "of vision, external and internal" and modesty (CCC §§ 2520–2521)[49] |
| Only intention counts, the gaze is indifferent | Opposes two purities the Church holds together | Purity "of intention" AND "of vision" (CCC § 2520)[50] |
| Purity of heart is reserved for consecrated persons | Confuses purity of heart with physical virginity | "Blessed are the pure in heart," a promise for all (Mt 5:8; Cassian)[51] |
| Seeing God is for after death only | Forgets that vision begins here below | "Even now... to see things according to God" (CCC §§ 2519, 2531)[52] |
| The pure heart is naive, it does not see evil | Wrongly opposes purity and lucidity | "To the pure all things are pure"; gift of understanding (Ti 1:15; Aquinas)[53] |
Purity, chastity, modesty, simplicity: do not confuse
Many errors come from blurred vocabulary, where one word is taken for another. A few classic distinctions suffice to dispel the fog. Purity of heart is the broadest reality: the attuning of the person's centre — intellect and will — to God's holiness, in the three areas of charity, chastity and love of truth[54]. It is first simplicity: a unified heart, undivided, serving no "two masters"[55] and not, as Saint James says, a heart of "double mind"[56].
Chastity is one of its three areas: the right integration of sexuality in the person, "according to each one's state." It serves purity of heart without being identified with it. Modesty, for its part, is neither purity nor chastity: it is their guardian, "an integral part of temperance"[57], protecting intimacy and guiding gazes and gestures. Lastly, "seeing God" is no vague metaphor: it is the promise proper to the beatitude — a vision that begins here below in faith and will be fulfilled face to face in glory[58]. These words are therefore not synonyms: purity of heart names the unification of the whole person in God; chastity is one of its areas; modesty, a safeguard; the vision of God, the promised fruit. For chastity taken in itself, see What the Saints Say About Chastity and How to Grow in Chastity.
Restoring purity of heart to its true greatness
Once the counterfeits are set aside, purity of heart appears in its light. Far from being mere abstinence, an absence of temptations, a lost candour or a gloomy coldness, it is the unification of the whole being around God — a heart made "simple," transparent, able to love without dividing itself and to see without being troubled. That is why Scripture makes it the condition for approaching God:
"Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false." — Psalm 24:3-4[59]
The pure heart is the man who "does not lift up his soul to what is false": not first the one who does not sin, but the one who has but one treasure, one master, one love. That is also why God, who "looks on the heart" when men "look on the outward appearance"[60], does not judge purity by the outside but by that inward unity.
It is lastly a greatness not conquered alone. Purity of heart is a gift to be asked for as much as a combat to be waged: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me"[61]. To whoever asks for it and seeks it, the Gospel promises the highest of rewards — the one toward which, Cassian said, all else is but a path[62]:
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." — Jesus, Gospel according to Saint Matthew 5:8[63]
This vision, already begun in faith, will be fulfilled in glory, where "we shall see him as he is"[64]. Such is the true greatness of purity of heart, the exact opposite of the caricatures that disfigured it: not a lack but a fullness, not a closing but a clarity — the unified heart which, already, begins to see God in all things.
Further reading
- Common mistakes about chastity — the twin article on the sexual area of purity: prudishness, repression, an ideal reserved for singles, the misunderstandings proper to chastity.
- Common mistakes about temperance — the virtue of which modesty is an integral part: mastery, right measure and common misunderstandings.
- Common mistakes about interior silence — the unified, inhabited heart: a twin theme of the heart's simplicity.
- What the saints say about chastity — the florilegium: the voice of Fathers, doctors and mystics on purity and the undivided heart.
- How to grow in chastity — the practical guide: concrete means for living purity day by day.
Notes and References
Gospel according to Saint Matthew 5:8, official liturgical translation: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Sixth of the Beatitudes. Cited by the Catechism of the Catholic Church as one of the expressions of the beatitude promised by God (§ 1720) and at the heart of the doctrine on purity of heart (§ 2518).
1 32 51 63Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1720: "The New Testament uses several expressions to characterize the beatitude to which God calls man: ... the vision of God: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Mt 5:8; cf. 1 Jn 3:2; 1 Cor 13:12)." The sixth beatitude identified with eternal beatitude itself.
2Psalm 51:10, official liturgical translation: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me." The Miserere, prayer of the penitent David. CCC § 298 comments that God can "give spiritual life to sinners by creating a pure heart in them."
3 17 24 46 61Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2518: "The sixth beatitude proclaims: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Mt 5:8). 'Pure in heart' refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity (cf. 1 Tim 4:3-9; 2 Tim 2:22), chastity or sexual rectitude (cf. 1 Thess 4:7; Col 3:5; Eph 4:19), love of truth and orthodoxy of faith (cf. Titus 1:15; 1 Tim 1:3-4; 2 Tim 2:23-26). There is a link between purity of heart, of body, and of faith." The paragraph cites Saint Augustine (On Faith and the Creed 10, 25): "by believing, they obey God; by obeying, they live well; by living well, they purify their hearts; and by purifying their hearts, they understand what they believe."
4 7 13 44 54Gospel according to Saint Matthew 6:24, official liturgical translation: "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Purity of heart as the heart "without division," serving but one master.
5 55Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2519: "'The pure in heart' are promised that they will see God face to face and will be like him (cf. 1 Cor 13:12; 1 Jn 3:2). Purity of heart is the precondition of the vision of God. Even now it enables us to see according to God, to accept others as 'neighbours'; it lets us perceive the human body, ours and our neighbour's, as a temple of the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of divine beauty."
