Be Perfect

Leviticus 19:1-2,17-18
1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Matthew 5:38-48

Today’s gospel passage continues our reading from Christ’s great sermon known as the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, the format of today’s teaching is exactly the same as last week, where our Lord quotes from the old law, the law of God as revealed through Moses, by saying, “You have heard that it was said that you must” act in a certain way, and then going on to expound his new teaching on the same point by saying, “But what I say to you is this: …”  He starts with what the people already knew, and then takes them further. Jesus had summed up His attitude to the Old Law, the Law of Moses, by saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it” or to perfect it. And so we can think of these teachings as taking us beyond the commandments of the Old Law and showing to us the perfection of the Old Law in Christ’s teachings.

And today we have two such points, two such perfections; both are concerned with our behaviour towards others, especially those with whom we have a quarrel. In the first one, we have the well-known maxim of the Old Law, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ This can seem rather barbaric to us, because we often forget what prevailed before it. We should remember that when God gave this law to the people of Israel, a common principle governing their behaviour was that of vengeance. This led to interminable strife and countless crimes. In the early centuries of the chosen people, the people of Israel, after this law was revealed to them, it was seen to be a great advance, socially and legally, on what had gone before. The law limited the retaliation which was allowed by law: for no punishment could exceed the crime; punitive retaliation was outlawed. In this way, the honour of the clans and families was satisfied, and endless feuds avoided. But as far as the new covenant instituted and here taught by Jesus was concerned, there was now a further advance: a sense of forgiveness and an absence of pride play an essential role. So now, every legal framework for combating evil in the world, every reasonable defence of personal rights, should be based on this new morality.

The second point which Christ teaches, using the same framework: “You have heard it was said … but I say to you” is that it is easy to be kind, generous, charitable, forgiving to those we like, who deal honourably and charitably with us; but what we as Christians must do is to show charity towards those who are not our friends, those he even refers to as ‘our enemies.’ In fact, it is quite clear the we should have no personal enemies. Our only enemy is the evil which is sin; but not the sinner. Jesus himself put this into practice throughout His life, even up to and including those who crucified Him, and He continues to act in the same way today towards sinners who despise him and rebel against him. We have many examples from the lives of the saints of their following this teaching from our Lord to a heroic degree; we can think of the very first martyr, St Stephen, who prayed for those who were putting him to death. This is the summit of Christian perfection – to love and even pray for those who are persecuting us. It is the distinguishing mark of the children of God: people will know we are Christians by our love. And we have in the beatitudes, from earlier in this same sermon of Christ, the promise of a reward: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”

In the second reading, St Paul reminds us of that presence of the Holy Spirit within us, and of the fact that that should change us, should change the way we behave. In the first reading, God speaks to the people of Israel through Moses, the Lawgiver; he says, “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” The whole Jewish concept of holiness was based on the idea of separation: we keep ourselves like God by separating ourselves from sin and setting ourselves apart from what would corrupt us, would make us unclean, setting ourselves apart for him. In that way, we make ourselves more like God. And Christ perfects that teaching of Moses also, through giving us his presence, His perfection to help us, to make us more like God. Just as small children look to their parents for an example, and for help to strive towards that example, so we must look to our heavenly Father. “For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son”: his love should be our model and our goal, and in his love he sent his Son to teach us what we must do. And the perfect love which the Father and the Son have for each other, the Holy Spirit, present in each one of us, will bring us to the perfection to which we are all called.

Fr Joseph Osho