Jesus tells us: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mtt 5: 48) How, then, is the Father perfect? He is perfect in love since, "God is love." (1 Jn 4: 16) We are given, by faith, the opportunity to participate in this love and to live it out in the Church and in the world. Our ability to aspire to this perfection, however, is not brought about through our own efforts rather: "Love has been perfected among us in this: that we have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us." (1 Jn 4: 17-19) We can only be perfect as the Sermon on the Mount challenges us to be when we realise how much God loves us and continues to do so. This is made a most visible in Jesus Christ: "But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us." (Rom 5: 8) It is only then that we can keep the commandments which to worldly people sound crazy: "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..." (Mtt 5: 44) So it is that: "The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also." (1 Jn 4: 21)
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