Is there anyone who truly strives for mediocrity over perfection? Mediocrity is never the goal we pursue; it is a result we settle for begrudgingly. The desire for perfection is ingrained in us: our work, our school, our everyday lives, because we are all made in the image and likeness of God, who is perfect. Jesus even tells us, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). But we are sinful creatures, destined to fall when we try to stand on our own strength. How can we hope to do as Jesus says?
By doing as Jesus did.
Jesus is our model of human perfection. When we receive him in the Eucharist, when we contemplate him in adoration, we are more conformed to him. When we welcome him into our hearts, he enters willingly and gently changes us from within, making us more like himself. If we desire perfection in our lives, we must receive Jesus into our hearts.
Mary understood this better than anyone else. She was intimately in tune with the heart of Jesus. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her, she willingly gave her “Fiat,” welcoming Jesus into her womb and carrying him into the world. At his birth, lowly shepherds and wise men from the East came to adore him. It was a cause of great joy for all the nations when the Savior of the World was born among men.
If we think about it though, each of us has the privilege of bearing Jesus to the world again each day.
When we welcome Jesus into our hearts as Mary did, he comes willingly. But he does not come to us so that he might stay hidden in our hearts. It is our privilege to be his body in the world, to participate in his loving work of redemption. And in a sense, every time we bring Jesus to others, the world experiences another Nativity.
In my own life, Jesus began conforming my heart to his during high school. I began spending an hour with him each week in adoration, and I quickly found that I needed more time. I started to make a second holy hour each week and to go to daily Mass more frequently. I began to feel like the Child Jesus when he told Mary and Joseph in the temple, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” This desire to remain in the Father’s house had been planted within me and cultivated by Jesus in the silence of adoration. It was this desire that led me to enter seminary, so I might grow even closer to Jesus and bring him to others. Now, I accomplish this by being a light to my fellow students on campus and my brothers at the seminary, as well as the people I meet at my apostolate. In the future, I hope to do so as a priest of Jesus Christ.
As we approach this Christmas season, let us ask Mary to help us prepare the manger of our heart to receive the Child Jesus and bring him forth joyfully into the world each day, so that he might be born anew in the hearts of those who love him.
Tucker, who is from St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Fredericksburg, is in his third year of college seminary at St. John Paul II Seminary in Washington, D.C.
Corpus Christi