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The Illusion Of Perfection And The Path To True Holiness

The Illusion Of Perfection And The Path To True Holiness

Last updated on: September 15, 2026 at 6:55 am by Henry Karlson

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The Illusion Of Perfection And The Path To True Holiness 2026-09-15T06:55:55-05:00 Henry Karlson

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While we look up to the saints as models of perfection, we must do more than imitate their actions, we must imitate their inner spiritual life. Diego Delso: Palacio Pitti, Florencia, Italia / Wikimedia Commons

Perfection is humble and modest. Every time we assume perfection for ourselves, and then judge others based upon how they fail to meet up to our expectations, we find ourselves far from the perfection we claim to have. We are not to judge perfection based upon ourselves; to do so is an act of pride, an act which proves how imperfect we are. We might have the appearance of perfection, but it is all external, a hollow shell; what we have has no substance, it will not last. It is an illusion. This, after all, is one of the points we are to learn from the story of Satan’s fall – Satan was, in a sense, perfect, but in another sense, far from it, because Satan was so self-absorbed, so pridefully in love with himself, that he judged others as his inferior. He rejected the perfection, the greatness, found in others, because it was less than his own; he was unwilling to acknowledge it, even when God told him to do so. Satan has been acting in this way ever since his fall. He seeks to deny or undermine others, trying to prove himself right by tempting them and having them fall from grace like he did. Satan’s pride might have been forgivable if Satan did not connect it with hate, but his judgment of others and his actions towards them came from his hate, making him seek to destroy others instead of building them up. In the end, he also began to hate himself, because he failed to remain as great as his pride suggested. It can be said that it is this hate, this Satanic hate, combined with his pride, is what has him never relent, never repent. Again, we are to learn this so as to make sure we do not become like him. We need to embrace humility, not pride, and with it, we will be able to love, avoiding the hate which would lead us to be far from God:

Without humility, and without love, we can’t move a single step along the path of the Lord. The Lord makes big things out of little one. Without humility you might look down from the height of perfection and simply not understand, or begin to imagine, the miracles that Christ performs with human weakness.[1]

True perfection transcends external rules and expectations. There needs to be proper intentions with them. We do what others did, others who were holy, but not achieve what they did because we don’t have the right intentions. This is why Paul says, even if we gave up all we had to the poor, even if we did great things which seemed miraculous, if we did it without love, it was all for nothing. Objectively, we might do great things, but without love, our intentions will not be the kind needed to become perfect. We might imitate others, and do good, but the imitation only goes so far when the inner core, love, is not there. Our hearts must be pure, full of love, for us to be perfect. We must be humble, but again, humility is not enough, for without love, humility easily turns into self-hatred, a hatred which will have us seek our own annihilation. This is why if we lose our wealth, if someone humbles us, we might appear to be similar to someone holy, like a monk or nun, but the similarity is only on a superficial level. This is something everyone needs to learn, even those who we might think already know it, that is, those who have embraced the religious life for themselves. If someone with a religious vocation thinks that by denying themselves of wealth, living apparently humble lives, they will find instant perfection, they will become very disappointed and possibly break their vows, as St. John Cassian learned from Abba Moses:

Hence it is clearly proved that perfection is not immediately arrived at by being stripped and deprived of all one’s wealth or by giving up one’s honors, unless there is that love whose elements the Apostle describes, which consists in purity of heart alone. For what else does it mean not to be envious, not to be boastful, not to be angry, not to do evil, not to seek the things that are one’s own, not to rejoice over iniquity, not to think evil and all the rest, if not always to offer God a perfect and utterly clean heart and to keep it unsullied by any passion? [2]

Cassian knew many, if not most, of his intended audience were looking into (or living) the ascetic life. They had many great examples they looked to such as St. Antony or St. Pachomius, but they had to make sure they did more than merely follow their external actions. They had to make sure their embrace of the religious life came from the right intentions. It is not just the way of life which made many of the desert fathers and mothers holy. It was not mere self-denial which helped them attain perfection. Above all else, it was what was in their hearts which allowed them to become holy. With their hearts on fire for God, with hearts filled with love, they could take on their religious vocation and become the men and women God wanted them to be. Most of us, however, have a different calling, and so we, too, must engage the way of life we have been called to live, engaging it with love if we want to find perfection through our calling in life.

