GOD'S EXPECTATION OF US? PERFECTION. PERIOD

Matthew 5:48

The other day I received an email message that read:

"I'm sure even Jesus didn't expect his apostles to hit their mark 100%. What he expected was they fixed it if they see it needs fixing. Seems to me like the history of the Church followed the same story."

I could write a book in response, but I also have to make a living.  So, I will just leave you with these six hundred words.

I have to say that some statements at the top are slightly out of context.

You don’t believe that 1 bad thing in 1,000,000 is not acceptable.  You don’t believe that there is no room in Catholic life for an AQL attitude. [Acceptable Quality Level] I know that you don’t believe it because you can write what you wrote above.  I am telling you that what you wrote is dead wrong.  The history of mankind, not just the history of the Church is a history of falls and rectifications.  In fact, the history of creation going back to the angels is a history of falls and rectifications.  Never in this history has God ever expected anything less from His creatures than total perfection.  Never.  

If God expected humans to be anything less than perfect, He Himself would then be imperfect.  When God does something, it is perfect.  He expects it to maintain its perfection.  For humans to accept anything less than what God expects, which is perfection, is a sinful attitude. 

To say that God expects humans to fail a certain percentage of the time is to degrade the value of human life to a degree that is outside the Divine Will.  To say that in the Divine Will humans are expected to fail and then to say that He expects them to “fix it if they see it needs fixing” is beyond the ability of humans to produce.  The only way to fix immorality is in conjunction with God Himself.  It is erroneous to think that it’s OK to miss the mark because God expects it anyway.  It is erroneous and presumptuous to think that humans can be saved because they can fix it if they are less than perfect.  It is erroneous to think that Jesus was tortured, crucified and died and resurrected because he expected humans to continue being less than perfect.  To think that He did all of that to remove the burden of being perfect from them, is flat out wrong. 

You will not find in the Sacred Writ, Jewish or Christian, Words from God indicating that He expects anything less than perfection.  You will see a lot of condemnation for imperfection, to the point of damnation for human obduracy in immorality.  You will find nothing in Traditional, Apostolic and Church documents indicating that a life of falling short is OK.  You will not find a Saint who accepted the attitude of expectation that humans will fail a certain percentage of the time.  You will find confessions of human frailty, and in those confessions you will find the glory of having overcome the frailty and found perfection.

I repeat, and I will not be dissuaded by anyone, because it is a matter of Divine Will,  God does not expect His Human Creatures to be anything less than perfect.  There is no AQL in God’s plan.  No, not even in His Church.  With Him, perfection is the expectation, and only perfection.  We, His collaborators do not have the freedom to expect anything less than what He expects.  From ourselves or from those around us.

To you I say, Believe it, or else.

Now you know why you won't have to cry at my funeral.