The Sermon on the Mount (Bossuet)/Day 7
Seventh Day
SIXTH BEATITUDE
To be clean of heart. — Matt. v. 8.
BLESSED are the clean of heart.’ Who can tell the beauty of a pure heart? A spotless mirror — a piece of perfectly refined gold — a diamond of the purest water — an absolutely clear fountain — none of them equal the beauty and the cleanness of a pure heart. To produce such a heart, every bit of dirt must be removed: — and especially all that comes from the pleasures of sense, for one drop from the cup of these pleasures will disturb this beautiful fountain. How lovely, how truly ravishing even, is the untroubled stream of an unspotted heart! God takes pleasure in seeing Himself reflected in it, as in a highly-polished glass, in all His beauty; and, piercing it with His rays, He makes the mirror itself appear all resplendent as a sun. God’s own purity then becomes united to that which He Himself has worked in us; and our illuminated sight beholds Him shining within our souls and lighting them up with an everlasting radiance. 'Blessed,' therefore, ' are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.' [1]
Let us love chastity above all other virtues, for it is she who makes the heart pure. In every object that attracts our love let us see a danger of sullying our hearts, or of plunging them deeper in the very mire whence we should make every effort to snatch them.
'Blessed is the pure in heart, for he shall see God.’ The last two words alone are enough for the soul to feed upon for a whole day. 'He shall see God ’: — that is, he shall behold all charity, all beauty, all perfection; goodness itself — the source of all goodness — all goodness in one, as He Himself has declared. 'I will show thee all good,’ [2] He said to Moses, when He talked with him in the tabernacle. To see so perfect an object, and to love it, are one and the same thing. The man who is pure in heart, then, will behold and love; but he will also be loved; he will sing the praises of God whom he is to see and love for ever. He will be filled with the abundance of his dwelling-place, and intoxicated with the torrent of his delights. Happy being! But this can only be for the pure in heart, and hence he is blessed. Let him, then, who is not pure hasten to come forth from the slough wherein he lies wallowing; let him wash off the filthy stains that degrade and disfigure him!