Be Perfect as your Heavenly Father is Perfect

Deut. 26:16-19, Mt. 5:43-48. God loves us and we are called to respond to this love with our heart and soul. Today's first reading repeated the words “now” and “today” as the opportune moment to respond to God: “Today you are making this agreement with the Lord.” Our covenant with God needs to be renewed each day. Also, Joshua extends on the use of 'today' as found in Deuteronomy in a recital form: “by day and by night” (Josh. 1:8). The season of Lent is a time for renewal of personal consecration to God in prayer and fasting, so that we may be disposed to let the rhythm of God’s spirit take possession of ours. If our spirit experiences such renewal, to imitate God in His perfection will not be difficult.

When Jesus says in today's Gospel, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” He did not ask for fussy perfectionism or to be without flaws. Being perfect means being loving to an extraordinary degree: loving our enemy, praying for those who persecute us and those who make life difficult for us. Being perfect consists of loving in the way that God loves, that is, in the universality and single-mindedness that does not discriminate on the basis of how people relate to us. Imitating God, means we can be 'exceptional' in our speech and actions and this makes our lives different from others. We may not be able to attain this level of perfection on our own, but we can do so with God’s help: “for God, all things are possible.”

May the Lord help us to harken to the universal and undistracted love of God which is the stepping stone towards perfection and grant us the grace to forgive unendingly! Amen!! Good morning and happy weekend!!!