6 21 36 52 58First Letter to Timothy 1:5, official liturgical translation: "Whereas the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith." Verse cited by the CCC (§ 1794, § 2518) to join purity of heart, uprightness of conscience and rectitude of faith.
8 9Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2517: "The heart is the seat of moral personality: 'Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication' (Mt 15:19). The struggle against carnal covetousness entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance." The text then cites the Shepherd of Hermas (see following note).
10Gospel according to Saint Matthew 15:19, official liturgical translation: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander." (cf. Mk 7:21). Verse cited by CCC § 2517 to establish that "the heart is the seat of moral personality."
11 14Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2520: "Baptism confers on its recipient the grace of purification from all sins. But the baptized must continue to struggle against concupiscence of the flesh and disordered desires. With God's grace he will prevail - by the virtue and gift of chastity, for chastity lets us love with upright and undivided heart; - by purity of intention which consists in seeking the true end of man: with simplicity of vision the baptized person seeks to find and to fulfill God's will in everything; - by purity of vision, external and internal; by discipline of feelings and of imagination; by refusing all complacency in impure thoughts...; - by prayer."
12 15 16 20 22 25 26 31 33 45 47 50Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 298: "Since God could create everything out of nothing, he can also, through the Holy Spirit, give spiritual life to sinners by creating a pure heart in them (cf. Ps 51:12), and bodily life to the dead through the Resurrection." Purity of heart as a new creation, not as the restoration of an old stock.
18The Shepherd of Hermas, Mandates 2, 1, cited by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2517: "Continue in simplicity and innocence, and thou shalt be as little children, who know not the wickedness that destroyeth the life of men." Purity of heart as recovered simplicity, not as the innocence of a bygone age.
19Saint Augustine, Confessions, Book VI, ch. 11, no. 20, cited by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2520: "I had thought continence to be a matter of my own strength, a strength I did not know in myself — and I was fool enough not to know... that no one can be continent unless Thou give it. And Thou wouldst indeed have given it, had I but knocked at Thine ears with my inward groaning." Purity recognized as a gift of God, not as a conquest of human strength alone.
23 48Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2521: "Purity requires modesty, an integral part of temperance. Modesty protects the mystery of persons and their love. It encourages patience and moderation in loving relationships... It is discreet. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their union."
27 30 49 57Book of Wisdom 15:5, cited by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2520: "Appearance arouses yearning in fools." Scriptural foundation of "purity of vision" among the means of the combat for purity.
28Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2525: "Christian purity requires a purification of the social climate. It requires of the communications media that their presentations show concern for respect and restraint. Purity of heart brings freedom from widespread eroticism and avoids entertainment inclined to voyeurism and illusion."
29John Cassian (c. 360–435), Conferences (Conlationes), First Conference with Abbot Moses, "The goal and end of the monk": "The end of our profession is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven; but our immediate aim, our route by which to reach it, is purity of heart, without which it is impossible to attain that end." Cassian distinguishes the proximate aim (in Greek scopos: purity of heart, toward which all must tend) and the ultimate end (telos: the Kingdom); fasting, vigils and solitude are but instruments at the service of this aim.
34 62First Letter of Saint John 3:2, official liturgical translation: "Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." (cf. 1 Cor 13:12). The face-to-face vision reserved for glory, of which purity of heart is the precondition (CCC § 2519).
35 64Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2531 ("In brief"): "Purity of heart will enable us to see God: even now it enables us to see things according to God." The promised vision is both future (glory) and inaugurated (even here below).
37Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130–202), Against Heresies (Adversus Haereses), IV, 20, 5, cited by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1722: "'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' Assuredly, according to His greatness and His inexpressible glory, 'no man shall see God and live,' for the Father is incomprehensible; but according to His love and kindness towards men, and His almightiness, He grants even this to those who love Him, that is, to see God..., for that which is impossible with men is possible with God."
38Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2639: praise "participates in the blessedness of the pure of heart who love him in faith before seeing him in glory." The beatitude of the sixth beatitude thus begins even in the life of faith, through praise.
39Letter to Titus 1:15, official liturgical translation: "To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted." Verse referred to by CCC § 2518 in the area of love of truth.
40 43 53Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIa-IIae, q. 8 ("The gift of understanding"), a. 7: Thomas links the sixth beatitude — "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" — to the gift of understanding. He distinguishes a twofold purity: that of the heart, "cleansed of disordered affections" (the work of the virtues of the appetitive part), and that of the mind "cleansed of phantasms and errors," so that it receives without distortion what is set before it of God — a purity which "results from the gift of understanding." Purity of heart is thus ordered to a clearer vision of God, not to the blindness of naivety.
41Saint Augustine, On Faith and the Creed (De fide et symbolo) 10, 25 (PL 40, 196), cited by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2518: the faithful must believe the articles of the Creed "so that by believing, they may obey God; by obeying, may live well; by living well, may purify their hearts; and by purifying their hearts, may understand what they believe." Purification of heart opens the understanding of faith.
42Letter of Saint James 4:8, official liturgical translation: "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind." Impurity of heart is there named "double mind" — the exact opposite of the simplicity of the unified heart.
56Psalm 24:3-4, official liturgical translation: "Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false." The pure heart is defined there by unity of heart (lifting up one's soul to no idol) as much as by innocence of deeds.
59First Book of Samuel 16:7, official liturgical translation: "For the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." God judges purity by the inward unity of the heart, not by outward appearance.
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