You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Mt.5:48
Jesus is warming up in his Sermon on the Mount, giving hard hitting commandments like loving your enemies. He caps this with the seemly impossible command, be as perfect as your Father in Heaven.
What does Jesus mean here? I'm starting to suspect he means just what he says. I'm to be as perfect as God in Heaven, to be the image of God. This will take everything, will mean allowing everything in me to die so the new, perfect me can live.
This is not for the faint hearted. Christianity is an all or nothing religion, anything else and we're just toying with it. Yet, the promise that comes with it is just as incredible... eternal peace, happiness, joy! In fact, this peace, happiness and joy can be mine now when I surrender my petty, fleshly desires, when I nail them to the cross. I can skip and laugh on my to my crucifixion, today...
Jesus, I surrender it all to you, all my hopes, fears and desires. I want to be the new, perfect man you always had in mind for me.
Saint Philip Neri, please pray for me.
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