Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matt. 5:48)

I’d like to make 4 quick points regarding this Gospel passage.

First, this is not an option. Revelation 21:27 tells us that nothing impure will enter heaven. So, perfection, holiness, is not an option. Before we enter heaven, we must become holy.

Second, holiness is not a matter of external practices. The ancient Jewish people took holiness very seriously. Leviticus 19:2 tells us “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” And the Jewish people took that seriously. The problem is they reduced holiness to external practices. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is saying that holiness is in the heart. Holiness is perfection in love. That’s what matters.

We know this even from human relationships. I could be a “good” husband in the sense that I do good things. I’m faithful to my wife, I do my part to provide a home; but my heart could be far away. Likewise, with my kids, I can do the external stuff like provide a home and make sure they’re fed and watered; but my heart can be focused on myself and what I want to do. That’s not love, and we know it, and Jesus is saying the same is true with God.

Third, perfection, in the sense that we never consciously sin, is possible. It is possible to love God so much, and hate sin so much, that we never consciously choose to say no to God. I heard Fr. Ripperger (brilliant exorcist with many talks on the spiritual life on Youtube) say one time that he was working with a woman who was possessed, and she went 6 months without deliberately committing a venial sin. Then, she fell, but, went to confession and got back on track. And she was possessed. So, perfection is possible.

Last point is that Jesus calls us to be perfect, but not a perfectionist. Perfectionism is an unhealthy obsession with perfection in which everything has to be perfect, and if it isn’t, it’s bad. We have to realize and accept that to be imperfect is to be human; that perfection doesn’t happen overnight.

Think of an Olympic gold-medalist in figure skating. Was she always so graceful and perfect on the ice? Of course not. It took years of practice and there were many falls along the way. But she got up and kept striving. The same is true in our spiritual life. We strive for perfection, we strive to be truly loving, and it will take years to get there, and there will be many falls along the way, but we get up and keep going.

So, brothers and sisters, keep striving. No matter what, keep getting up and trying, and remember that we have something the figure skater doesn’t have. We have God who is working in us. He wants us to be great lovers and He helps us with His grace, and as long as we keep striving, He will make it happen.  

God bless you all!