Pure in Heart and the Beatific Vision

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8)
The "pure in heart" are those people who act with integrity and serve the Lord unselfishly. A pure heart is undefiled by evil and lustful thoughts and finds its true treasure in heaven. In eternity, the pure in heart will see God as the angels do even now (Matthew 18:10; 1 Corinthians 13:12; Revelation 22:4). Catholic theology calls this the Beatific Vision (CCC 2517-19 and also Pope Benedict XII's NENEDICTUS DEUS - see Appendices below with my emphasis).

I am trying to understand what this "Blessedness" (or "Happiness") is because it is my reason for wanting to remain "pure in heart" in everything I do. I know that money, sensual satisfaction, power etc buy some kind of happiness, at least briefly, but they are at best distractions, or at worst, eternal damnation. "Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever." (1 John 2:15-17). It seems to me that the happiness of "seeing God" has a lot to do with how much I know Him. It is at least as much an intellectual response as an emotional response of gratitude. "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known." (1 Cor 13:12). Peter Kreeft in his book "Practical Theology" (based on Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae) chapter 65: Happiness is the "Beatific Vision" explained:

(1) "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3) Therefore man's happiness consists in the knowledge of God, which is an act of the intellect. The delight that results from happiness pertains to the will. In this sense Augustine says that happiness is joy in truth.
(2) "Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is." (1 John 3:2) Final and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the divine essence.

(3) Love (desire) is the only vehicle that can get us there, and love (joy) is the song we will sing forever when we get there, but the glue that actually sticks us to God is knowing, seeing Him face to face. It's personal knowledge, of course, not theory; acquaintance, not description; experience, not expertise; God, not theology. But it's knowledge: the kind of knowledge Adam had of Eve (Gen 4:1).
(4) Ultimate knowing is the highest kind of loving and ultimate loving is the highest kind of knowing!

So practically, I pray that the Holy Spirit will teach me how to live a life of "purity of heart". I anticipate that I will know God more and more in this act of obedience. So when I see Him face to face, He won't be a stranger to me and I shall be perfectly happy!


Appendices:
Catechism of the Catholic Church
"2517 The heart is the seat of moral personality: "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication...." The struggle against carnal covetousness entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance: Remain simple and innocent, and you will be like little children who do not know the evil that destroys man's life.

2518 The sixth beatitude proclaims, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." "Pure in heart" refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith. There is a connection between purity of heart, of body, and of faith: The faithful must believe the articles of the Creed "so that by believing they may obey God, by obeying may live well, by living well may purify their hearts, and with pure hearts may understand what they believe."

2519 The "pure in heart" are promised that they will see God face to face and be like him. Purity of heart is the precondition of the vision of God. Even now it enables us to see according to God, to accept others as "neighbors"; it lets us perceive the human body - ours and our neighbor's - as a temple of the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of divine beauty."

Pope Benedict XII issued in 1336 the Apostolic Constitution called BENEDICTUS DEUS (On the Beatific Vision of God):

By this Constitution which is to remain in force for ever, we, with apostolic authority, define the following: According to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints who departed from this world before the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and also of the holy apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins and other faithful who died after receiving the holy baptism of Christ—provided they were not in need of any purification when they died, or will not be in need of any when they die in the future, or else, if they then needed or will need some purification, after they have been purified after death—and again the souls of children who have been reborn by the same baptism of Christ or will be when baptism is conferred on them, if they die before attaining the use of free will: all these souls, immediately (mox) after death and, in the case of those in need of purification, after the purification mentioned above, since the ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into heaven, already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgment, have been, are and will be with Christ in heaven, in the heavenly kingdom and paradise, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the passion and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and see the divine essence with an intuitive vision and even face to face, without the mediation of any creature by way of object of vision; rather the divine essence immediately manifests itself to them, plainly, clearly and openly, and in this vision they enjoy the divine essence. Moreover, by this vision and enjoyment the souls of those who have already died are truly blessed and have eternal life and rest. Also the souls of those who will die in the future will see the same divine essence and will enjoy it before the general judgment.

Such a vision and enjoyment of the divine essence do away with the acts of faith and hope in these souls, inasmuch as faith and hope are properly theological virtues. And after such intuitive and face-to-face vision and enjoyment has or will have begun for these souls, the same vision and enjoyment has continued and will continue without any interruption and without end until the last Judgment and from then on forever.

(On hell and the general judgment)

Moreover we define that according to the general disposition of God, the souls of those who die in actual mortal sin go down into hell immediately (mox) after death and there suffer the pain of hell. Nevertheless, on the day of judgment all men will appear with their bodies "before the judgment seat of Christ" to give an account of their personal deeds, "so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body" (2 Cor. 5.10).

(Taken from "The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church", published by Alba House.) Provided Courtesy of: www.ewtn.com