A Perfect Promise

I love how today’s first reading ends: “And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. / He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised” (Deuteronomy 26:18-19).  There are two sides of the coin—obey God, but more importantly, God loves you!!! Although the Lord asks for real sacrifice, He also promises so much more than we can even imagine. It is an incomprehensibly good deal—all of us for ALL of HIM!!!

It is not too much for Jesus to command his disciples in today’s Gospel, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Today, it is not too much for Jesus to command us, his disciples, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” He who has begun the work of grace in us has the power and the love—or rather is the Power and the Love—to complete the work of grace in us.

I hope you like this sonnet about God lifting up the lowly. I wrote it when I was a junior at Ave Maria University:

The Preposition of the Object

Love has raised up the lowly preposition,


And has secured it at the highest place,


To a lofty throne, in a fine condition,


O’er the other parts of speech at the base,

For what is “death” if ‘tis not for another—


An empty noun, a meaningless notion,


Or what is it “to suffer” but with a brother?


Love in life gives meaning to our motion.

With what, for what, in what does each thing act?


By whom does the conjunction join each thing?


By Him who loves as a matter of fact,


Who became a child yet remained the King.

And through whom do we receive such pure love?


‘Tis Christ God In-carnate, I’m thinking of.