An All-Embracing Perfection

Last week, I came across a couple of things which addressed the desire which we have for perfection.  Psychologically and culturally, we are averse to making mistakes.  We want to go through life with nothing but wins rather than losses.  We want to be right rather than wrong – we want to be perfect.  This, of course, is impossible and it probably would not be a great or even good way of being even if it were possible.  The first thing that came to me was one of the offerings by the Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE) which sends out a daily short reflection, Brother Give Us a Word.  The word that was given to me was Failure:

Remember that your weakness doesn’t disqualify you from God’s love, but instead opens the way for God to act in and through you. Let your failures or your fears remind you of your need to rely on God for all things. God’s strength is made perfect in your weakness.  Br. David Vryhof, SSJE

The second offering to me was an interview on CBC Radio.  The interviewee was a scientist – unfortunately I didn’t get his name.  He was speaking about the development of vaccines and the criticism that some people had for the changes in advice that was given during the COVID pandemic by officials.  He noted that science makes progress by making mistakes.  My understanding of what he was saying is that if a hypothesis is proven not to be true, that is a step forward in scientific knowledge.  A quick Google search produced the following applicable quote by Paulina Kuo, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)., “Making errors in science is just part of the process and allows scientists to learn and broaden what we know. It’s only by being wrong that we ever learn what’s right.”

We are given many messages in our culture that mistakes are not okay.  We often see people honoured for what they have accomplished but there may be no mention of the challenges that they have had in accomplishing what they are being honoured for including the mistakes they have made.  There seems to be a greater tendency to knock people from their pedestals when past mistakes are revealed.  Acknowledging them and asking for forgiveness doesn’t cut it anymore.  Even Jesus seems to support the drive for perfection. An alternative to being perfect was offered in a little book I came across some years ago - A Prayer for the Cosmos by Neil Douglas-Klotz.  This little gem is a translation of The Lord’s Prayer and other sayings of Jesus from Aramaic sources.  One of the passages that the book addressed was from the Gospel of Matthew (5: 48).  This is traditionally translated as ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’.  However, the translation by this author is, ‘Be all-embracing, as you heavenly Father is all-embracing.” 

This passage and similar ones direct Christians to seek perfection and the understanding of God, as all good.  I could not reconcile them with my understanding of humanity as creatures of God, created in the image of God.  This new translation reconciled that dichotomy for me.  This enables me to reconcile these passages with my understanding of the human psyche.  We are to seek wholeness not perfection.  To quote my all-time favourite song writer and philosopher, Leonard Cohen,

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in

I will continue to offer my imperfect offerings to the source of my being which desires my wholeness and not my perfection. My you also be so blessed on your journey.