the 6th beatitude

Blessed are the Clean of Heart for they will see God.

Being clean of heart means having the right motives and intentions in the things you do! As a Catholic Christian, you should always make sure that you are doing things for the right reasons. In order to do this you must learn to examine yourself closely when you are making tough decisions. You should also constantly evaluate your actions in order to make sure you are doing what God wants instead of what you want. Two questions you should always ask yourself to determine whether or not you are doing things for the right reasons are;

“Am I seeking God’s glory through my actions or am I seeking glory for myself?”

And;

“Are my actions meant to lift someone up or help someone? Or are my actions meant to hurt or degrade somebody.”

It is important to remember that if your actions are selfish, self seeking or motivated by jealousy or anger, then you are not clean of heart. This beatitude clearly teaches that if you are not “clean of heart” then you will not “see God”. In order to be clean of heart, you have to be spiritually strong enough to evaluate your motives (reasons) for doing things. In order to be spiritually strong enough to do this, you need to be living the first 5 beatitudes. Once the first five be-attitudes are in place, only then are you able to truthfully evaluate the motivation behind the things you do. Think about that for a minute. How can you truthfully evaluate your actions and your intentions if you are missing any of the first five be-attitudes? You can’t.

To be a disciple of Jesus Christ you must have pure intentions in all you do and seek forgiveness when you do not. This may seem like asking a lot. But remember, Jesus expects us to do our best to follow Him and that means doing things for the right reasons. Does this mean everything we ever do from here on out will be perfect? NO! But as Christians we must do our best to think before we act and for those times when we fail to do this, we can seek God’s forgiveness and help.

Until Next Time,
Be Proud to Be Catholic!

Pete