“So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

As Yale students, many of us suffer from a love of perfection. Perhaps “love” isn’t even the correct word here. More specifically, we idolize the idea of perfection. It stems from deep within our spirits, as we continue to pride ourselves on being high-achieving and expect way too much from ourselves. After all, isn’t a sense of ambition the reason why we are all here today? If we were without a strong drive to success, continued desire for massive self-improvement, and trajectory towards perceived perfection, would we even recognize ourselves?

Society rewards us for it—both professional and personal perfection, both the flawless transcript and the impeccable personality. We are exalted for perceived wholeness—our unblemished exterior and our pristine inner life. We will inevitably fall short, whether that be a rejection from an opportunity or the inability to be holy at all times. Or, some circumstances just do not align to go our way. Some things are out of our control, but we feel like it is our duty and mission to fix the problems of the world and make life more perfect. We may suffer from a serious hero complex, the privilege of the ability to change the world becoming a burden that we are ill-equipped to shoulder. When we fail, we may be confronted with a biting sense of insecurity and self-hatred, as if we have let our God down by failing to be perfect as He is perfect.

This is what we have to remember: we are made in God’s image. We are already made perfectly. We are made to love and be loved perfectly. Our continued quest for purification and union with Christ is undertaken on the premise that we are already enough in God’s eyes. I have found sources of strength from prayer that seem to emanate from outside of myself. That’s when I realized that our desire to be even more perfect is unrealistic and contrary to God’s plans for us. It is the arrogant belief that we are invincible that drives our high expectations. We are called to be Godly, not called to be God. It is in our striving to be better, to be holier day by day that we find our desire for closeness to God. It is in our acceptance of fallibility and imperfection that we are Catholics.