I Am Perfectly Normal

“Ah! That’s just perfect!” We love it when things are just perfect, don’t we?

Somewhere away from our consciousness we know that only God is really perfect, but his creation can be a great temporary substitute. The important word here is “temporary.”

Our hearts and souls long for eternal perfection, in ourselves and in our world. Only one thing can reward our work by delivering real perfection. The perfect version of ourselves can be realized. We must work, yes, work, to achieve that perfection which God created us to be. We can work to achieve it here and now but our perfection will be realized in eternity, where we will be perfect and we will also find ourselves in a perfect world.

By Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael

IF YOU LIKE READ ALONG AS YOU LISTEN:

Well, you must be thinking this morning that Deacon Michael has lost it, talking about Tiger Woods and Willie Mays, and I left out Sandy Koufax, with his perfect games. Just left him out.

We define, each and every one of us in our own way, define normal. Everyone perceives themselves as being normal. And if someone is not like us, they are in some way aberrant.

But at the same time we have a tendency to look at our normal as being perfect. We have an inclination to define the way we live and how we think as being the perfect way to do it.

Bob thinks of Darlene as being perfect. Other people look at Darlene and go, "Well, maybe not."

But that's normal. Darlene looks at herself and says, "I look at my life. Clearly I am perfect."

There is an inclination that is part of us defining us as being normal.

And Jesus tells us that we need to aspire to be perfect. And when we put it in those terms we know we are not perfect. God is perfect, but we're not.

And in the first reading we have, it's a very interesting reading from a historical perspective the Jewish people, man, these people have it made.

They were in Egypt. Moses took them out. He took them to the Promised Land. They were shown the land and they were saying, "You're going to have the land. You're going to take over the land." And they messed it up.

Within their own perfection, in thinking of themselves as normal, they messed it up. Instead of just worshiping God who got them out of Egypt and did all these wonderful things, Robert went out and started worshiping Baal.

Baal was really good at great parties and lots of alcohol. And Robert has a little bit of a weakness... that doesn't make you not perfect, Bob... but he has that little bit of a weakness and he succumbed. In his perspective, he succumbed.

And God looked at them and said, "Guys, knock it off." And He punished them. He says, "Now you're in trouble. I'm going to raise up for you a temporary ruler. A head to get you out of the trouble, and we'll call him a judge. And the judge will get you out of the mess that you have."

And then they go through a whole series of judges. They listen to the judge for a little bit. They mess it up again. They get punished. God raises another judge.

Because in their normalcy, normality is not a word, by the way [it is a term in chemistry to measure concentration; so it has a meaning that is not useful here], normalcy, they are not perfect.

Yet, a man comes up to Jesus and says, "What do I need to do to be perfect?" And Jesus tells him. And he can't do it. He can't let go of his possessions.

Jesus... I’m going to pick on … Beth I'm going to tell you what you need to do to be perfect. I'm going to give you the instructions for being perfect. And when you finally look at the wisdom of what I said, you're going to go off and be perfect.

I'm going to do the same thing for Belinda. Each one of you, I'm going to tell you, in confidence, what it means to be perfect.

And all you have to do is listen to me in my obvious perfection and you will be perfect.

Guess what's going to be happening. The very first person I talk to, I'm going to come to Beth, and say, "Beth, if you want to be perfect, those pants you're wearing have to go. Get something that is a solid color, with stripes, or something like that. Those pants have to go."

And Beth's going to look at me and say, "I love these pants. I'm not getting rid of my pants."

“Well, Beth, you're imperfect. You may be normal by your definition, but you're imperfect.”

That's the reality of our existence. I'm not perfect. There's nothing wrong with Beth's pants. I'm not perfect, but Jesus is perfect.

And He, in His humanity and divinity, comes to us and tells us what we need to do to be perfect. And He knows, especially from the lengthy experience with the judges in the Old Testament, we're going to blow it. We're not going to do it.

And Jesus, in seeing this, says, "You need to be perfect. Come and spend all eternity with Me in Heaven. Your treasure is in Heaven. Follow me and be perfect."

I can't. I'm normal. I’m not perfect.

And that brings us to the wonder of Christ, and the wonder of His Holy Catholic Church.

In His humanity, He goes to us and says, "Even though from all exterior appearances, this man is perfect, he is not. He needed Jesus to die on the cross so he could have the opportunity to go to Heaven. He can't do it on his own.” Sorry, Bob.

And beyond that He give us the Holy Catholic Church and says, "Bob, Jesus is giving you everything you need to be perfect." And you say, "Thank you." And you work on it. And then you look at yourself and you go, "Oops! I blew it. I'm not perfect. Jesus died for my sins on the cross, but I keep on sinning."

Jesus, says, "Go to the priest. Through the priest, through Me, you'll be forgiven. Live your life striving constantly for perfection."

Because that's the reality of the human condition. That's the wonder of Christ. As incompetent and normal as we are, we do not have in ourselves the ability to be perfect.

But through Jesus Christ and his teachings, His sacrifice on the cross, remember St. Paul, "Christ crucified" and His Holy Catholic Church, we have the ability to change ourselves to the degree that we may not be perfect when we die, but we may be close enough to forgiveness, through the way we have lived, that when we die, God will welcome us into Heaven.

Or, because He loves us so much and realizes how imperfect we are, we can look at what I consider one of the greatest gifts of God, ever, and that's Purgatory. Because I certainly am not perfect.

Because even after we have died, He gives us the opportunity to perfect ourselves, to spend all eternity in Heaven.

But what we are called to do in our lives is to follow God, to listen to the teachings of Jesus, to follow them and make them our normal, and then to partake of the wonder of His death and resurrection, and partake of the gifts of the sacraments of our Holy Catholic Church and pray to Him that when we die, we will have come close enough to perfecting ourselves that we can spend all eternity with Him in Heaven.

August 12, 2019 2