When thinking about the spiritual life, frequently we can be tempted to think of it in abstract terms.
While those terms may be helpful at times to define certain spiritual realities, they may not fully click or make sense in our brain or heart.
Iron and the spiritual life
St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote in a homily about the spiritual life and used iron as an example and illustration:
Take a piece of iron as an illustration. Although it might have been black before, once the rust has been scraped off with a whetstone, it will begin to shine brilliantly and to reflect the rays of the sun. So it is with the interior man, which is what the Lord means by the heart.
He then continues his comparison by explaining how our own spiritual cleansing can better reflect the grace of God within us:
Once a man removes from his soul the coating of filth that has formed on it through his sinful neglect, he will regain his likeness to his Archetype, and be good. For what resembles the supreme Good is itself good. If he then looks into himself, he will see the vision he has longed for. This is the blessedness of the pure in heart: in seeing their own purity they see the divine Archetype mirrored in themselves.
The sacrament of confession is seen as the most effective way to remove the "coating of filth" that may have formed on our soul through our sins.
At the same time, confession is only the beginning as we can only reflect God's goodness if we repeatedly return to God and form our lives in his image.
St. Gregory continues his reflection by explaining how we need to fashion our lives after Jesus' example:
For God is purity; he is free from sin and a stranger to all evil. If this can be said of you, then God will surely be within you. If your mind is untainted by any evil, free from sin, and purified from all stain, then indeed are you blessed, because your sight is keen and clear. Once purified, you see things that others cannot see. When the mists of sin no longer cloud the eye of your soul, you see that blessed vision clearly in the peace and purity of your own heart.
In order to live more like Jesus, we need to first remove that which clouds our soul so that we can better reflect the purity of Christ.
