A Christian is always in the making

The purpose of Lent is to keep alive in our consciousness and our life the fact that BEING a Christian can only take the form of BECOMING a Christian EVER ANEW; that it is not an event now over and done with but A PROCESS requiring CONSTANT PRACTICE."

--Benedict XVI, in Dogma and Preaching, Ignatius Press 2011)

St. Paul's farewell to Corinthians

In conclusion, brethren, rejoice, be perfected, be comforted, be of the same mind, be at peace; and the God of peace and love will be with you.

2 Corinthians 13:11

PERFECTION VS MEDIOCRITY

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

--Albert Einstein

Perfection lies not in the multiplicity of the things you do but in doing them well in the spirit in which our Lord did all his works. This is what goes to make genuine and solid holiness: to do what one does well, in conformity with one's vocation. [p. 57]

(St Vincent de Paul. From Jacques Delarue, The Holiness of Vincent de Paul, Geoffrey Chapman Ltd, London 1960, 132 pp)

The English writer, Dorothy Sayers, said this about Jesus’s carpentry:

"No crooked table leg or ill-fitting drawer ever, I dare swear, came out of the carpenter shop at Nazareth. Nor, if they had, could anyone believe that they were made by the same hands that made heaven and earth."

Think of it: Jesus’ daily work revealed the divine character. His daily work showed God’s integrity.

This is Howard Butt, Jr., of Laity Lodge. When you doubt your job is sacred or meaningful to God—look at God incarnate, sweating over a workbench with measure, hammer, and chisel. Trust the Carpenter who glorified His Father in all his tasks. It's the high calling of our daily work.

Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6:29)

(Howard Butt, The High Calling of Our Daily Work, http://www.thehighcalling.org/Library/ViewMessage.asp?MessageID=357&WID=343&T=H&SID=12675)

In the book of Leviticus, God instructs the Israelites on the offerings they are to make. And he repeats eighteen times* that the offering shall be "without blemish", that it should have "no blemish" (Lev 22:21).

In Leviticus 22:20, God says: "You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you."

*these passages are:
1:3,10; 3:1,6; 4:3,23,28,32; 5:15,18; 6:6; 9:1,3; 14:10 (twice); 22:19; 23:12,18

"If you would be perfect, go sell all you have and come, follow me"(Matthew 19:21). Perfection, the state of being holy as God is holy (cf Leviticus 19:2, 11:44), as demanded by the Torah, now consists in following Jesus.

(Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, p 105)

I do not ask that you be angels. I ask you to be holy according to your nature.

(Locution to Gabriela Bossis, God's Spiritual Direction (Messages from Heaven). Transl. Fr Adolf Faroni, SDB. Manila: Don Bosco Press, 2000, p 8)

Cheerfulness is a sign of a generous and mortified person who forgetting all things, even herself, tries to please her God in all she does for souls. Cheerfulness is often a cloak which hides a life of sacrifice, continual union with God, fervor and generosity. A person who has this gift of cheerfulness very often reaches a great height of perfection. For God loves a cheerful giver (cf II Cor 9:7) and He take close to His heart the religious he loves.

(Blessed Mother Teresa, The Private Writings of the "Saint of Calcutta")