Does Christ Require "Perfection"?
Jesus says in Matthew 5:48 says, "You shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect."
Ugh.
He can't really mean it! Please! In my nine-to-five-job-get-the-kids-to-the-ballpark-deal-with-the-@#!%$#@!-driver-in-front-of-me life, it can't be another demand!
Well, today St. Gregory of Nyssa, a bishop in the 300s A.D. wrote a treatise called "On Christian Perfection." And it is something that he says we ought to aspire to do. More than an outright act, it begins as a state of the heart.
What it means to be perfect is to be holy. Holiness begins with a desire. The desire has to be in our hearts toward God. It is a desire that says, "I love you so much, I want to present myself as a holy and blameless offering."
To be perfect in our lives does not happen overnight. It is a process. And if it seems like a demand, then you should not think of "what should I do to be perfect". What should happens is that you should ask this question, "How much do I love God?"
This is not a flip remark. The question needs to be asked as a point of starting. Where am I in my relationship with God? What am I willing to offer him?
Am I willing to sit through a worship service/Mass with kids crawling all over me even though I get nothing out of it? Am I willing to sing the hymns louder as though I meant them? Am I willing to set aside five minutes a day to think about God, pray to God, tell God I love him? What is it? Where are you?
For those who say, "Yes! I want to be perfect because I love God," now is the time for you to get a prayer book or devotional book and set aside some serious time to contemplate God and tell him you love him.
Perfection is the total giving of oneself to God. It begins with a disposition of the heart, not a laundry list of things to do.
For more information on how to give yourself to God through prayer see http://www.MySpiritualAdvisor.com/starting.htm for more articles on the subject.
Ugh.
He can't really mean it! Please! In my nine-to-five-job-get-the-kids-to-the-ballpark-deal-with-the-@#!%$#@!-driver-in-front-of-me life, it can't be another demand!
Well, today St. Gregory of Nyssa, a bishop in the 300s A.D. wrote a treatise called "On Christian Perfection." And it is something that he says we ought to aspire to do. More than an outright act, it begins as a state of the heart.
What it means to be perfect is to be holy. Holiness begins with a desire. The desire has to be in our hearts toward God. It is a desire that says, "I love you so much, I want to present myself as a holy and blameless offering."
To be perfect in our lives does not happen overnight. It is a process. And if it seems like a demand, then you should not think of "what should I do to be perfect". What should happens is that you should ask this question, "How much do I love God?"
This is not a flip remark. The question needs to be asked as a point of starting. Where am I in my relationship with God? What am I willing to offer him?
Am I willing to sit through a worship service/Mass with kids crawling all over me even though I get nothing out of it? Am I willing to sing the hymns louder as though I meant them? Am I willing to set aside five minutes a day to think about God, pray to God, tell God I love him? What is it? Where are you?
For those who say, "Yes! I want to be perfect because I love God," now is the time for you to get a prayer book or devotional book and set aside some serious time to contemplate God and tell him you love him.
Perfection is the total giving of oneself to God. It begins with a disposition of the heart, not a laundry list of things to do.
For more information on how to give yourself to God through prayer see http://www.MySpiritualAdvisor.com/starting.htm for more articles on the subject.
posted by MySpiritualAdvisor.com | 2:16 PM
2 Comments:
Just so you know that I'm still checking and reading, I thought I'd give you a post on this one.
Luckily for us Christ doesn't require perfection. He does ask us to be like him, and he is perfect, yet he doesn't fault us when we aren't. He came knowing that we could never be!
Agreed, Little Flower Friend. Yet, the point is that the early Church Fathers strove for perfection and believed that the Holy Spirit would grant us the grace to get there.
This is why those monks went out into the desert. Although, I have always felt that it was probably easier to be perfect when there were no other people around (smile)!
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