A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Jesus said to his disciples: “For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
In today’s Gospel, as Jesus gives teachings on how to live a life of discipleship, he has just finished telling his disciples this: “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” Regardless of our status or station in life, the sun rises on the bad and the good and the rain falls on all of us. To be perfect, to be children of God, seems an impossible task. But Jesus tells us exactly what to do to accomplish just that: love our enemies and pray for our persecutors.
God, help me place my trust in you when I perceive perfection to be an impossible goal. As the Church teaches, with your grace, it is possible. As the Catechism says, “The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.” Let me hear your Son’s call us to be perfect. He desires me to strive for holiness and to become more and more like him through all the works, joys, and sufferings of each day.
Thank you, Lord, for your call to holiness. Be with me today as I strive to know your will and imitate you in my words and actions.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.