[Pearls Ep 159: Preparing for Sunday.]
I can still hear Robert Plant moaning from the boombox in the back of the bus, “And she’s bi-i-ying a stair-air-way to hea-vun…”
As it turns out we don’t have to buy a stairway. It’s waiting for us free of charge. Well, not exactly free.
As we prepare for Sunday we’re looking at Jesus’ command in the Gospel that we love our enemy (click here for the Pearls video). And we’ll return to that in Monday and Tuesday’s messages.
Going into the weekend we should especially consider His other command – “be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”
Well, while we’re busy loving our enemy, why not go all the way and just be perfect??? Perhaps we can learn to juggle feathers in a hurricane, commit every Martha Stewart episode to memory, and negotiate peace in the Middle East.
Coming back to reality, you are probably aware that the better translation of that sentence is “beCOME perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” What a difference from those 4 little letters, c-o-m-e.
This is because the words used for “be” and “perfect” are better translated as:
Esomai – “shall be”, or “shall come to pass”
Teleios – “to be brought to its end”
So Jesus is sending us on a mission to become perfect. This is what St. Paul refers to as “working out our salvation.”
It’s the work of a lifetime.
But it’s not a steady path (hopefully) upward. It’s more of a staircase.
A good analogy is a career path (back when there used to be such things). A person would get a job and start at the bottom – working diligently in that position until ready for a promotion. With the promotion comes a notch up in expectations, responsibilities, and privileges. This is followed by a period of growing into that new role by learning and habituating new skills. After achieving competency at that level, it’s time for another promotion – another notch up in expectations, responsibilities, and privileges – and a new period of habituating new skills.
So too in our interior life. Each Lent is an opportunity for a promotion. We dig deep for 40 days – mortifying bad habits and growing in virtue – so that we’re ready for a promotion-of-sorts when Easter arrives. And then as we return to “ordinary time” after Easter we hold onto to the newfound virtue and steer clear of the vices that we worked hard to cast off.
For the past few weeks we’ve been looking at different ways to reflect on Lent and what the Holy Spirit desires for us. This final message, just before Ash Wednesday, gets right to the heart of it.
“Come Holy Spirit and show me the next step You desire me to take on my staircase to perfection.”
Blessings on your journey with Christ –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life
Postscript: Matthew 5:38-48
Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you,and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.
“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. 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.”