To become perfect

Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

We can approach truth with words and concepts, but really to know it we have to experience it. Truth is like a symphony whose beauty we cannot appreciate without learning how to read, play and sing. The word of God is such a symphony:

Let my tongue sing of thy word, for all thy commandments are righteousness. (Psalm 119:172)

When many people surround us, we realize that we are pretty insignificant. But amid this crowd, where everyone is “nothing”, we feel deep in our heart that we have a mission in this world. Of course, our thoughts are not God's thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). God is unknowable and we know about him only what he reveals to us in this world created according to his divine logic. God does not have to do anything. As the absolute perfection, he can spread to the infinite.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a waste and emptiness. (Genesis 1:1-2)

To demonstrate his perfection God created the world intentionally chaotic - an imperfection that determines all perfecting. He chose man to be a vase to demonstrate the richness of his grace by collaborating on the perfecting of this imperfect world. The “breath of life” man received at his creation raised in his soul a thirst for divine perfection. Hence, his constant struggles to improve the world and himself. This breath of life is what is perfect in the imperfect man. And if he arouses in us the faith to be necessary, it is that we are it really for God.

God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:24).

Some people imagine that God is somewhere in space where he created man without a particular plan. Such a vision takes away any significance to our existence: we are useful for nothing and our life has no sense. Fortunately, the Scriptures clearly show that God acts continuously in creation and that he needs man to demonstrate his perfection there. Christ placed his work in the continuity of God's work:

My Father is working until now, and I myself am working. (John 5:17)

The certainty of being needed is part of the human happiness.

For the eyes of the Lord move back and forth throughout the earth that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. (2 Chronicles 16:9)

Thus, by choosing the imperfect man to demonstrate his divine perfection through him, God answers his need for happiness.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That it is God who created heaven and earth, the believers know it; but that God has left the earth in a chaotic state (waste and empties) it escapes many. The chaos suggests an unfinished creation. But it is precisely its chaotic state that allows ideally a developing of infinite perfection. Our vocation is to contribute to the transformation of the chaotic world into a place of harmony and peace. That work is made in parallel with the transformation of the chaos that reigns in our hearts. To do that, we have at our disposal the power of the Holy Spirit. To get involved in this mission is the promise of certain victories:

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. (2 Corinthians 2:14)

The saying, “Nobody is perfect” expresses precisely what is so perfect in this world. Certainly, it is true only if we use imperfection as starting point to enter the narrowed way which leads to life (Matthew 7:14). If we do not we exclude God from our life and will lose the meaning of our existence. God knows that our mission is difficult and that we will have victory only by abandoning ourselves.

He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake shall find it. (Matthew 10:39)

Thus, we slowly transform the hearts and the world into places that express the divine perfection.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away. (Revelation 21:1)

K. Woerlen (published the 21st september 2009)