STRIVING TO BE PERFECT AS THE HEAVENLY FATHER IS PERFECT: Reflections on Christian Maturity in Decision-Making, Forgiving, and Reconciliation

By Fr. John F. Tuohey

The Greek term that Matthew uses to quote Jesus’s call for us to be perfect is the same word used by St. Paul and St. Peter in their letters which we translate as mature. St. Paul tells us we are called to the “complete measure of the stature” that belongs to Christ: spiritual, emotional, moral, and intellectual maturity. How do we get there? Our Lord also teaches we are to be forgiving “seventy times seven times.” Does anyone find that easy? We are also called to examine our own consciences to discover if we need to “leave our gifts at the altar” and go and make amends. Now there is a challenge. In this book, Fr. Tuohey uses Scripture, the writing of the early church fathers, his professional experience, the Twelve Steps of AA, and his personal struggles with Jesus’s call to perfection to share the insights he has gained. They are shared here in the hopes it might be helpful to others as well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9798891304680

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STRIVING TO BE PERFECT AS THE HEAVENLY FATHER IS PERFECT

Reflections on Christian Maturity in Decision-Making, Forgiving, and Reconciliation: Using Christian and Catholic traditions, the 12 Steps of AA, and my own experience as a Catholic priest, a professor of moral theology and health-care ethicsaEUR"an alcoholic

Fr. John F. Tuohey

ISBN 979-8-89130-467-3 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89130-468-0 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Fr. John F. Tuohey

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

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Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Maturity in Decision-Making

Being Prudent

Chapter 2

The Art of Forgiving

Chapter 3

Going to Confession and Doing Penance

Working the Steps and Making Amends

About the Author

Introduction

The title for this book comes from the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 5, verse 48. The verse is challenging to interpret. In his commentary on Matthew, George Martin understands the text to mean that to be perfect as the Father is perfect is to love as God loves.i It is in loving one another that we find the perfection to which we are called. I wonder if perhaps there is more. The Greek term the evangelist uses is teleioi. This is the same term we find in the New Testament letters translated as mature. In his letter to the Ephesians 4:13, St. Paul writes that we are all called to a maturity that is the complete measure of the stature that belongs to Christ.

The maturity of which St. Paul often speaks is that of spiritual maturity. He refers to his journey to spiritual maturity in his letter to the Philippians, chapter 3, verses 7–8:

Those things I used to consider gain I have now reappraised as loss in the light of Christ.ii

We also find in the writings of St. Paul and other letters of the New Testament a call to an emotional, social, ethical, or moral, and we can say professional and intellectual maturity in Christ. St. Paul speaks of emotional maturity when he writes of putting aside childish things in 1 Corinthians 13:11–13. Later in his letter, he challenges us to not be like "children in our thinking but to be mature (1 Corinthians 14:20; Philippians 3:15). The author of Hebrews writes that we are called to be food for the mature, referring to those who are trained to discern between the choice of good and evil (Hebrews 5:14). St. Peter describes social maturity when he calls us to put aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy (1 Peter 2:1–3). St. Paul will call on us to be socially mature by being truthful, not lying to one another (Colossians 3:9–10). In his second letter, St. Peter will warn against being carried away by unprincipled men (2 Peter 3:17–18). St. Paul speaks of intellectual maturity in Romans where he speaks of, literally in Greek, the reasonable service" we are called to give with our bodies. We need, he writes, a renewal of minds so that we may judge what is God's will, what is good, pleasing and mature (Romans 12:1–2). We can say that St. Paul calls his disciple Timothy to a professional, intellectual maturity in advising him to guard the good measure entrusted to you and to accept the hardships he will face in proclaiming the Gospel like a good soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 1:14; 2:3).iii

There are many examples in the letters of the New Testament and in the Gospels, of the spiritual, emotional, social, ethical/moral, and professional/intellectual maturity to which we are called. The subject of the essays of this book is the broader understanding of Christian maturity, specifically maturity in making decisions, maturity in forgiving, and the maturity of being able to seek reconciliation with those with whom we have become estranged, including from our own selves.

These essays are in some ways autobiographical. I read every day the works of early Christian writers and the Scriptures in the breviary, the divine office prayed daily by priests and religious women and men, as well as many lay people. There are also the prayers and Scriptures used at Mass, particularly those chosen to celebrate a memorial or feast of a particular saint, as well as in the