11TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. 

According to the dictionary, “perfect” means “entirely without flaw or defect, meeting supreme standards of excellence, satisfying all requirements.”   To which many of us would respond, “Really, Lord?   I’m struggling just to hold my life together!   Now you want me to be perfect?   That’s impossible.”

One reason that perfection can seem so unattainable is that it sounds like an either-or proposition: you’re either perfect or you’re not.   But as Scripture scholars point out, the Greek word translated as “perfect” in Matthew 5:48 carries a more dynamic meaning.   It indicates something you are always growing into—a process of becoming whole and complete.   From this perspective, we can imagine Jesus saying, “Don’t stop! Keep working on becoming the person I created you to be.   Don’t settle for anything less than the holiness that comes from wholeness!”   The more you become the unique person God made you to be, the more you will resemble Jesus, the perfect One.

So how do you grow into this perfection?   Self-improvement programs won’t produce the right kind of change, and neither will piling on acts of self-denial and spiritual calisthenics.   It comes as you work on using your talents and gifts in a way that glorifies the Lord and lifts up the people around you.   It comes as you focus on one or two roadblocks in your life and ask for Jesus’ grace to help you resolve them:  a lingering resentment, an unhealthy habit, or a skewed way of thinking about life.

Today, ask Jesus how he wants you to grow into the perfection he has set aside for you.   Let him shine the light of his love on your heart.   Let him show you both the person you’re meant to be and the person you are right now.   Then come up with one or two things you can do to help bridge the gap between these two visions.

Blessed John Henry Newman once said, “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”   As you seek to hear and follow Jesus, may you change—and often—day after blessed day!

“Jesus, I trust that you are leading me to wholeness and holiness!”

1 Kings 21:17-29
Psalm 51:3-6, 11, 16