Today’s Gospel ends with what seems to be a tall order: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Perfection is a good point to reflect on. It is one of the most sought-after virtues, but also the most misinterpreted. Clearly, the perfection Christ “demands” is the perfection of becoming a merciful, loving and compassionate person.

One of my favorite authors, Parker Palmer, states that the journey to wholeness does not demand perfection. Rather, it asks us to embrace what we like and dislike about ourselves, including our imperfections.

Excellence, used interchangeably with perfection, is just as misunderstood. When I was active in high school work in Jesuit schools, I always advocated that excellence in the Ignatian sense goes beyond academic excellence.

Ultimately, it is excellence in service and in loving.

In talks to parents and teachers, most especially to students, I often proposed that the source of the virtue of excellence in the Ignatian tradition is found in the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius.

“Lord, that I may see you more clearly; love you more dearly; follow you more nearly.” This is the central grace one prays for in the all-important Second Week, the Election Week where one chooses a state of life in the love and service of Christ.

The drive for excellence

Here we see three important points: one, the centrality of Christ in this relationship, being referred to in all three statements; two, the drive for excellence, the “more,” the “magis”; three, the process of knowing, seeing and following.

I had an ongoing conversation with teachers and parents on this, which often shifted to a debate or disagreement. It was basically a difference in emphasis on what was important to the education of their students, their children.

Excellence is loving Christ more dearly, and from this comes following Christ more nearly. It is not just to love and to serve, but to love and to serve in the spirit of the more.

Recently, I heard of a story about a young man barely in his teens who exhibited this “imperfect excellence.” Their team was preparing for a big match, and he was among the top players.

Playing time is determined by how well you practiced, and how you actually performed in the game. Practice counts, both in one’s earning playing time and the team winning a game.

During one of the practice days, the parent picked up the boy, who then shared that he did not practice because he spent time with his teammate who felt bad because he was being ridiculed by other students.

Before the parent could comment, the boy said it was more important to be there for his friend and miss practice, even if it lessened his chances of getting playing time. (In the game after this episode, this boy who chose to be with his friend scored the winning goal.)

This is the perfection, the excellence Christ exhorts us to aspire for. This is the excellence teachers and parents should aim to nurture in children. As one of the best students I have ever had told me almost 25 years ago, “Whatever makes me a more loving person.”

Being there

Excellence is what makes us more loving persons, perfection and excellence in loving and in service, perhaps the two are synthesized in compassion.

This is a more challenging way of companionship. The easier way is command-and-control, shock-and-awe, take charge. To be a companion requires humility, to be with the other person in total self-giving.

Recollection

You are invited to a Lenten Recollection on the Film “Ignacio de Loyola” on March 4, first Saturday of Lent, Newport Performing Arts Theater, Resorts World Manila. Recollection starts promptly at 3:20 p.m. The ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra and The Ateneo Chamber Singers will perform the musical track of the film. —CONTRIBUTED

Call 09373732066 or 09373732054.