102 At the Heart of the Gospel

Chapter 5
that preliminary stage in order to reclaim something of the
original good of the divine vision? The teaching of John Paul II THE GREAT ANALOGY OF SPOUSAL
is clear: "With the passage of time, if we persevere in LOVE
following Christ our Teacher, we feel less and less burdened by
the struggle against sin" (MI, p. 29) and we come to discover The Prophets describe God’s passion for his people using
"a pure way of looking at others, capable of respecting the boldly erotic images.
Pope Benedict XVI (DC 9)
spousal meaning of the body" (VS IS).

"Custody of the eyes may sometimes be a sensible The central proclamation of John Paul II's TOB is that the

prudential tactic," writes Father Simon Tugwell, "but it is a body, precisely in the "great mystery" of its creation as male

doubtful philosophy of life. We shall not see God the more and female and the call of the two to become "one flesh," was

clearly for narrowing our vision. Purity of heart clarifies created by God to be the primordial sign of his own "Great

vision ... Where cynicism sees through all that is beautiful and Mystery": his eternal exchange of Love and our destiny to

good and simple, to find murkiness within, purity of heart sees share in that exchange through the holy nuptials of Christ's

through ugliness and sin and pain and failure to find God union with the Church. The tragedy of sin, however, is that-

within" (BSCT, P: 103). "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they subjectively speaking-the body "loses its character as a sign"

shall see God." (TOB 40:4). Blinded by sin, we no longer see and experience
the body as the primordial revelation of the divine plan of love.

Oh, God, take us into your fire, transform our desire; grant us Rather, we see and experience the body primarily as an object

purity of heart! St. Joan of Arc, pray for us! that arouses concupiscence.
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