Be Perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect

Today, we read of, I believe, one of the oldest creeds of the Jews.
A wandering Aramean was my father; and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
And the Egyptians treated us harshly, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage.
Then we cried to the LORD the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression;
and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders;
and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which thou, O LORD, hast given me (Deuteronomy 26:5b-10a). Their belief is embedded in history, in particular, their Exodus experience. They are very much conscious of their bond with the ancestors. They offer sacrifice, lead their life according to the Torah. They walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his ordinances, and will obey his voice (Deuteronomy 26:17b).
Christianity was an offshoot from Judaism and has grown much bigger in scale. Our creeds, the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed we say in Mass, are a summary of Christian beliefs. It is a string of theological statements trying to clarify the mystery of the humanity and divinity of Jesus, the Blessed Trinity and the Church etc. They are distillations of centuries of theological debates. But they are also embedded in a history: the life of Jesus and the in-pouring of the Holy Spirit. If we do not know the life of Jesus and the works done by the Holy Spirit on the believers, we cannot count ourselves Christians. If we do not lead our life according to the Gospel teaching and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we are Christians in name only. We are indeed very much similar to the Jews.
You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.ἔσεσθε οὖν ὑμεῖς τέλειοι ὡς ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος τέλειός ἐστιν.(Matthew 5:48). τέλειοι means 'complete, perfect, fully developed'. This is what Jesus commanded us to achieve. Christians, in fact all mankind, are instructed to fully develop whatever talents God has bestowed on them, to attain perfection within their potential. 大學之道，在明明德，在新民，在止於至善。「至善」perfect goodness is never attainable. Yet this ancient precept instructs us to stop only when we reach perfect goodness. We know then that to attain perfection is a never-ending mission for us all.
What potentials do we have? Music? Sports? Performing art? Whatever we can do! We may not appreciate how lucky we can lead our life 'normally'. We are able to eat, to sleep, to walk, to talk and to enjoy music without any difficulties but many people are suffering from physical and mental disabilities. I always complain about how unappreciative my students are. They just don't treasure their opportunities of studies. They give up too easily when a 'difficult' problem pops up. What about me? I let a lot of opportunities slip by. I also give up too challenging a responsibility and prefer working under no pressure. We have the ability to make friend, to love, to forgive. But more often, we make enemies, we hate and we refuse to reconcile. We waste a lot of our potentials to make our immediate environment a better place to live in.

My God, I am very much like a spoilt Symphorian, my 6-year-old son. I am lazy and only indulge in the things I enjoy doing. Being a diabetic has given me a lot of excuses not to do many things that I should have done. I have not done my part to realize the potentials You have generously bestowed me. Heal me for I have sinned against You. May I be able to see Your face again. Amen.