Watching segments and news about the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics has made me think of the years of preparation and endurance that the athletes would spend to get an Olympic gold medal. This ambition requires discipline and perseverance.  And yes, it requires perfection!

Come to think about it. It’s the same goal that Jesus teaches when we hear his words, “You must be perfect as my Father is perfect.”  This is hard to achieve, isn’t it? We’ll have to be like athletes–we’ll need to spend a great amount of countless practice, rigorous schedule, and discipline to come to perfection.

Lent is a time to achieve perfection. Although this is hard to do because of many worldly distractions, our uncontrollable human tendencies and appetites, it is something that we must hope for!

A few days before Ash Wednesday, I encountered the word “perfection” several times in our daily Mass readings, particularly in the Letter of James. In James 1:1-11, for example, James asks us to have a “perfect perseverance” The reading states:  “Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let your perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

We need perfect endurance to withstand the pressures and anxieties of life. Indeed, for some of us with heavy responsibilities, it is the “perfect” ingredient to face our various challenges.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus demonstrated perfect endurance when he encountered the temptations of the devil during his fasting in the desert for forty days and forty nights.   He did not give in to these temptations. He remained strong in overcoming human weaknesses and desires.

“It’s easy for Jesus to say ‘no’ to the devil,” we might say. “After all, he is God.”

This is a lame excuse. We need to believe in our human capacity and in the grace of God that help us achieve perfection. As long as we live, we must not give up on our ability to be great, to be holy. The saints remind us of this humble ambition.

In high school, a few of my friends and I had the dream of becoming saints like St. Francis of Assisi and St. Ignatius of Loyola.  Still, none of us has become a canonized “saint”. Lately, I have come across some of these friends in Facebook. One, a Franciscan missionary, just got assigned in Sri Lanka, working among the poor.  When I see his photos and read his postings, I see and feel a heart that desires for perfection. Another did not become a priest; instead, he became a professor and a writer.  But, as always, when I read about his books, I see a passionate heart that longs for sainthood, perhaps not in the priesthood, but in his calling as a father, a teacher, and a writer.

During this period of Lent, let us long for perfection. After all, isn’t it a season of longing for that perfection…the Resurrection of Christ and our own resurrection?