We are issued a challenge by Paul and Jesus today, to become perfect as Jesus is perfect. The perfection I am speaking of is spiritual perfection; imitating Jesus to the best of our abilities. We need to grow our good self, to become our better self...until we can achieve our best possible self.
What are the challenges that Paul and Jesus issued today? Paul was called to be generous. Jesus, who was rich, empted in the ways of Christied himself to become poor so that we could become rich; rich in that we were forgiven our sins and through baptism were anointed priest, prophet, and king.
The Macedonians Paul mentioned were Greek Christians who joyfully parted with material resources to help build up other Christian communities where Paul and others were evangelizing.
Paul, in his Letter to the people of Corinth, did not set out to shame them. Instead he is telling them to put their money where their mouth was. Their mouths seemed to be more concerned with boasting about their knowledge and wealth; whereas generosity and concern for the needs of others was lacking.
In short, you can learn to become a cheerful giver and see your giving as helping others, and when you do this, you are also becoming grounded in the ways of Christ, and growing to become spiritually perfect.
The second challenge for becoming more grounded in the person of Jesus was to learn to love people who we do not like.
Most would agree that this is not easy, but it is something we can learn to do, and Jesus is prepared to be our teacher.
We have to see it as a goal that Jesus is telling us to seek. We heard Him ask this of us in Matthew’s gospel today. That’s the difference. It is something Jesus is telling us to do, if in fact we want to become perfect as he is perfect.
As with so much in life not everyone manages to win first place, But with following Christ, the effort is what he is looking for from us. Saint Mother Theresa had it right when she said: "God is not asking us to be professional, He is asking us to be faithful."
In life, some people find that in order to overcome addictions they need to change their relationship with certain persons, places, or things.
For anyone who is trying to become Spiritually Perfect, you may find it helpful to embrace some persons, places, and things, to help you in your efforts to learn to dislike less and like more.
Above all, keep in mind that holiness is the call of each one of us.
With Christ as our example we can stretch to love and pray for the well-being of others who we may not have liked or loved; all the while growing to become spiritual perfect as Jesus is perfect.
