11th Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Tuesday - The Call to Christian Perfection

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a command that may feel overwhelming: “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” At first glance, it may seem impossible. How can we, limited and sinful as we are, ever hope to be perfect like God?

This command to be perfect comes at the climax of a chapter where Jesus has redefined righteousness—not as merely following rules, but as a transformation of the heart. He tells us not just to avoid murder, but to let go of anger. Not just to avoid adultery, but to purify our thoughts. Not just to love our neighbor, but to love even our enemies. These are the marks of Christian perfection: a heart conformed to the heart of God.

Perfection is not something we accomplish by our own efforts. It is a grace, a work that God accomplishes in us if we cooperate with Him. As St. Thomas Aquinas taught, the perfection of the Christian life consists chiefly in charity—in loving God with our whole heart and loving our neighbor with God’s own love.

So, the command to “be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect” is a calling to the perfection of love, to grow into the fullness of charity that is a greater and greater share in the love of the Father Himself.

That means that Christian perfection does not happen overnight; it is a lifelong journey. It happens through prayer, the sacraments, self-denial, forgiveness, and service. It happens when we resist the urge to retaliate, when we speak the truth in love, when we are generous with our time and patient with the people who challenge us.

Again, we do not grow in perfection on our own; it requires effort to cooperate with the grace of God. Perfection is the result of grace and free will. You can’t have perfection without both.

To strive for Christian perfection is not to aim at being morally superior or scrupulously correct—it is to aim at becoming a living image of Christ, who reveals to us the perfect love of the Father.

So today, as we come to this altar, let us ask the Lord for the grace to grow in holiness. May our lives be built more and more on the foundation of Christ’s love, until we are made perfect—not by our efforts alone, but through our cooperation with His, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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With confidence in God’s mercy, let us offer our prayers to the Father, who calls us to perfection through His Son.

 That she may continue to proclaim the call to holiness and help all the faithful grow in love through the sacraments, prayer, and acts of charity.

For all leaders in the world: That they may govern with wisdom and justice.

For our parish: That we may cooperate daily with God’s grace, growing in holiness through prayer, self-denial, and acts of service.

For the poor, the sick, and those who suffer:  That they may be comforted by the love of Christ and supported by the generosity and compassion of His disciples.

For our beloved dead:  That, having sought to conform their hearts to Christ, they may now behold the perfection of God’s glory in heaven.

Heavenly Father, you call us to be holy as you are holy. Strengthen us to follow your Son with sincere hearts, cooperating with your grace, that we may one day be perfected in your love. Through Christ our Lord.

January 17 2025 - St. Anthony of the Desert - "If you wish to be perfect..."

 “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”

At first glance, this can seem like a simple command regarding material detachment. But in Catholic spirituality, these words hold a much deeper meaning related to Christian Perfection and the call to complete love of God and neighbor. Jesus’ invitation involves more than the external act of selling possessions; it is an invitation to radical interior freedom and total surrender to God.

All Christians—whether lay, consecrated, or ordained—are called to strive for perfection. Vatican II powerfully re-emphasized this in its document Lumen Gentium (Chapter 5, “The Universal Call to Holiness”), reminding us that holiness is not reserved for a select few but is a vocation for everyone.

Lumen Gentium states, “The Lord Jesus, the divine Teacher and Model of all perfection, preached holiness of life to each and every one of His disciples of every condition. He Himself stands as the author and consumator of this holiness of life [teaching] "Be you therefore perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect" Indeed He sent the Holy Spirit upon all men that He might move them inwardly to love God with their whole heart and their whole soul, with all their mind and all their strength and that they might love each other as Christ loves them.”

This is what Christian perfection consists of, growth in charity—growth in love. All of the virtues find their fulfillment in the virtue of charity. And this growth in charity changes us, transforms us, unites us more closely to God who is love.

St. Anthony, whom we honor today, at the age of 19, heard the Lord’s call to Christian perfection, and sought it in the solitude of the desert. He went to the desert because it is a place without material attachments and earthly pleasures that could distract him from the ultimate pursuit.

Like St. Anthong, all Christians are called to pursue perfection through Interior Detachment from material things, deepening in our life of prayer, practicing virtues like fortitude, temperance, patience, and humility, learning to rely ever-more wholly on God’s grace, and striving daily to be faithful to God in all things and loving our neighbor with Christ-like love. 

May St. Anthony be a constant reminder to strive for that Christian perfection for which we were made, the perfection which brings us the joy and fulfillment we most deeply long for, perfection for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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For the Church: that all the faithful, inspired by the universal call to holiness proclaimed by Vatican II, may strive for Christian perfection by growing in love of God and neighbor.

