SINS ARE STRONG ONLY IN THE DARKNESS
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God [Matt. 5, 8].
The purity of heart is based on mercy. A selfish person or a miser will never feel the bliss called the purity of heart, and they will never be able to build its sixth level of the Paradise Spiritual Pyramid because they failed to build the fifth one without having mercy. Abraham was full of mercy, and it helped him clean his heart and with his pure heart he saw the Lord...
Why is it said about the purity of heart, not the purity of soul? Because the heart is the centre of the soul: thoughts come from the heart, desires live in the heart, all passions nest in the heart. That's why it was advised: «My Son! Keep your heart most of all, for it is the source of life» [Prov. 4; 20, 23].
As long as the core of a tree is good, the branches can freely whip the trunk, however a good shape of branches and abundance of leaves are useless, if the core is eaten by worms. Symeon the New Theologian called sins worms. Sins for a man are the same as worms-grinders for a tree. The strongest sins are secret sins. They eat the heart more than others. Worms disposed in the sun die. If you tell at least one person about your sins, you’ll be forgiven; your sins will be gone. Both worms and sins are strong only in the darkness.
As long as David strictly followed the Law of God, he spoke with the Lord and easily obeyed the Will of God. However, as soon as he broke the Law of God, the Lord stopped talking to him in private and started speaking to him through other prophets.
A pure heart is a mirror which the Lord likes to look into. God wrote His great and terrible Name everywhere, and His presence is visible in any secret of nature. He reveals Himself without secrets only in a pure heart. That is how a man can rise above his nature! What glory and joy it is for the people who are honored to have the Creator as a Guest in the gorge of their heart! It is great happiness for people. And those, who did not witness the manger of Bethlehem and did not see how great the Love of God could be, can hardly believe it.
The man can rise and fall, but God cannot rise – He only can deign. God has nowhere to rise above Himself. And the man is given the opportunity to soar above himself and to rise to the heights of the Divine. Because of our weakness the man falls down, but by the Power of God he rises. The only thing the man has to do is prepare their heart by cleaning it from minor and major sins. And Love of God will do the rest of the job.
The heart is purified by faith, hope and love; by fear of God and expectation of death and the Judgment Day; by amazing with creatures created by the Majesty and power of the Creator; by the test of God's Providence; by patience and meekness, and so on. But even if the heart has been purified with all these tools, there is still a smell of the earth, sin and death. It stays there until the Holy Spirit, like the wind from the Heavens, do not air it – and, like lightning, doesn’t fill it with ozone. The fathers of the Church claim:, «We can finally say that the heart has been purified, when even the memories of the sin will disappear».
Purity of heart is like a rock crystal and the sixth level of the Paradise Spiritual Pyramid rises from it. The light of the Heaven passes through the transparent walls without obstacles. There is not a slightest trace of dirt of sin, and nothing prevents the Heaven from covering all the parts of the soul on this level.
Oh, Christian, when you enter the Kingdom of God, the state of your soul will amaze the most purist angels of the Lord, babies, whom the Lord called early, and virgins who in their girlhood crossed a bridge of death in Paradise. You meet all of them at the level of purity, and together you will enjoy the contemplation of the Face of the Lord.
St. Nicholas Serbian
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