Purification of the heart

In those days, Saul went down to the desert of Ziph with three thousand picked men of Israel, to search for David in the desert of Ziph. So David and Abishai went among Saul’s soldiers by night and found Saul lying asleep within the barricade, with his spear thrust into the ground at his head and Abner and his men sleeping around him. 

Abishai whispered to David: “God has delivered your enemy into your grasp this day. Let me nail him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I will not need a second thrust!” But David said to Abishai, “Do not harm him, for who can lay hands on the LORD’s anointed and remain unpunished?” So David took the spear and the water jug from their place at Saul’s head, and they got away without anyone’s seeing or knowing or awakening. All remained asleep, because the LORD had put them into a deep slumber. 

Going across to an opposite slope, David stood on a remote hilltop at a great distance from Abner, son of Ner, and the troops. He said: “Here is the king’s spear. Let an attendant come over to get it. The LORD will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness. Today, though the LORD delivered you into my grasp, I would not harm the LORD’s anointed.” Just as I regarded your life as precious today, so may the Lord regard my life as precious and deliver me from all dangers.” Then Saul said to David: “Blessed are you, my son David! You shall certainly succeed in whatever you undertake.” David went his way, and Saul returned to his place. (1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-25)

Recently in mass we heard from the first book of Samuel how David spared Saul’s life. David stood over Saul while the king and his men slept, and rather than using Saul’s spear to kill him David took it as evidence to later show Saul his life was spared by the Lord. There is much to consider about these actions. The Lord didn’t just give David a moment of inspiration to make this choice (of sparing Saul’s life). David’s heart would have needed to be prepared for this moment. The gift of the Holy Spirit of Wisdom is the overflow of love from the heart into the intellect, purifying it. For David to be capable of speaking and acting with such wisdom, his heart would first have been purified.  

What is purification of the heart? It is the uncovering of one’s own motives in a choice or action. Parsing that out, we can give those motives that center on our own needs to God, asking Him to fill these needs instead. Then our heart is prepared to receive the fullness of God’s love and share it with others. Our knowledge of His truth is perfected which motivates us to act only in His love for His Will. As Christians actively seeking to please and serve God, we seek to do what we understand is right. But our understanding is clouded by our woundedness which produces underlying motives that serve us. In David’s case, human wisdom would have told him to kill his enemy. After all, David had been fleeing for his life and the lives of those who accompanied him (and by extension, the well-being of their families too). The judicial laws of his time would permit this act of self-defense. Day in, day out, Saul hunted David. Consider the bitterness and anger toward Saul that could naturally build up in David. He would have needed to be healed of any unforgiveness of Saul for his heart to be ready to take such as strong act. 

These gifts of the Spirit actuated in us by grace can only do so to the extent that our hearts are prepared to receive it for “whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver” (St. Thomas Aquinas). The purification gives us capacity to cooperate with grace. And though in our daily life we are not being hunted down by powerful people who aim to kill us, we do interact with people whose brokenness can touch our own in a painful way. Examining this and talking with God about your own underlying motives creates opportunity for Him to heal and strengthen your heart, giving it capacity to receive and act in His love. Just as for David, “the LORD had put them into a deep slumber”…trust in the Lord to bring peace into your own circumstances too. 

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam 😊

(Image by Carlo Bellosio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)