All-embracing Perfection

 Spare me perfection. Give me instead the wholeness that comes from embracing the full reality of who I am, just as I am.

—David Benner, Human Being and Becoming

 

You can be either broken or you can be broken open.

—Paul Tillich, Theologian  

 One of the mistaken challenges of the Christian Church is the effort to make Christians strive for perfection.  Now this is perhaps understandable as Jesus tells us to be perfect, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt 5:48).   The problem with this is that to my way of thinking, this is a surprizing thing for Jesus to say.  Being fully human, he must have known that there is little or no chance of people achieving perfections this side of the Heavenly Kingdom being established on earth.  However, there is an answer to this apparent quandary.   One commentary noted that a better translation of this passage from the Aramaic would be ‘all-embracing’ rather than perfect.

Being far less than perfect myself, this is a hope that I cling to with all my strength.  I can strive to be all-embracing – although that is a challenge every day.  Conversely, there is no hope that I will be perfect during my time on this earth.  Indeed, I believe that the expectation that Christians should be perfect has done more harm than good.  It encourages people to believe that when they fail to be perfect in thoughts, words and deeds and this in turn, may lead them to believe themselves to be beyond hope.  On the other hand, they may desperately try to hide their imperfections from others and from themselves.  They may deny the parts of themselves that they consider are imperfect.  Carl Jung identified that aspect of ourselves as the Shadow.  The Shadow is the part of our psyche which is the container for all those aspects of ourselves which are unacceptable.  We deny those aspect of ourselves either consciously or unconsciously.  There can also be aspects or traits which are commendable or positive which we have denied in ourselves such as abilities which have been neglected.  However, for the most part they are the negative, unacceptable aspects which we do want to acknowledge in ourselves. 

We can see this play out in our culture where in many situations, failure is a black mark against you at best or unacceptable at worst.  Despite the assurance by some that failures are necessary on the road to success; failures are for the most part somethings to be avoided.  The concept of failure as a positive thing has not truly penetrated our collective psyches.  It is something which is held against us and can be a source of shame.  However, failure can be something to be embraced as addressed in the quote for Paul Tillich above.  It is the breaking of our ego-driven armor which we build up around ourselves in an often desperate and mistaken attempt at self-preservation, that leads us closer to others and to God.  We are broken open to allow God and others into our lives.  No one expressed this better than Leonard Cohen, “there is a crack in everything.  That’s where the light comes in.”  That light, the light of Christ, allows our light to shine in the world. 

May you be blessed by the light on your journey.