Perfect. What does that mean?
The dictionary defines perfect as:
Having all required or desirable elements, qualities or characteristics.
As good as it is possible to be.
To be complete.
There are various experiences in our culture, from sports to academic tests, that define perfection in other ways. Is it possible to be perfect as a person, or even have a perfect moment or experience? Maybe. Perhaps you have defined something as perfect already in your life.
Let me approach reflecting on perfect in another way. I always ask people three questions in the Sacrament of Reconciliation:
• Are you sorry for your sins?
• Do you believe that God forgives you?
• Will you sincerely try to be or do better in the future?
When I sense that someone is really struggling with his or her self-worth, compulsion, obsession or scrupulosity, I add a fourth question:
• Does God ask you to be perfect?
99.5% of people say no. There seems to be an instinct within us that realizes that God does not ask us to be perfect. Yet we hear one of the most challenging statements from Jesus at the conclusion of this Sunday’s Gospel passage from Matthew (Mt 5:38-48). He says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
I am sure that you find this statement as challenging as I do. Let me ATTEMPT to understand it. First, remember that this is the continuation of the Sermon on the Mount, which is the centerpiece of the entire Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has already expanded the meaning of blessedness in the Beatitudes, as God does. He urged the disciples personally to be salt and light, as God does. He proclaimed that he has not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it and the proximate statements to his perfection challenge is to love everyone, even our enemies, as God does.
I believe that Jesus is giving several examples here of how his followers should put on the divine mindset and that means going beyond the rules and regulations of our faith and certainly our culture. He is calling the disciples, and us, to be more than the Law, because God’s love superseded the Law.
In addition, I ask all of us now a simple question:
• Does God forgive?
If we answer yes, then our state of perfection calls us to forgive as well, as God does. This then acknowledges the need for forgiveness in our world, because none of us is perfect. We make mistakes. We hurt each other. We forget that we are loved or good.
Lent is almost here
This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. Our service times are:
Masses and Distribution of Ashes
9:00am (livestream) and 7:00pm
15 Minute Word Service and
Distribution of Ashes
6:30am, 7:30am, 11:00am, 12 noon, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 4:30pm, 5:30pm
Please see details on our website and in the mailing you should have received regarding all of our Lenten offerings.
Our Lenten theme is Compassion: promise and challenge. This expresses one of the major themes of the entire Gospel of Matthew, that God fulfills his promise to us in Jesus. Again, please look for details regarding this year’s Lenten Social Justice Project on our website and on the Human Concerns page (page 8) in the bulletin Our friends at Catholic Extension Society have introduced us to the Edmundite Mission in Selma, Alabama. Catholic Extension supports many of the poorest of the poor in America. The Black community in Selma presents an opportunity for us here at Holy Family to carry out the Catholic Social Teaching principle of having a fundamental concern for the poor. More details will follow as Lent unfolds.
My Podcast
In the next few weeks I will begin a Podcast entitled Connecting Word and World. I hope to offer simple and relatively short reflections on all four of each weekend’s scripture readings. Yes, there are four. Two from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. The first reading begins to state the theme for the Mass. The Psalm responds to that theme, usually in song. The epistle (which means a letter with a spiritual or religious theme) generally addresses a different but complementary topic. The fourth, of course, is a passage from one of the four Gospels.
I have noticed that many podcasts and commentaries focus solely on the Gospel. I hope to assist you in making connections with our world from all four readings. You will be able to access the podcast soon on our website.