STRIVING TOWARDS PERFECTION

Twenty – Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wis 9: 13 – 18b / Ps 90 / Phlmn 9 – 10, 12 – 17 / Luke 14: 25 – 33

I remember Ai Ai delas Alas in Tanging Ina saying, “Practice makes perfect but no one is perfect, therefore why practice?”

You will all agree with me that the journey towards perfection is an uphill climb. To be perfect means having to go through a lot of sacrifices, which in turn, requires a lot of endurance. No wonder some people would say, “Buti pa ang fairy tale, may happy ending, samantalang tayo, ay palaging to be continued (fairy tales are better than us because they all have a happy ending while we are always to be continued).” To dream for a perfect life, a perfect family life, and a perfect love life is not an easy dream to realize.

In our Gospel today, Jesus enumerates for us ways on how to become his disciple. Allow me just highlight one of the ways which He offered. In the Gospel we heard that whoever wishes to construct a tower must first sit down and calculate to see if there is enough for its completion. Otherwise, people will be laughing at him for he is unable to finish it. With that analogy, Jesus points to us an important task of a disciple and that is to always strive for perfection. But why should we strive for perfection anyway, one may ask. Jesus in another part of the Gospel challenges us to be perfect just as the heavenly Father is perfect.

To strive for perfection is like building a tower as it is mentioned in our Gospel today. It does not happen overnight. To be able to reach perfection, we must sit down and calculate; one must work for it. The problem with us is that we are only good in the beginning. If you notice, after we go to Confession, we are in high spirits to be good. However, as time move on, slowly our goal to perfection fades, and instead of finding ways and means on how to be perfect, then, we simply say to ourselves, “mas maayo pa mangitag Pokemon kaysa mangita ko sa Ginoo sa akong kinabuhi (it’s better to look for Pokemon that look for God in our lives)”.

My dear friends, this is therefore our challenge: that in the journey towards perfection, we must persevere along the way. Yes, there will be challenges, there will be temptations, and there will be moments when we become tired and weary. People would even hate us for trying to be good and for being truthful. However, what is important is that we use these difficulties to challenge us all the more for that perfection. I hope and pray that we do not easily surrender and believe on the saying that if you cannot beat them, then, join them. If people will hate you because you are doing good, because you are defending what is true, do not worry, after all, at the end of your lives, it is only between you and God and no one else.

My dear friends, at 4:00 this afternoon, Philippine Time, Blessed Mother Teresa will be raised to the altar as a saint. Mother Teresa who was born in Macedonia was given the name, Agnes. Attracted to the Loreto Sisters, she went to Ireland to join the community. It was there that she took on the name Sr. Teresa after St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Since she was not English speaking then, she studied English well until she became a teacher herself. A few years later, she felt a call within a call; she realized that she must move from teaching to touching lives of people especially the poor. It was during her immersion with the poor especially children when she was being called “Mother Teresa.” Since her apostolate involveed the caring for the sick, she also studied nursing in order to be effective in her ministry. On October 2003, six years after her death, she was beatified by the then Pope John Paul II. And today, she will finally be called Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

My dear friends, Mother Teresa is an example of someone who builds the tower of perfection slowly but surely. Despite the challenges that she needed to face, she did not surrender. Rather, she used these challenges to strive more towards perfection.

How about us? How about you? How do you spend your life every day? Do you spend it working towards perfection or do you spend it working towards your own self destruction? Amen.