For the poor and the marginalized: That our acts of charity, grounded in the virtue of love, may bring them hope and remind us that true holiness includes concrete service to our brothers and sisters in need. 

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, the sanctification of all marriages, and a deeper devotion to charitable service amongst all people.

For those oppressed by hunger, sickness or loneliness, that through the Holy Spirit’s manifold graces, they may find relief in both mind and body, and rejuvenation in spirit. 

For all who have died: that they may now share in the eternal joy of heaven, beholding the fullness of God’s love and perfection.

Heavenly Father, You call each of us to holiness. Hear these prayers we offer in faith. Through the example of Saint Anthony and by the power of Your Holy Spirit, lead us further along the path of Christian perfection. We make these prayers through Christ our Lord. Amen.

October 24 2022 - St. Anthony Mary Claret - Apostolic Zeal

Today we celebrate St. Anthony Mary Claret, saint of the 19th century, bishop and missionary.  St. Anthony Mary Claret was known for his zeal as a preacher; there’d be so many people who wished to hear him preach that they couldn’t at times all fit in church, and he’d have to preach in the city squares.

In the 1840s, anti-Clerical sentiments began to stir in Europe, especially spain, where Anthony Claret was a diocesan priest. So Fr. Anthony went to preach the Gospel in the Canary Islands. This time in a foreign land enkindled a fervor for missionary work, and returning to spain, St. Anthony Claret founded the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart, which exist to this day as a missionary order.

Pio Nono, Blessed Pope Pius IX became aware of Anthony Claret’s apostolic dynamism and competancy and appointed him to the very difficult position of Archbishop of Santiago, Cuba, a Spanish colony at the time.

Arriving in Cuba, he found the archdiocese to be in a less-than stellar state: lax discipline among the clergy, the seminary was in poor condition, spiritually and otherwise, economic poverty throughout the archdiocese was being unaddressed, and something like 9000 irregular marriages. The first official act of the new Archbishop was to consecrate his diocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He then began the systematic reconstruction of the Diocese, visiting every parish, personally conducting retreats for all the Clergy, and missions for the faithful of the extensive and extremely difficult territory. He instituted a Seminary for the native Cuban clergy and founded an order of teaching Sisters. He published a simple illustrated catechism and devised a system for teaching religion which was later approved by the Vatican Council for the entire Church. He established hospitals, cooperative Farms, Parish Credit Unions, and Boys' Town and Girls' Town, and addressed the rampant unemployment by establishing quality schools—teaching trades to the poor.

His personal sanctity, fueled by prayer, were well attested to. He would give off light when he preached and celebrated mass. He fended off earthquakes and storms through prayer. He had visions of Our Lord and the Blessed Mother, and purportedly walked on water.

He fought the injustices of wealthy European land owners, and defended the rights of the working classes.  This made enemies, unleashing a host of bitter attacks upon the Holy Archbishop and his pastoral efforts. Every available means was used to discredit his name and render him inactive. He was stabbed in the face by a would-be assassin. His enemies rested only when they had succeeded in having him banished from the country. And even then, their relentless persecution followed him into exile.

From his exile in Paris, the Archbishop traveled to Rome for the first Vatican Council.  Soon after he suffered a stroke, and died in a Cistercian Monastery.

Saint Anthony Claret described the ideal Claretian in these words, "A son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a man on fire with love, who spreads its flames wherever he goes. He desires mightily and strives by all means possible to set everyone on fire with God's love. Nothing daunts him: he delights in privations, welcomes work, embraces sacrifices, smiles at slander, rejoices in all the torments and sorrows he suffers, and glories in the cross of Jesus Christ. His only concern is how he may follow Christ and imitate him in praying, working, enduring and striving constantly and solely for the greater glory of God and the salvation of humankind."  What a beautiful directive we all do well to emulate.

And if that is too lofty, the saint said, “Christian perfection consists in three things: praying heroically, working heroically, suffering heroically”.

Through the intercession of bishop and missionary St. Anthony Mary Claret, may we be set on fire with zeal for building up the Church, embracing hardship for spreading the Gospel for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all Church leaders may help us to spread the flame of faith in all our endeavors.

That we might not be daunted by difficulty in working for the spread of the Gospel and for Christian missionaries to be sustained in their work.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life, and a sanctification of all marriages and single Catholics.

For all those struggling with addiction, mental illness, chronic sickness, unemployment, or ongoing trials of any kind: that they will be fortified and blessed with God’s special love, favor, and peace.  We pray to the Lord.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.