Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect

Estote ergo vos perfecti, sicut et Pater

vester caelestis perfectus est

("Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect")

Jesus Christ

(Matthew 5:48)

The heavenly Father is God.  He can't be better.

You and I can be better all the time -- so much so that  we can grow in goodness until we die.

The very word "perfect" comes from two Latin words -- per ("through") and facere ("to make").  Perfect, then, means we're made all the way through towhat we're supposed to be. 

We're not there yet.  The journey requires constancy and fortitude.

The perfection demanded of us by Christ is only possible with His help.  It becomes our constant goal to be united with Christ.  St. Paul, who as a Pharisee had longed to master perfection found that in Christ alone he could be made perfect.

This is our goal too, so that in the end, we are able to say with Paul, "It is no longer I who lives, but it's Christ who lives in me" (Galations 2:20).

When that Father who is pefect can see Christ made in and through us, then perfection will be ours.  And on the day of days, we hope to hear Him say:  "Come in; I see my son in you."

from Latin Sayings for Spiritual Growth

by Archabbot Lambert Reilly, OSB