I often find myself with perfectionist tendencies, but I've realized that perfectionism is not healthy for me, unless I have a good dose of humility. If perfectionism means that I have to somehow be perfect through my own efforts, I am setting myself up for failure, but if it means I can reach perfection with the help of my Savior, then I am putting my faith in sure hands.
For awhile I have questioned what Jesus meant by, "You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5: 48). I thought being perfect seemed almost impossible. It really all depends on how we define perfection. It can be defined in many ways and is often relative, but Jesus was speaking objectively about the soul. A person CAN be perfected in this life in terms of having a perfectly purified soul. We know this because some souls go straight to Heaven, with no purification process in between their death and their entrance into Heaven. Jesus tells us that this IS possible for every single one of us. Many times we sell ourselves short by telling ourselves that it is not possible. We only see our own weaknesses and the potential roadblocks to the end goal.
Jesus is not blind to our weaknesses. He acknowledges them; after all, He knows how weak humanity is that He had to come and save us from our own sins. Yet, He will not ask anything from us that He knows we cannot do. In a revelation received by a priest, Jesus said, "I do not ask for perfection from those whom I have chosen to be My friends; I ask only that they give me their imperfection and the burden of their sins, and allow Me to do for them what, of themselves, they are incapable of doing" (In Sinu Jesu–A Journal of a Priest at Prayer). What we are in ourselves unable to do, Jesus will make up for us in it. He will fill in our lack with His grace. It is when we believe that we have to become perfect on our own that we believe that it is impossible. I, therefore, believe that it takes humility to combat perfectionism, and it takes humility to actually become perfect.
In my own experience, perfectionism comes in when I seek to be perfect for my own glory. Perfectionism is the voice that beats me up with harsh words when I fail or fall short. It is in those moments that I must learn to embrace a new perfectionism, one that places my confidence in Jesus, not in myself. I must accept my failings by recognizing that I am weak and by leaning on Jesus, my Savior, as my Hope who will perfect me since I cannot do it on my own. In the words of Fr. Jordan Aumann, ''The most that can be demanded is that individuals do the best they can under the circumstances and then leave the rest to God."
