Saint Nektarios of Pentapolis
Nothing is greater than a pure heart, because a heart like this makes itself throne of God. And what is more glorified than the throne of God? Of course nothing else. God says about those with pure heart: “I will dwell among them and I will walk among them and I will be their God and they will be my people.”(1)
Therefore, who is happier than these people? And what kind of good will they be lacking ? Aren’t found in their blessed souls all the good things and charisms of the Holy Spirit? What else do they want? Nothing else. Nothing else indeed. For in their hearts they have the greatest good of all: God himself.
How wrong are the people who seek happiness far from themselves, in foreign countries and in travels, in wealth and glory, in big fortunes and luxuries, in pleasures and in all riches and vanity, whose end is bitterness. Building the tower of happiness outside our heart is like building an edifice on a ground that is ceaselessly shaken by earthquakes. Such a building will soon collapse to the ground…
My brothers! Happiness lies within each one of you and happy is the man who understood this. Search your heart and see what’s its spiritual state. Didn’t it lose its audacity to God? Doesn’t your conscience rebuke you for violating God’s commandments? Doesn’t it accuse you for injustice, lies, the neglection of your duties towards God and towards your neighbor? See if your heart did not fill itself to the brim with wickedness and passions, if it did not slip on crooked and impassable paths.
Unfortunately, that one who neglected his own heart deprived himself of all good things and fell in a lot of misdeeds. He drove away all gladness and filled himself with bitterness, grief and sorrow. He drove away peace and got anxiety, trouble and fear. He drove away love and got hate instead. He drove away all the charisms and gifts of the Holy Spirit he received at his christening and appropriated all evils that make man pitiful and three times villan.
My brothers! The most Merciful God wants happiness for us all, both in this life and in the other. That’s why He founded His Holy Church. To cleanse us of our sins, to sanctify us, to reconcile us with Him and give us the blessings of heaven.
The Church has its arms open to receive us. Let us run hastily, we all who have our conscience cluttered. Let us run, for the Church is ready to raise the weight of our burden, to give us audacity to God and to fill our hearts with happiness…
MAKE YOUR HEART A GARDEN OF VIRTUES AND NOT A DESERT OF PASSIONS.
(1) Corinthians 6-16
