
Be perfect - 28-02-2026
Saturday of the First week of Lent
Readings Responsorial Psalm Gospel YOUCAT Reflection
First Reading
Deut 26,16-19.
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
"This day the LORD, your God,
commands you to observe these statutes and decrees.
Be careful, then, to observe them
with all your heart and with all your soul.
Today you are making this agreement with the LORD:
he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways
and observe his statutes, commandments
and decrees, and to hearken to his voice.
And today the LORD is making this agreement with you:
you are to be a people peculiarly his own,
as he promised you; and provided you keep all his commandments,
he will then raise you high in praise
and renown and glory above all other nations he has made,
and you will be a people sacred to the LORD,
your God, as he promised."
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 119(118),1-2.4-5.7-8.
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
Who seek him with all their heart.
You have commanded that your precepts
be diligently kept.
Oh, that I might be firm in the ways
of keeping your statutes!
I will give you thanks with an upright heart,
when I have learned your just ordinances.
I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me.
Gospel
Matt 5,43-48.
Jesus said to his disciples:
"You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you,
what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
YOUCAT Reflection
299 What is meant by a "virtue"?
A virtue is an interior disposition, a positive habit, a passion that has been placed at the service of the good.
"You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5,48). That means that we must change on our way to God. By our human abilities we can do that only in fits and starts. With his grace God supports the human virtues and gives us, above and beyond that, the so-called supernatural virtues, which help us to come closer to God and live more securely in his light.
