The Call to Be Perfect: Our Identity and Our Mission

Voice over by Gracie Aye Chan May

Deut 26:16-19, Psalm: 118, Mt 5:43-48

My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Today, the Word of God places before us a standard so high it seems impossible, and a promise so glorious it takes our breath away. We are called to nothing less than perfection: “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This command could lead us to despair if we heard it alone. But it is nestled within our divine identity, a call that flows from who we are and is empowered by the God who names us His own.

In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses lays out the beautiful terms of the covenant. The Lord has declared that Israel will be His “peculiarly treasured people.” This is not a reward for their greatness, but a free gift of God’s electing love. In response, they are to keep His statutes and commandments with all their heart and soul. Their holiness is a consequence of their chosenness. They are to be “sacred to the LORD” because He has set them apart. Their identity as God’s treasured people shapes their every action.

This foundational truth is radicalized by Jesus in the Gospel. He takes the conventional wisdom—“Love your neighbor and hate your enemy”—and shatters it. “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Why? “That you may be children of your heavenly Father.” Here is the key. Our action—loving the unlovable—is not meant to earn us a place as God’s children. It is meant to reveal who we already are. We love our enemies because that is what our Father does. “He makes his sun rise on the bad and the good.” Our identity as God’s children, received in Baptism, demands that we mirror His boundless, indiscriminate mercy.

This is the path to the perfection Jesus commands. It is not a flawlessness of our own making, but a wholeness, a completeness in love, that reflects our Father’s heart. It is the perfection of a mature child who resembles their parent.

How can we possibly live this? We must begin where Deuteronomy begins: by accepting our identity. We are God’s “peculiarly treasured people,” sacred to Him. From that secure place of being loved, we find the strength to love others. Every time we are slighted, offended, or hurt, we have a choice: to act from our wounded ego, or to act from our baptized identity as a beloved child of God.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a Doctor of the Church, shows us the “little way” to this perfection. When a sister in her convent irritated her constantly, Thérèse did not merely avoid her. She prayed for her and deliberately sought to serve her with extra kindness, offering these small acts as love for Jesus. She saw it as a chance to prove her love for God in a concrete way.

Pope Francis puts it plainly: “Jesus doesn’t say: ‘If your enemy attacks you, pretend to love him.’ No! He says: ‘Love! Love your enemy!’ It’s a conscious attitude, a choice.”

This Lent, let us embrace our identity. Let us ask for the grace to see the difficult person in our life not as an enemy, but as a child of God for whom Christ died. Let us choose one small, practical act of prayer or kindness for them. In doing so, we step onto the path of perfection, not by our power, but by living out the very life of the Father, whose treasured children we are. Amen.

May God bless you all!