Focusing on the sixth beatitude, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matthew 5:8), the pope said: "The pure of heart live in the presence of the Lord, preserving in the heart what is worthy of the relationship with Him; only in this way does it possess an intimate, 'unified' life, linear, not tortuous but simple."
"The purified heart is thus the result of a process that implies liberation and renunciation. The pure of heart is not born such, he has experienced an inner simplification, learning to deny evil within itself, something which in the Bible is called 'circumcision of the heart.'"
"This inner purification implies the recognition of that part of the heart which is under the influence of evil, in order to learn the art of always allowing oneself to be taught and led by the Holy Spirit. And so, through this path of the heart, we come to 'see God.'"
When we "see God," he explained, we recognize God's presence in the Church's sacraments and in our fellow human beings, especially the needy.
"In this beatific vision there is a future dimension, eschatological, as in all the beatitudes: it is the joy of the Kingdom of Heaven towards which we are going," he said.
"But there is also the other dimension: to see God means to understand the plans of Providence in what happens to us, to recognize his presence in the Sacraments, in our brothers and sisters, especially the poor and suffering, and to recognize him where he manifests himself."