St. Matthew presents us with a sentence in today's gospel that may seem impossible. Sure, it would be wonderful to be perfect. Didn't all of us long for seeing an "A -- well done!" written by a teacher on an examination or term paper? Don't most of us hope to be recognized with high praises for completing a task. But! Do we even stop to consider being perfect like our heavenly Father (5:28)? Can you hear yourself saying "Sure. Sure. Me be perfect as God is perfect? What's the joke?"
When we take the time to examine what makes me who I am, when I take the journey to consider the soul that is mine, I am actually challenging myself to see how far from perfect I might be. Am I not looking at what I might need to accomplish to be perfect like God is perfect?
First, let's consider what it means to say that God is perfect. By being completely God, by being all and everything that God can be, our heavenly Father is perfect. So, then, in what does the challenge for human being to be perfect consist? Is is the perfect exam, the perfect term paper, the perfect evaluation by a superior? Probably NOT! For human beings to be perfect means to be as fully human as you can be. It is reflecting on my personal humanity, my way of living out the challenge to be a fully human as can be that I that I seek to see if I am living my life in the image of God. The more I live my life in the image of God, the more I, the human being trying to be fully human, stand in the likeness of God ... being fully who I am, fully who God created.
When you think of God, do you not think of God as giver, as lover? Isn't that the perception that each human being has of God? God is all-loving, all-giving? Am I not challenged, then, to live as his creation in an all-loving, all-giving mode? Is human perfection anything less than being all-loving and all-forgiving?
