One of my favorite toys growing up was a simple piece of plastic, or more accurately, a whole bunch of plastic pieces that millions of kids enjoy around the world. They are Legos, those awesome building blocks that provide creative license to construct whatever your mind can come up with. I was not exceptionally gifted in lego-building but I would spend hours making all sorts of things, whether following instructions for a specific kit or turning a pile of plastic into something fun and occasionally dangerous. The only people I know who don’t like Legos are usually parents who are either digging them out of the mouths of toddlers and pets or accidentally stepping on them with bare feet and unintentionally educating their children in the nuances of the English language.
It’s not surprising then that I was pretty excited to see the new lego movie which came out 5 or 6 years ago. Like many animated family movies, there is something for the little ones to enjoy and another level of humor and teaching for the adults in the audience. Without giving too much away, the movie opens around the boss of the lego worlds. His name is Lord Business and he is a type-A control freak who wants perfect lego worlds. He believes everyone should always follow the directions and he tries to engineer the population to act and think the same; creativity is discouraged. He goes nuts whenever someone veers from his vision of perfection, which is really just uniformity. In order to put an end to people’s creative actions, he comes up with an evil plan to freeze everyone in place so that people can stop messing with his stuff!” I won’t tell you what happens after that but one thing is certain: the vision of perfection that Lord Business has is not very healthy, happy, or fun.
There is another vision of perfection we have been listening to over the past few weeks from an infinitely more benevolent Lord. It is the Sermon on the Mount, which has served as our gospel during this month of February. In this teaching, Jesus is educating his listeners, including you and me, about what it means to be a perfect Christian. He has been showing us it is no longer simply about avoiding sin and trying to keep the commandments. That’s a good first step. But Jesus is telling us we have to go even further than just staying away from evil; we must actively pursue what is good. We must not only eliminate sinful actions from our lives but also the evil feelings, desires and attachments that make them possible in the first place. He tells us we are called to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. We are meant to be the leaven that builds up everyone around us. In fact, today’s gospel commands us to be perfect, even as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
Is this a typo? Is Jesus exaggerating? Is he crazy? Is Jesus just another Lord Business who wants the world to look his boring way so he can be happy? The answer to each of these is no, no, no, and no! Our Lord is not exaggerating when he lays down this incredible standard. He knows how weak we are, he knows we often settle for far less than perfection. But he also knows our potential when we cooperate with his grace, especially in the seven sacraments. Because he is willing to work with us every step of the way towards spiritual perfection, he makes it a command.
God’s perfection does not look like that of the Lego tyrant. Our Lord does not want us all to be the same, like Christian clones or spiritual robots! He gives us certain universal commandments and principles to follow which enhance our freedom and the freedom of others. Even better, Jesus wants every person to leave their unique mark on the world by living these commandments and beatitudes according to the unique gifts and talents they have received. Each of us will make our own contribution to history and to our Catholic faith. Those who follow Christ and his command to be perfect should be among the greatest, most talented, most interesting, most important people in history. God wants you to be creative in your journey to perfection and he wants to have a relationship with you that is unlike the one he has with anyone else. It might seem hard to believe but it’s true!
If we are striving for God’s perfection, we should not be looking around, trying to gain the praise of other people. This Godly goodness will make itself visible in ways like loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us, we will forgive those who hurt our feelings or talk about us behind our backs. It will enable us to go the extra mile with those who demand something of us and keep us from turning our back on those in need.
God’s vision of perfection for us is not easy; in fact it is humanely impossible. We cannot accomplish it on our own. It will be messy, we are going to make mistakes, we are going to miss the mark, and sometimes we will fail. Following this command to perfection will be uncomfortable, it has to be. It will require sacrifice and it will mean standing up to people who are doing wrong to us and to others. It will mean defending the truth, which is often unpopular, it will mean that we are sometimes mocked and rejected, even by people who should be supporting and loving us, maybe even family and friends. Growing towards God’s perfection means never settling for being better than most or comparing ourselves to other people.
In the end, being perfect as our heavenly Father, is not about never making a mistake. It is about loving as He does, seeing others and ourselves with the eyes of God, which are always full of compassion, mercy, and self-sacrifice. This is what we are capable of and this is what we are destined for. So let us commit ourselves completely to this command of Christ, using our gifts and talents to pursue Godly perfection, knowing this is what will bring us to our heart’s desire. And let us thank God for being with us every step of the way to guide and encourage us towards that perfect love of heaven.
