The pure in heart
History loses our interest if we sense it is being used to
programme us in the present. The past is not allowed to stand on its own feet;
it is reduced to being an appendage of a present agenda. But if we can take a
past event for a moment “in itself,” it can throw its own light on the present.
Take, for instance, an event that has no conceivable bearing on our situation.
About seventy years ago the Germans sent the biggest battleship ever built, Bismarck, into the Atlantic to hunt down
enemy merchant and warships. When the British learnt of it they sent the
biggest ships they had to confront the giant on the ocean. The British
battleship, Hood, was no match for Bismarck and was blown to pieces and
1400 lost their lives. There were three survivors.
These are the facts. They do not speak of the feelings of
the sailors who faced each other that terrible day. Both sides knew that it was
either them or us. There was no escape. Before the war the British and the
Germans visited each other’s countries, socialised together and intermarried.
Now they were locked in a conflict where you either killed or were killed. If
we have never been in such a situation can we begin to imagine the feelings of
terror and the effort needed overcome these feelings and “do one’s duty.” It is
the worst of situations and yet strangely it brings out the best and most noble
in human nature. Everything is stripped away and you are left with only life or
death.
When Jesus talks of the “poor in spirit who will inherit
heaven” and the “pure in heart who will see God” he is talking of those who
strip away everything that gets in the way of their relationship with God. When
you are staring at the barrel of a huge gun aimed in your direction I suspect
it clarifies one’s thoughts. It is a peak human experience but peaks only exist
because they are the most visible part of the mountain. Peak or intense
experiences are the high points of a multitude of other more ordinary ones.
In November each year there is a moment when we remember all
those who have died; those who have reached the presence of God and those who –
in some mysterious way we don’t understand – are still on the way. But whatever
their state they certainly have clarity. Now they know. Now they see. As we
remember them and pray for them and with them we recall that we are the same as
them. We have had similar experiences – peaks and troughs. In the midst of our
many feelings and experiences we search for clarity. If we search for a purity
that enables us to see, we are blessed.
3 November 2013 Feast
of All Saints and All Souls
Rev 7:2-4, 9-14 1
John 3:1-3 Matt 5: 1-12
