[Perfection]
Dear Donagh,
I was a Sister for five years in the early 70s…. I left with a lot of regret, but it was the right thing to do…. Those years gave me a good foundation for living my faith. The novice mistress impressed on us that we were in religious life to seek perfection. She used to quote the words of the Gospel to us, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” I knew I was far from perfect and I didn't really believe I could ever make it. In my old age now I'm not even sure it’s possible – not for me at any rate. And my children used to laugh at the very idea whenever I talked about it. I don’t know the day I heard a homily on perfection. But it’s there in the Gospel. Why do we never hear about it now…? Margaret
Dear Margaret,
Yes, it’s there in the gospels: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). It comes at the end of a chapter that begins with the Beatitudes and goes on to loving one’s enemies. It is a kind of capping verse, a take-away summary of the entire chapter. That may be the key to its interpretation.
It is not asking us to be God’s equals!
Nor is it recommending some abstract definition of perfection, such as perfect law-keeping (that was the domain of the Pharisees), or competing with others or with oneself for a personal best, like an athlete.
The whole chapter makes it clear: it is about love and nothing else. The Father’s love is the model to keep before us. That love does not discriminate between persons, and it sets no limits. The Father makes the sun rise “upon the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (verse 45). In other words, there is no bargaining involved. “If you only love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same?” He sets morality on a different plane: it is not a business of buying and selling, it is not a game of balancing and calculating self-interest, it is a matter of going out spontaneously to others.
A similar phrase appears in Luke’s gospel: similar, not the same. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36). There too it comes in the company of the Beatitudes and the command to love one’s enemies. While the word ‘perfection’ has layers of ambiguity, as we saw, the meaning of ‘mercy’ is straightforward. Besides, it is one of the most beautiful words in English. You could never use the word ‘perfection’ as a mantra in prayer, but you could well use the word ‘mercy’.
A detail: the word ‘perfect’ comes from Latin ‘perfectus’, which comes from two other Latin words ‘per’ and ‘facere’: ‘completely made’, ‘finished’…. I don’t think there’s anyone who feels that way, and if there were, you wouldn’t want to meet them. Without its biblical meaning it is unbearable.
I wouldn’t worry about the absence of the word ‘perfection’ in homilies. It still carries its unhelpful connotations from an age of individualistic spirituality. But we should worry if the word ‘love’ were to go missing, or the word ‘mercy’. There’s a poem by New Zealand’s James K. Baxter, the refrain of which goes: “‘Truth’ - he said, and - ‘Love’ - he said, /
But his purest word was - ‘Mercy’…. “ You can find the full text online.
Donagh