Be Perfect as Your Heavenly Father

Be Perfect as Your Heavenly Father

1.  New Criterion of life

In today's gospel, Jesus Christ gives all his followers a new criterion of life.  If you pay attention you will realize that the Jesus used a special sentence to express his teachings : "you heard that.... but I say to you...." Jesus Christ calls all his followers to have a new way of life.  This new way of life is not just to be better than others, but to live a life beyond our cultural life standard.

These days, we have about 250 homeless brothers and sisters here in our parish. We give thanks to God for this opportunity of serving our poorer brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. Every evening, different groups of people come to serve them. And Fr. John comes to bless the food and people. I thought all the service would be provided by our parishioners, surprisingly to me, some others came to serve, but they are not our parishioners, or even non-Christians. Wow! the non-Christians are doing the same service as Christians are doing. What is the difference between Christian and non-Christian here?  One day, a journalist asked Mother Theresa about their work of serving the poor people in India. Mother Theresa told the journalist: we are not doing social work, we serve Jesus Christ our Lord among the poor brothers and sisters. This is the difference between Christian and no-Christian. Christians have a new vision of life; Christians have a new criterion of being human.

Christians, you should be proud of yourselves. You not only have a new life, but also have already done great works for helping others, for bring hopes in this world.  You not only serve the people in need in our community, but also through "together in Mission", you share with tens of thousands of poor brothers and sisters around LA and beyond. 

 

The new criterion of being human is a call from Jesus Christ, it is also the original purpose of God's creation.  In the first reading, God asked Moses to tell people: "be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy." Being holy means to love our neighbors, to respond to everyone, even our enemies with love.

2. Be perfect as your heavenly Father

The new criterion of Christian life is our Heavenly Father.  You may have heard someone say to you that "all the religions are same; they tell people to do good." But next time, tell this person: Christianity is really different.  Being Christian is not just to following some moral rules, or becoming a better person in community.  Being Christian is to become perfect, just as our Heavenly Father is perfect.

There was a misunderstanding that we should try our best to work hard to love others, and then, God will love us and will repay us.  No, this is not the Christian understanding of being human. In the second reading, St. Paul reminds us that "you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you." As we are the temple of God, we are holy.  God makes us holy to do God's work. It is not our ability to do good things, it is God who does good things though us. As Christians, we live a life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do not compare yourselves with others. Do not the tax collectors love those who love them? Do not the pagans greet their brothers?  Jesus calls all his followers to have a life of God, a life of God in this world to love others and life of God in Eternity.

3. Choose to love

St. Paul reminds us that "all belongs to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God." This is the holy order of life, and this is the horizon of Christian life.  Jesus Christ, the incarnated God, wants to readjust the order of our human life from self-centered and world-centered to God centered.  In Jesus Christ, we have the vision of seeing everybody and the whole world belonging to God the Father, everyone is our brother and sister.  God is love. Jesus Christ is the way of love. Choosing to love is also our Christian way of life. In choosing to love our brothers and sisters, to love the ones who persecute us, to love our enemies, we live a life of God. Christians are a new creation in Jesus Christ. Christians have a new standard way of life: being perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.