pure of heart...

Familiarity breeds contempt. You have heard this saying time and again. Let us reflect on this saying with the Lord.

In the town where Jesus lived, His neighbors were so familiar with Him. They knew His father was a carpenter and they knew that Jesus was one, too.

Thus it was not easy for them to accept the transformation of Jesus- from a carpenter who got paid for practicing his trade, to a prophet who performed miracles for free.

To the people in His town, Jesus was just like any one of them- simple and ordinary. And as such Jesus could not be the prophet, much less be the son of God.

But while Jesus was like all of us in everything, He was not an ordinary mortal. Jesus was sinless. There is something beyond the ordinary in Him- something which His own neighbors failed to see.

What is the difference? It is one word: PURITY. Purity of heart. It is only the pure of heart who can go beyond the ordinary, to see the Divine.

Only the pure of heart can see the work of God in every flower.
Only the pure of heart can see the work of God in the street children.
Only the pure of heart can see God in the simplicity, in the ordinariness, in the routine of day-to-day life.

Without purity of heart, life becomes boring, life becomes burdensome. Life becomes very heavy for us. But if we are blessed with purity of heart, we can look and see that beyond the ordinary is Jesus Christ.

We will ask the Lord today, as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for this grace- for purity of heart so that we may be able to look beyond the ordinary and see the wonders of God's being.

Let us pray to the Lord for a purity of heart so that we can look beyond the ordinary and see the beauty of God's love for us.

Beyond the ordinary is the love of God made present in all of us.