Christian Perfection, Grace and Contemplation

If we are called to be perfect as the heavenly Father is
perfect, then we must seek, far outside the narrow frontiers of our own
fantasies, a perfection beyond all natural capacity, exceeding anything which
our limited reason can calculate.  This
is why those who want to obey Christ, those who want to be perfect as is our
heavenly Father, must first of all approach God like beggars.   Before the mystery of God’s love we are indeed
beggars who do not know what we need or how to ask for it.  Charity cannot be grasped by our own
cleverness nor can it be mimicked by our own industry.  A soul weighed down by the spirit of
self-sufficiency lacks the freedom this gift requires.  Here we come against a great mystery.  The primacy of grace in the Christian life is
essential to Christian perfection. 

If we are in some sense beggars asking for what we do not
have and cannot even understand, the words of Christ push us beyond being just beggars
in pursuit of this gift – for his mysterious command reveals more than a moral imperative,
it reveals a relationship.  We are not
asked to be perfect as some inaccessible godhead is perfect.  Were we asked to do this, Christ’s command
would be completely impossible.  Rather,
we are asked to be perfect as is our Father in heaven, the Father who in his
great love for us gave us his Son.   It
is through the gift of Jesus that we know our Father and his perfection.   It is
through Jesus’ gift of himself on the Cross that the perfection of the Father pierces
our hearts and transforms who we are.   Faith in Christ makes us into the sons and
daughters of God.  Not as slaves but as
sons and daughters, being perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect is
possible. 

The difference between a Father and Master, a son and a slave, is a matter of how each regards the other.  This speaks to the primacy of contemplation in the Christian life.  Although our faith compels us
to take up every good work for the honor and glory of God, Christian perfection
does not consist principally in good works. 
Instead, we are made perfect by the obedience of faith, a faith that
attends to God in love.  For in silent
prayer, prayer where the heart attends to God, we allow the Father to behold us
in love, to enjoy our attentive presence as his sons and daughters.  As we allow Him to behold us in love, the
most beautiful desires are given birth to in our hearts.  Possibilities we never knew existed suddenly
present themselves in the concrete opportunities of our real life circumstances.  The heart delights to discover that the
ability to add to the Father’s delight in ever new ways is always just a
decision away.  This is because the gaze
of the Father is not passive – it is unfathomably fecund, constantly bringing
forth into existence out of nothing.  When
the Father sees us in love the overwhelming generosity of his Heart spills into
ours: He lavishes us with every gift and blessing so that his perfection might
be revealed by how we live at all times in every circumstance, that we might
become living icons of Christ the visible image of the invisible God.  In such prayer, our gaze, participating by
grace in his eternal creative love which constantly explodes into to action,
becomes like His: we are in this exchange of glances with God perfect like our
heavenly Father.