What does it mean to be perfect? The gospel says, “Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5 : 48 ). Surely it doesn’t mean that you are to be as perfect as God. That would be tantamount to saying you can become God, capable of doing no wrong.

Jesus was the Son of God without sin, yet he called weak human beings like us to follow him. No matter how good you become, there can only be one Jesus. You will always have to struggle with sin. St Paul had to endure a “thorn in the flesh,” which reminded him of his human weakness, and taught him an important lesson that power is perfected in weakness.

The Pharisees, in Jesus’ day, were Perfectionists. They regarded themselves as Perfect because they observed all the rules and dictates of the law. But, they were not perfect. They only thought they were. It is possible to observe all the commandments and not be perfect in the eyes of God. Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee and a Publican who went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee kept all the commandments, and thought himself perfect in comparison to the Publican who was a known-sinner. The Publican could only beat his breast and say, “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.” Jesus said the Publican left the temple more justified than the Pharisee. Why? Because the Pharisee kept the commandments in the wrong way. He was arrogant whereas the Publican was “poor in spirit.” It was his humility that found favor with God.

Christians are not called to be Perfectionists. They are called to be faithful to a better way of life by following Jesus. They may fall by the wayside, give into the “works of the flesh,” find it a difficult struggle at times, but still strive to be like Jesus in spite of human weakness.

The call to perfection in Matthew, chapter 5 must be viewed as progress towards perfection. Jesus rejects the static righteousness of those who base perfection on the observance of laws or rules because we can never possess a status of divine perfection. We are privileged to follow the way shown by Jesus in the Gospel.

We only reach perfection when we are admitted into Heaven and all our sins are washed away, and when we are found worthy to see God face to face.

Jesus came to free us from the burden of the law. Let us not replace one burden with another: the burden of the law with the burden of being perfect. Strive to follow the example of Jesus who came, not to condemn us, but to redeem us of our sins, and show us the way.

This is what it means to be perfect: to strive to follow Jesus’s way of love.

“Love one another as I have loved you….
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples” (John 13:34-35).

—Fr. Hugh Duffy