Perfection in the Eyes of God
Feb. 23, 2020 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time – A
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
What does it mean, to be perfect?
In today’s Gospel taken from near the end of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells the people to “be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” What does that mean? Isn't it impossible to be perfect?
When you think about it, it seems that as a society we are obsessed with perfection, aren’t we? Just look at the self- improvement infomercials on TV. Learn a new language. Get rich selling real estate. You can become a younger, more beautiful version of you by following these fitness tips.
Or how about those commercials which try to convince you that you’re missing out on perfection that only their products can provide? Are you seeking adventure and want to be one with nature? Buy our new SUV. Want to fit in? Try our stylish clothes. There are even those weird commercials for perfume that you need because you must smell bad and you won't ever get a date if you don’t use it.
And if you're getting older or aren’t feeling perfect? Take this new drug and you'll feel years younger or prettier or healthier or more virile. Warning - the side effects may kill you. But that’s OK because you’ll be a better- a more perfect - you.
But I think the most damaging influences we face are often those people, even our friends, who try to convince us that we can’t possibly be happy as God made us because we’re not perfect. And after all, we want to be happy, don’t we?
So, what is perfect?
I asked some friends what perfect meant to them and one replied that perfection is something that fits us well. It’s different for different people, and it’s a temporary or passing state of mind.
But … I don’t think that is true.
Perfection is a goal that we seek because, as St. Augustine says, we have a hole in our hearts that needs to be filled, and it cannot be filled until it is filled by God. It’s as if we’re a jigsaw puzzle that’s missing some pieces. Those missing pieces are shaped like God, and when we don’t look for Him to fill those holes, we’ll look for something that we think looks like that hole and try to force it to fit. It won’t, of course, and the picture that results will always be a little – off.
Yet still we allow others to tell us that it is OK to reject the person God made us to be and to make ourselves into someone that they(or we) think is perfect . Why do we allow others to sell us a bill of goods like that? It seems like we don’t even know who God made us to be anymore; that we need someone to tell us what we should already know.
First and foremost, we are children of God.
And as a child of God, we are given instructions, self-help advice if you will, on how to find the happiness we seek and to become what God wants us to be. Perfect in His eyes. And God does not see as man sees.
Think about this. We love the imperfect artistic efforts of our children and delight in them as "perfect", whether they’re stick figures of ourselves with long curved fingers and weird-looking eyes or scribbled multi-colored landscapes of confusion. Children may not be pro-athletes but we’re proud whenever they make the effort to compete, and if their efforts fall short of perfection, we console them and praise the effort which they’ve made while encouraging them to try harder. They may not be perfect by worldly standards, but they are (or should be) perfect in our eyes.
And God sees us as His children, no matter how old we get, and He responds the same way. Despite our grown-up mentality, we’re still children in His sight and as long as we’re striving to please Him, then as Thomas Merton said, our efforts indeed do please him. God will keep us on the path to perfection.
Yet, instead of accepting that God loves us for who we are, we think that our imperfections can somehow be “fixed” and we go to extreme efforts to "fix" ourselves. We are convinced by others that we can be whoever WE want to be and we try to change ourselves into something we are not, and we do it for the worst of reasons – opinions or pressure by others. We try to please others, instead of God.
So how do we become “perfect” in God’s eyes?
Well, we’ve all heard the story about the rich man who comes to Jesus and asks him what he needs to do to get to heaven. After Jesus tells him to keep the commandments and such and the man says that he does all that, then Jesus says to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” The young man leaves because he is owned by the many possessions he has. Yet, despite that, the Gospel says that Jesus still loves him.
And Luke’s version of today’s Gospel gives us a little different twist. It has the “love your enemies and do good to them" stuff, and to "lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked" like Matthew. But in Luke, Jesus says, "Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful.”
So in God’s eyes, it appears that Mercy can be thought of as perfection. And we add still another dimension from today’s 1st Reading from Leviticus: “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.”
Be Perfect. Be Merciful. Be Holy. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which we have been listening to for the last few Sundays, gives us the directions to follow in order to be all three.
They are tough directions. Love your enemies. Offer no resistance to one who is evil. If someone hits you, let him do so again. (I have a real problem with that one).
But if we want to be perfect – to be HOLY, then that’s the advice we should be listening to, not what we’re told by the media or by those who do not know God. Not trying to change what God made us to be, but to embrace it with the desire that a child has to please a parent.
And beginning this week we have a great opportunity to work on our perfection. Lent begin this week with Ash Wednesday – the one day of the year that more non-Catholics and former Catholics come to Mass than any other time of the year. We can make Lent our time to seek perfection, to seek holiness, through action: Attend your parish mission nights. Participate in a day of reflection. Go on a retreat. Jump-start your spiritual growth.
So, what does it take to be perfect? St. Paul tells us, “You are the temple of God, You are Holy.” If we are followers of Christ, then we are Holy. If we are Holy, we must be Merciful.
And if we are Holy and Merciful, then in God’s eyes, we are Perfect.
