Friday, January 20, 2012 and Saturday, January 21, 2012

Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5:48

What does this teaching of Christ in Matthew 5:48 mean? Surely it doesn’t mean that you are to be as perfect as your Heavenly Father! That would be tantamount to saying that you can become God, capable of doing no wrong. Only God, as Jesus told the rich young man in Luke 18:19, is good. Yet, Jesus called this rich young man to a life of perfection asking him to sell his possessions; give them to the poor; and to follow Him (Luke 18:19).

Jesus was perfect in every way because He was the Son of God and because He was without sin; yet He calls weak human beings like us to follow Him. No matter how good you become, there can be only one Jesus. You will always have to struggle with sin. St Paul had to endure a “thorn in the flesh” to remind himself of his human weakness, and to learn 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 dictates of the law. But, they were not perfect. They only thought they were. Christians are not called to be perfectionists; they are called to follow Jesus: “No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27). We are called to a life of perfection by following Jesus. We may fall by the wayside; we may give into the “works of the flesh;” we may find it a difficult struggle at times; but we are still called to be like Jesus in spite of human weakness.

The call to perfection in Matthew, chapter 5:48 must be viewed as privilege rather than status. It doesn’t mean we can ever possess a status of divine perfection; it does mean, however, that we are privileged to follow the way of perfection outlined by Jesus in the Gospel. We only reach the state of perfection when we are admitted into Heaven when 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. Let us strive to follow the example of Jesus, the Son of God, who came, not to condemn us, but to redeem us of our sins, and show us the way. This is what perfection means for us; to strive to follow His 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

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