Purity of Heart (TOB 43:5)

I read John Paul II’s Theology of the Body (TOB) a few years ago (when I first moved to San Diego) and I have to admit, a lot of it went over my head. I had already been deeply moved by quite a few talks and books by Christopher West (which was my main motivation for diving into the source document) but I found the work, as a whole to be a bit beyond my comprehension and patience. Even so, there were a handful of passages that really stuck out to me. Recently, I opened it up randomly to TOB 39 and started reading. Wouldn’t you know that this is the part where JP II reflects on Mathew 5:28 “Whoever looks with a woman to desire her has already committed adultery in his heart.” That has always been a pretty convicting bible verse, and I remember all the discussions from Christopher West pointing out the salvific power of them as well, but later as I was reading the conclusion of that section of TOB, a specific quote from JPII struck me (I had already underlined it the first time I read it, but I guess it had slipped my mind).

 ‎“‘Purity of heart’ is gained by one who knows how to be consistently demanding toward his ‘heart’: toward his ‘heart’ and toward his ‘body’. (TOB 43:5)