Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48
Matthew 5:48
Perfect: conforming absolutely to the description or definition of an ideal type (from dictionary.com)
Sometimes the notion of obtaining perfection is frighteningly daunting. Think of perfection. Think of being perfect. Are you getting that funny feeling in your stomach? We we think of being perfect, we often set our sights on what we think is the perfect model: am I the perfect parent? The perfect child? The perfect employee? The perfect boss? The perfect student? The perfect guide? The perfect priest? The perfect parishioner? In short - am I a perfect person? To measure our perfection, we have to find a standard by which we can measure ourselves, and often we look more at the ways that we are perfect, and not always at those ways where we do not measure up (unless we're in our teenage years, when the whole world is upside-down).
During the first half of the nineteenth century in Oxford, England, a group of young theologians were wrestling with many conflicting ideas of what was perfection in Church of England. There were strong Evangelicals who were proponents of the emotional experience of religion in opposition to passionate intellectuals who were proponents of High Church principles of a traditional approach to faith. Many tried to unite the two sides, affirming that the Church was a Via Media, a "middle way" that espoused the principle of "both/and" rather than an "either/or." (Glad to see so much has changed over time...!)
Until he joined the Church of Rome in 1845, John Henry Newman, an Anglican cleric and one-time vicar of St. Mary's in Oxford, was one of those young clerics, both a leading theologian and a powerful preacher. His own wish was to affirm both the personal connection to Christian spirituality and the powerful efficacy and transformative power of traditional liturgy. For Fr. Newman, perfection was truly attainable by each person. "Be you content with nothing short of perfection."
But what was the measure by which perfection was to be tested? Certainly we cannot be perfect in the same way that God is perfect. God is perfect God; God is pefect love, abundant in forgiveness and grace. We as human persons are perfect, but perfect in our brokenness, in our incompleteness, in our predilection to judge one another, distrust one another, and denigrate one another. We might say that we are perfect...perfectly AWFUL!
Still, saying we are awful and not doing anything about it is a copout. It is just an excuse for not trying. We are more likely not even to try to attain perfection so as not to risk failure. I can't do it on my own, and to ask for help is an admission of my own weakness. And to turn to God for help, well, we are even to arrogant to admit that we cannot achieve perfection without His un earned grace. Still, try we must, for as Fr. Newman put it, "...exert yourselves day by day to grow in knowledge and grace; that, if so be, you may at length attain the presence of Almighty God."
We must try to reach perfection, but not measure it by our own imperfect rule. We measure ourselves by God's measure, who calls us to strive to be perfect in loving Him, and in loving one another as He has loved us.
Love one another with mutual affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
Romans 12:10
[John Henry Newman quotes are from his Parochial and Plain Sermons, edited and featured in Love's Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness (Oxford University Press).]
