Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy. At the end of today’s gospel passage, Jesus clearly states that in the end, he was calling his followers to “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
These are two tall orders. How can any of us approach the Holiness of God? How can we really be perfect?
Jesus continues calling his followers and us into a deeper understanding of the Law—you could say, adding an additional layer of meaning to the Ancient Law. Jesus was, and is, the fulfillment of the Law – and the new Law.
I once heard a homily address today’s call to “be perfect.” It’s not such that we make ourselves perfect. Rather we are perfected by God’s grace, the Spirit we have within us. The precepts of the law of old, and the fuller interpretations that Jesus gave certainly guide us along the right path.
The more complete answer to the call lies in the Paschal Mystery—the Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus. Jesus came to give us life and to bring forgiveness of sins. He came to make us children of God—to open the gates of Heaven for us. All of this is accomplished through the Paschal Mystery.
The words of St. Paul to the Corinthians tell us more as well. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.”
He is declaring indeed we are temples of the Holy Spirit—what we’ve always been destined to be. And because the Spirit dwells within us, we are as sacred as the temple—the new temple founded on Jesus. “So let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you, Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or the present or the future: all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.”
The way of Jesus is the way to being perfect and truly holy. This brings us back to the fuller interpretation of the Law that Jesus lays out. Offer no resistance, give your cloak as well, turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, love even your enemies, pray for your persecutors. These are the pieces of the road to perfection. If we follow Jesus’s words and follow his example then we are well on our way to being perfected.
Reflection by Fr. Peter Ullrich, OSB
Posted in Daily Reflections, Lenten Resources