​I was called to the ER at Providence Hospital to minister to a wife whose husband was shot in the head. A drug deal went bad. The surgeon removed the bullet. The man survived, but what type of person would emerge?

Several days later, the wife asked for my help. What she told me opened my mind to a far deeper understanding of the human heart than I ever had before.

She said, “I am so confused. I don’t know what to do. I was in the process of divorcing him. He changed as the years went by in our marriage. He abused me emotionally, often becoming angry and downright mean. He ran around with the wrong crowd that got him shot. But after the brain injury, he has completely changed. My husband is kind to me, telling me every day how much he loves me and how wonderful I am. He has gone back to the person with a good heart I fell in love with and married twenty years ago. Today, he has no memory of ever being mean to me or taking drugs. The years of pain he caused me no longer exist in his mind. They still exist in mine. I don’t know what to do.”

This experience taught me that God creates us with good hearts, but our fallen world contaminates our hearts making them impure. The spiritual battle against Satan is to keep your heart pure so you can see God. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8) What is purity of heart?

Purity of heart is a total, uncompromising desire to please God every day in all ways. You live what you believe and believe what you live without cutting corners. That means no hypocrisy. Jesus told the Pharisees who judged others, “You hypocrites! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:42)

How do you acquire a pure heart? It is the grace of God that cleans your soul. The Word of God says, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)

This doesn’t mean you sit back and do nothing. You have to fight against Satan whose work is to put an impurity into your heart. Your job is to find out if any impurity has gotten into your heart and ask God to protect you from it.

The best way to describe this protection is the oyster. If an irritant sneaks into the soft tissue of an oyster shell, the oyster “covers it over” with layers of a hard substance called “mother of pearl.” The beauty of a pearl is created when an oyster surrounds the impurity with a protective coating. God surrounds you with His Holy Spirit to protect the beauty of your clean heart, free from sin.

Two virtues are necessary to help you maintain your heart’s purity: Honesty and Humility. They are the cornerstones of a pure heart. Honesty helps you to “keep it real.” Does what I say and do agree with what Jesus would say and do? Humility helps you to see you need God’s help in everything. Jesus is the guardian of your heart.

“But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.” (2 Thessalonians 3:3)

Did you know there is a patron saint for purity of heart? It is Saint Gemma. She died in 1903 at age 25 from tuberculosis. People made fun of her for her piety. Her heart was so one with the Heart of Jesus that when she prayed before a crucifix, her body would lift off the ground. They didn’t make fun of her after seeing that. St. Gemma would pray, “To come to heaven requires purity of heart: give it to me, my Jesus.”

You will be happy to know there is a happy ending for the wife whose husband was shot in the head. She decided to stay with him. She said, “It was a miracle. We got to start all over again.” I do not recommend that any wives shoot your husband, though at times you may feel like it. Blessings…Fr. Mike