Perfection

“The demand for the perfect is the enemy of the possible good.” (“Thanks” Richard Rohr, on-line devotional of 7-12-23). It has been said that the only thing wrong with perfection is that it is not. When Jesus speaks of being perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), I think he means to be mature or to be whole. Maturity or wholeness is a growing or developing goal which is never achieved perfectly. It is the process of growing, maturing, etc. that is our goal. This process of maturing involves the whole person, i.e., physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. It even involves our “neighbor” as Jesus’ commandment states is not only to love the Lord, our God, but, also, our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39). We cannot separate our spiritual life from the rest of our life. All of life is spiritual and our goal in living is maturing toward the possible good that we can both be and do.