Card. Foley: “We cannot be perfect but we can be perfect in love”

27-02-2010

(27 Feb 10 - RV) On Saturday Morning, Cardinal John Patrick Foley, Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem presided over a dawn stational mass in St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Each Lent priests and seminarians of the North American College retrace the steps of the ancient Roman custom of Station Masses, held in the city's oldest churches.

In his homily, Cardinal Foley reflected on Christ's command "Be perfect, just as your heavenly father is perfect."

He noted : "Obviously, we cannot be perfect in power - we cannot do everything! Obviously, also, we cannot be perfect in knowledge - we cannot know everything!". "We can, however, be perfect in love".

The Philadelphia born prelate, one of the longest serving curial Cardinals went on to explain: "A loving adherence to God's law seen not as a list of prohibitions but as a path to perfection and as an expression of love is fundamental to being perfect as our heavenly father is perfect".

The invitation or rather the command of Jesus, "Love one another as I have loved you," requires a life of continuing self-sacrificing service.

Cardinal Foley pointed out to the future priests of America that Jesus "lived a life of humble service and of preparation for thirty years, more than ninety percent of his life" urging them to see their own lives as students preparing for the priesthood as an expression of love.

Jesus he said "taught the truth with authority; He served, in particular, the apparently least important members of society: the handicapped, the sick, the poor; He dedicated Himself to and sought the conversion of sinners.

So, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" -is a challenge to love as Jesus loved - a self-forgetful total act of dedication, concluded Cardinal Foley.

For more information on Station mass times and locations visit the North American Colleges website at www.pnac.org

http://www.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=360490