How many times have you heard from people, “I’m a good a person” That’s nice but it is not good enough to be a good person. God calls us to be good for sure but more than good, to be holy.  A person can do good things, good actions and yet be far from God.  An atheist can be a good person, without believing in God.  Holiness is about being in a right-relationship with God.  Everything done is because there is a holy longing to be closer to God. Holiness is geared to live for God, and try to avoid the pitfalls of sin. To not do anything that will distance  us from the Beloved. At the same time, holiness is not perfectionism.
      The other extreme is to adopt an attitude of “I am better than you because I do everything right.”  It is not a know-it-all attitude or a wise guy who uses ruses but is foolish in the eyes of God.  It is also not about compulsion to do everything in a specific way.  Perfectionism is tiring and at the end harmful to the person. Some have problems with the words at the end of the Gospel because it says, “Be perfect like my just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Many may think this is impossible to achieve.  No one is perfect it has been said.  This can result in a person misconstruing this sentence from the Lord.  Some preachers have tried to change these words to be compassionate like your heavenly father.  However, after further reflections these words are just perfect.  Perhaps what the Gospel is saying that if we try to live a good moral life, a life of prayer and of service, perfect charity will grow. To know what perfect charity is a reference to the catechism is necessary. To have perfect charity we need to be attuned with the Holy Spirit who will continue to fashion our temples our lives so they can be splendid for the glory of God.  Perfect charity will grow as our relationship with God will grow.  So then, be perfect is not a calling be a perfectionist, or even just a good person, but rather to be seek God in prayer that will lead to help others in perfect charity.