Was Jesus demanding too much?

In the Old Testament, the Chosen People were asked to be holy like their God because their God was holy.
For I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy (Leviticus 11:44a).
Of course, it all depends on what it meant to be holy in the culture and customs of the Chosen People. As far as we can get, keeping themselves from ritually unclean things would make the Chosen People holy and observing all the commandments would make them holy too. Once 'holiness' is materially defined, a legalism would creep in. People would be more concerned with the letters of the commandments instead of making use of the spirit of the commandments to elevate their goals and value-system. They would care more whether they had done enough or whether they had done accurately. Gradually, hypocricy was bred even among genuinely sincere people. Therefore, a pragmatic/materialistic approach to holiness is doomed to fail.

However, if we consider the meaning of being holy from a theological/philosophical angle, it is even worse. We find that being holy is impossible. God is God. Only God is holy and we are but creatures. We are no angels, or God.  Nothing we do in the material realm can make us holy. So, how can we be holy? Therefore, in a sense, Jesus' teaching is more approachable. Instead of demanding us to be holy, Jesus told us to achieve something more accessible --- to be perfect.
You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48)
Today, I attended three masses. Without exception, the priests and archbishop pointed to forgiveness in their homilies on perfection. Therefore, if we are able to forgive and to love our enemies, we attain perfection. The gospel reading today is the most challenging of all the biblical texts: do not resist evil, to turn another cheek, to walk an extra mile and to love your enemies etc. These teachings are diametrically opposite our human nature. Jesus has turned everything human upside down. Was Jesus asking for the impossible?
Once when Jesus was teaching about the extreme difficulty for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, he encouraged his disciples that nothing is impossible for God.
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)
We need to pray for God's grace to empower us to follow these challenging teachings.

Today, the aspirants met with the VG. We spent two and a half hours sharing about the formation of deacons. The VG led the sharing and told us to focus and go deeper into our hearts. He discouraged us from taking part in too many of those deacon formation courses.
We had also shared our views on Paul's epistle to the Philippians 4:8-9. Without any previous agreement, at least four of us felt that justice was important. We aired our grievances about the injustice we encountered in our life. I brought out the injustice of one of my colleagues who left behind many exercise books for the supply teacher to mark. I grumbled in front of Brenda who somehow condones such an injustice. But John, who is now substituting, is so generous. For the sake of the students, he doesn't mind marking those exercise books left behind by S. From John I have learnt a lot. Yes, we should fight for justice. Yet, the Kingdom of Heaven is not built up through fighting for justice, but through a generosity to forgive and to embrace all.

Today, the VG read a resignation email from B.B.Joe who had already informed us. The email did not give any explanation why he gave up this deacon vocation. But in his short messages to the few of us, he did not hide his unhappiness with the VG. To forgive is divine. We are all too human. What a pity!

Dear Lord, I pray for B. B. Joe and for myself. Being vocal has cost me my job in La Salle. I thank You for the second chance You have given me in Shung Tak. I need to pray for greater strength to master myself and transform myself into a better servant of Yours. Amen.