Perfection, therefore, is something for us to strive after, and as Christians, we know we cannot attain it without God and God’s grace. But we should also realize that we have a role to play. God is the source and foundation of all that is good, including our perfection. We can become perfect, but only if we open up to God, unite ourselves to God, and participate in the divine life, the life of love. God made this possible because God created us for this reason, so that we can share in and experience the divine life for ourselves:

The Lord our God is the most perfect Being, so much so that our intellect is not capable of grasping this idea. Just as He is all-perfect, He is also all-satisfied and all-blessed. The all-perfect and eternally blessed God created us not so that someone would torment or tyrannize us, but so that we would be eternally well, so that we would experience eternal bliss; however, because only he who strives for perfection and holiness, like God, can enjoy eternal bliss, the Creator also gave us free will, and commanded us to be holy, as He Himself is holy.[3]

This, once again, reveals to us why perfection can only be had through humility and love, for humility reminds us we are not the source of our perfection, and love is what draws us to God so that we can participate in God’s perfection. We might seek perfection through moralism, and achieve something great, but if our moralism makes us judgmental, what we attain certainly is not perfect as our hearts will not be full of love. And until we have obtained perfection, with the modesty and love which is needed for us to attain it, we will find our imperfect motivations influence and corrupt, to some extent, the good which we do, which is why St. John of Kronstadt preached:

True perfection, true virtue, is modest: it likes to hide in secret and does not dare ascribe to itself its own perfection, much less humiliate others. You say that you are kind, compassionate to all, zealous toward the faith and the Holy Church, and that you weaken your flesh through fasting. So far so good. But who gives you the right to refer yourself with the names of these honored virtues? Who declared you good, compassionate, zealous toward the Church and her holy ordinances? Was it God? Was it an angel? Or did you yourself weight up your own virtues? How can we appraise our own actions? How are we capable of weighing them? What is the measure we use? Do we know well our own impure heats, which always, or at least very often, play a large part in the performance of good deeds? When taking into account our own virtues, do we include self-love or other unseemly motives? How easy it is sometimes to hide from our own consciousness the unseemly motives that were in fact the true reason for our good deeds.[4]

This is not to deny the objective good which can be achieved by those with bad motivations. But such good will be far from perfect, especially if we think we are the judge who determines perfection, because by such judgment, we prove ourselves far from perfect. We are not the source of perfection, God is. While someone could seek perfection through various “objective morals,” and achieve them, becoming better than they were before, until they are willing to work on what is inside their hearts, engaging the subject behind their actions, they will never attain perfection. A person with an open heart, a heart full of love, a person who is humble, will treat their neighbor with love instead of engaging them in a transactional way. A person with limited money might give all they have to help one poor person; if they do so out of love, the act is truly great, even though objectively, they did not give much. On the other hand, someone with a great deal of money might give a large portion of it to charity, but for all the wrong reasons; we can recognize the objective good they have done while seeing that they remain far from perfection. This is what Jesus wants us to learn when he said a widow did better than most who were rich by giving two copper coins to the Temple treasury, even if the rich gave substantially more, because the widow’s greatness came from what was in her heart:

He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury; and he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins. And he said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had.” (Lk. 21:1-4 RSV).

Jesus shows us we must not just praise the rich and powerful for their “contributions” to society; materially, they might “give more” than the poor, but the poor often gives more of what they have to give than the rich. Many of the rich give a small portion of their time and resources, an insignificant amount in comparison to what they could give, hoping it will bring them praise. In the end, their actions are in vain, and the reward they sought after, the glory they experience, will prove to be short-lived and transitory. They will never find perfection in that manner. They will never attain any lasting praise. And while some might praise them for sometime, many others will see beyond the charade. They will be seen as those who do not truly know how to love or be loved. We should hope not to become like that. That means, we must learn the way of love. We must embrace it. We must not judge ourselves purely on the “good deeds” we have done, but on the heart which motivates us. Perfection cannot be had without love, for, to be perfect, we must be united with God, participating in God’s perfection. And as God is love, we must reflect that love. Until we do, we will be far from perfect.

[1] José de Broucker, Dom Helder Camara: The Conversions of a Bishop. An Interview With José de Broucker. Trans. Hilary Davies (New York: Collins, 1979), 107.

[2] John Cassian, The Conferences. Trans. Boniface Ramsey, OP (New York: Newman Press, 1997), 45 [First Conference ; Abba Moses].

[3] St. John of Kronstadt, Season of Repentance. Trans. Sergio Tancredo Sette Câmara e Silva (Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Publications, 2015), 21 [On the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee].

[4] St. John of Kronstadt, Season of Repentance, 5 [On the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee].

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