Are You Perfect Enough?Do you fear that your life is not perfect enough or that you are incapable of rearing a holy child who will have the tools necessary to make his/her calling come to fruition? While it is true that we are all called to "be perfect" even as our Father in Heaven is perfect, we must remember that it is the trying that matters most.
Blessed John Ruysbroeck wrote in
The Adornment of Spiritual Marriage:
If a man does all he can, and cannot do more because of his feebleness, it rests with the infinite goodness of God to finish the work. Then, straight as a sunbeam, there comes a higher light of Divine grace, and it is shed into the soul according to its worth, though neither merited nor desired. For in this light God gives Himself out of free goodness and generosity, the which never creature can merit before it has received it. And this is an inward and mysterious working of God in the soul, above time; and it moves the soul and all its powers. Therewith ends prevenient grace and begins the other grace, that is to say, the supernatural light.
If we read the early lives of the saints, we may see that many of them came from odd or even tragic circumstances. Indeed, many of the greatest saints are martyrs having given up all, even their very lives, for God. Jesus did not promise that the way of perfection would be easy. Instead, He promised us that it would be very difficult.
Then Jesus said to His disciples,
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow Me.Matthew 16:24
Our acts of denial of self -- to turn off the television so that we can
pray the Rosary with our children, to ensure that they receive the Sacraments frequently, to read the Lives of the Saints and the Bible with our children, and so on -- will bring about His will for us all. If it be His will that our children are to become priests, nuns, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, or if they are called to the single life, these things are brought about in His good time. We do have choices to make, though.
These stories of the saints' early lives (see navigation menu on the left) are added here so that you may see that God does call His people to Himself even when they are in circumstances that are not perfect.