Saturday of the First Week of Lent
Perfectionists. Do you know one? I’ve struggled with perfectionism in my past many times - the obsessiveness of not only following the rules and laws but judging yourself is nothing I wish on another person. However, when Jesus asks us to follow His command of loving, there seems to be a freedom to being a perfectionist - a perfectionist for love.
But why does Jesus want us to be such perfectionists? Because love is the virtue that has no bounds, no limits, no laws. It is a command to “love thy neighbor” in the greatest sense of the phrase because that is the love in which we are loved by God.
Of course, there are many types of love. You may be familiar with C.S. Lewis’s four kinds of love: Storge (Affection), Philia (Frienship), Eros (Romantic), and Agape [pronounced a-GOP-ay] (Charity). Notice how love cannot even be contained in a single word. But of all these words, Agape is the love of which we can aspire to with our neighbor - the love that has no conditions, only openness and freely given.
We may not be affectionate to everyone, nor romantic (that would be a tad creepy!), nor friends with each person we encounter. But each of us are called to dig deep into our hearts and say to another “I accept you. You are not like me and I’m not like you. But we are both worthy of love freely given.”
To be perfect as our Heavenly Father, we need to shake off the idea that love is earned. We must keep the commandments, but not so much so it leads us to hate those that don’t follow the same ones. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to be perfectionists of love. Imagine the only thing you regret during a long week is not loving that stranger a little more, or not offering that seat at the restaurant, or not telling your closest friends or family “I love you.”
Lent is a time for us all to reorder ourselves back to being the loving individuals God knows we are and can be. We might not be perfect, but we aspire to be perfect in how we love.
And from a recovering perfectionist, don’t forget to show yourself love, too. :)
-Joe Oliveri