20260228 BECOMING WHO YOU ARE
28 February 2026, Saturday, 1st Week of Lent
First reading |
Deuteronomy 26:16-19 |
You will be a people consecrated to the Lord
Moses said to the people: ‘The Lord your God today commands you to observe these laws and customs; you must keep and observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
‘You have today made this declaration about the Lord: that he will be your God, but only if you follow his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and listen to his voice. And the Lord has today made this declaration about you: that you will be his very own people as he promised you, but only if you keep all his commandments; then for praise and renown and honour he will set you high above all the nations he has made, and you will be a people consecrated to the Lord, as he promised.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 118(119):1-2,4-5,7-8 |
They are happy who follow God’s law!
They are happy whose life is blameless,
who follow God’s law!
They are happy who do his will,
seeking him with all their hearts.
They are happy who follow God’s law!
You have laid down your precepts
to be obeyed with care.
May my footsteps be firm
to obey your statutes.
They are happy who follow God’s law!
I will thank you with an upright heart
as I learn your decrees.
I will obey your statutes;
do not forsake me.
They are happy who follow God’s law!
Gospel Acclamation | cf.Lk8:15 |
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Or: | 2Co6:2 |
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Now is the favourable time:
this is the day of salvation.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Gospel | Matthew 5:43-48 |
Pray for those who persecute you
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have learnt how it was said: You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on bad men as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest men alike. For if you love those who love you, what right have you to claim any credit? Even the tax collectors do as much, do they not? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Even the pagans do as much, do they not? You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’
BECOMING WHO YOU ARE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Dt 26,16-19; Ps 119:1-2,4-5,7-8; Mt 5:43-48]
“You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” What does this perfection mean? None of us will ever dream of being perfect like the Heavenly Father because we know we are sinners and will never be able to be perfect in every way like Him. Indeed, this was the temptation of the fallen angels; they wanted to be perfect without God – like Adam and Eve, who sought perfection using their own strength.
The truth is that the call to perfection is not an abstract and metaphysical perfection as God is. God is perfect in every sense of the word, metaphysically and existentially. He is perfect in omniscience, omnipotence, love, and compassion. What Jesus is asking of us is not to be perfect as God is perfect in this sense. Rather, the perfection that Jesus is asking for is that of a functional or existential perfection. In other words, perfection is when we become who we are. Perfection, as St Paul says, is to grow to full maturity in Christ. “The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.” (Eph 4:11-14)
Conversely, to fail in perfection is when we do not become who we are. Sin is not just a moral action. Sin, in Greek, is hamartia, which means ‘to miss the mark’. In other words, sin is when we fail to arrive at our destination. St Paul defines sin as to “fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:23) God created us to share in His image and likeness. When we sin, we do not reflect His image and likeness. When we fail to attain our desired end, it means we have not yet been perfected. A student is perfected when he gets all A’s for all his papers. A shoe is perfected when it fits the feet well and the person wearing it is comfortable. A chef is perfect when everyone enjoys his cooking. When we attain what we are called to do, we find fulfilment. So when we become truly His sons and daughters, reflecting the Father’s unconditional love and mercy, we are perfect like Him. This is what Jesus meant by perfection. “But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven, for he causes the sun to rise on bad men as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest men alike.”
This is why St John urges us to grow in holiness, which is to grow in perfection in love and mercy. “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1 Jn 3:2f) We call someone a saint not because he is perfect like God, but because he has perfected himself and his life. He has become what God had meant him to be. In other words, he perfects himself by living out his vocation of love, mercy and service completely, according to what God intends him to be – whether as a missionary, a priest, a teacher, or a doctor. It does not matter which vocation we are called to, but it does matter that we live out our vocation to the fullest in truth and love, so that we arrive at our ultimate calling, and find fulfilment in life, which is self-realisation.
But what does it mean to be perfected in love, mercy, and forgiveness? The call to love must be properly distinguished, otherwise we live in guilt and give up growing in love completely because it seems such an impossible task. We must distinguish four kinds of love in the Greek language.
We have the first form of love, which is storge. This is familial love, the love between parents and children. The love within the family for each other is a natural affection. All parents care for their children and are always worried for them. There is a certain attachment that goes beyond biological and emotional – it is spiritual as well. This is why it is often said that “blood is thicker than water!” Even though we may not like our parents or siblings, we still have this natural inclination to care for them. When we see one of our family members suffering and we do not render help, we feel guilty, even if we cannot get along with them.
Secondly, there is eros, which is a sexual love – a love that comes from our passion for each other. Again, this is natural, for God made man and woman to complete each other. We desire to be physical in love because love wants to find completion and unity. This is very much expressed in the act of sexual union and physical signs of love. Unfortunately, this form of love, which is meant to be a pure expression of love for the other person, often becomes lust. The other person is used for sexual pleasure rather than embraced in a true act of love that expresses unity of mind and heart.
Thirdly, there is philia, which is the love of a friend. This kind of love is the purest form of human love. It brings warmth and is without self-interest. This love is reciprocal. We have many examples of such beautiful human friendships in the bible, such as that between David and Jonathan. Both of them were sworn friends and brothers to each other. Jonathan even sacrificed his crown to support David as king. True friends care for the other person more than himself. It is never difficult to sacrifice what we like, need, or have, to give to our good friends. We are happy to forfeit our rights because to see them happy and fulfilled is our greatest joy. Friendship love brings warmth, affection, joy, and security.
Finally, there is agape. This is the kind of love that we are called to imitate in God. Unlike the other three forms of love, agape is not moved by passion but by an act of the will. Of course, this does not mean that passion is always absent. What we want to say is that agape love – which is what godly love is all about – can exist even without feeling passion towards someone. This is what it means to be sons and daughters of our heavenly Father who “causes the sun to rise on bad men as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest men alike.” God continues to love even when we reject Him, just as Jesus did on the cross – forgiving and praying for His enemies. St Paul said, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8) God did not die for good people but for all of us in Christ Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:16f) God does not require us to have the kind of passionate feelings we have for our loved ones, our lovers, or friends. What is needed is just an act of the will to love. We love by caring for our enemies, especially when they are in trouble. We continue to reach out to them even though they do not like us, or think ill of us. In other words, agape love means to care for a person simply because he or she is a child of God even if he or she were a deviant child. But in God’s eyes, we must love them and reach out to them so that they, too, can come to know the face of God and be healed of their blindness, selfishness, and brokenness.
How can we do this? Of course, not by our strength. We cannot be perfected as God’s sons and daughters by our own strength, but only through Him alone. St Paul said, May God “give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.” (Eph 1:17-19) Only when we come to the know “the breadth and length and height and depth, and the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:18f) We need the Spirit of God’s love to fill our hearts. (Rom 5:5)
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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