St. Augustine wisely wrote, "The strength of our desires forms the strength of our labors and pains; no one ever freely undertakes what is laborious and painful except to obtain the object of his love."
From our days as students when we "killed ourselves" for that "A" in our toughest class, to the desire to give our children or our students the best preparation for life that we know, we work hard, spend long days, and short nights, willing to sacrifice and do whatever it takes to achieve the BEST.
Jesus gives us the ultimate challenge in today's selection from Matthew's Sermon on the Mount:
"So be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5:48). Seems like an impossible call. Who can be perfect? An old adage goes; "Perfection is not of this world," but this is no excuse not to try with all our might, as Tennyson said in ULYSSES: "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
A noble ideal, :laborious and painful" but possible if done out of love for our God who is LOVE.
With Ash Wednesday around the corner, it's time to set our desire in the direction of this elusive, but possible "perfection". What do we need to do to strengthen our relationship with God? What stands in the way? What must go? What must we add? What will make our love grow?
Bro. Rene
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