Be Ye Perfect
We all know by now that God never asks for the impossible. We know, for example, that if we are very sick, we are no longer under the obligation to fast or to go to Mass that Sunday. If we really can’t do something, then it’s not going to offend God that we don’t do it. So with that said, it brings up the question why God has commanded us with the impossible task of being perfect.
The simple answer of course is that it isn’t the achievement of perfection that God requires from us, but rather the effort to achieve that perfection. True perfection, after all, exists only in the divine nature of God himself. Anything else, including the angels and saints, can never be truly perfect because they are creatures—they were all created by someone more perfect than they could ever be. Simply by being a created being, they lack the perfection of the uncreated Being.
And yet we are plagued by this command by God to be something we can never be. Certainly we can strive to be perfect, but it will always be an unachievable goal, and no amount of godly living or holy thoughts, words, deeds or even miracles will ever make us truly perfect. Was there ever a saint who didn’t experience some imperfection in their lives? All of them failed in their daily lives to some extent or other. Maybe they were stubborn or impatient, forgetful, negligent, distracted in prayer—so many ways by which we are all weak in our observance of the commandments, lukewarm in our love of God. Let’s face it, we’re all doomed to imperfection from the moment our life begins, the second we are conceived in our mother’s womb when we inherit the original sin of Adam.
On this feast where we celebrate our Lady’s exemption from original sin, we should take pause to consider this unique privilege bestowed by her Creator. To make her as worthy as she could possibly be, God made her different from all other mortal men and women. As befits the Mother of God who would crush beneath her heel the devil who led our first parents into sin, she alone would not bear the burden of that original sin. She would be spared that imperfection and become the most perfect creature of God.
In practical terms, this has tremendous significance for us on a day-to-day basis. For when God demands perfection from us, it is with the divine wisdom that it is impossible for us, certainly. But it is also with the divine intervention in the immaculate conception of his Mother, giving us the most perfect model we could have, a fellow-human being who reached the highest possible perfection of any creature. Whenever we struggle with our mortal flesh, so weak despite the aspirations of our higher faculties, we should look to Mary; whenever we are tempted to give in to our lower appetites and please whatever whim or fancy our fallen nature desires, look to Mary. She is not only the highest example of perfection we have, she is the only one who has actually achieved that perfection insofar as it is possible for a creature. This is why we hail her today as Queen of heaven and earth.