PERFECTION, A CALLING.
January 29, 2023.
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time – A.
“Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters…” 1 Cor
1:26
A Hebrew proverb says: “Whoever has not tasted sinfulness
does not qualify for holiness.” And a Latin proverb adds: “No man acquires
perfection all at once.”
There is a kind of universal call or vocation for each one
of us. We are called to perfection. Holiness is our vocation. God wants us all
holy. But the fulfillment of this vocation remains a journey each one must
undertake every day and in our ordinary endeavors.
According to the teachings of the Church, the call to
holiness is often referred to as the universal vocation or sometimes the
primary vocation. It is for every one of us. Although this vocation is
supernaturally given at baptism, which literally engrafts the Christian into
the body of Christ, God beckons every human being to a life of holiness. The
Catechism says: ""All Christians in any state or walk of life are
called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of
charity." All are called to holiness: "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect." In order to reach this perfection, the faithful should use
the strength dealt out to them by Christ's gift, so that... doing the will of
the Father in everything, they may wholeheartedly devote themselves to the
glory of God and to the service of their neighbor. Thus the holiness of the
People of God will grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly shown in the
history of the Church through the lives of so many saints." CCC 2013.
The Lord Jesus came, not only to show the way to that perfection
but also to be our model and mentor of perfection. In his teachings, he
presents himself as the incarnation of that perfection, the holiness that
became Man so that men may become holy.
The masterpiece of the Lord's teachings about perfection is
the sermon of the mountain. It is articulated in three points: Moral,
spiritual, and human. The Lord teaches us that one can become perfect by
following a strong and firm moral stand. One can become perfect through a
well-rooted spiritual life. And one can become perfect by being a whole and
well-rounded human being. Holiness is a call addressed to human beings, people
fully moral, spiritual, and human.
Today's Gospel, through the Beatitudes, draws the portrait
of the morally perfect man. The first morally perfect is Jesus himself. It is
him we are called to imitate by living the beatific life. The man of firm
morality has eight qualities. He is poor in spirit. He is meek. He mourns
against injustice. He hungers and thirsts for justice. He is merciful. He has a
clean heart. He is a peacemaker. And lastly, he is ready to suffer persecution
for justice's sake. Unless one has or nourishes these qualities, he cannot
pretend to be a good Christian or one on a journey toward perfection.
Our world, regrettably, grows from imperfection to
imperfection because mankind arbors all that sounds like a moral call and asks
for sacrifices. People find it so much humiliating to speak of humility,
meekness, poverty of heart, peace, patience... They say these are cowardly
attitudes. While for our God, humility is the virtue of the great.
The first reading can insist: "Seek the Lord, all you
humble of the earth, who have observed his law; seek justice, seek humility;
perhaps you may be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger." Arrogant and
proud-hearted or haughty people have no time to seek God. And because they have
no time for God, they also have no time for their neighbor.
Paul, in the second reading, in his first address to the Corinthians tells us that God chose the weak of the world. The Apostle of the Gentiles says: "God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something so that no human being might boast before God..." Here is the way of God. That is the way of Jesus, the way of the Beatitudes. No one can be perfect besides that way. There is no holiness without life in accordance with the Beatitudes. As Christians, we should make these eight blessings our Vademecum for they are the roadmap to Life in God.
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