On our own we cannot be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect—but we must be to correspond to the task our nature lays upon us. We cannot do this, but we can follow him, cling to him, become his. If we belong to him as his limbs or members, then through our participation we become what he is: his goodness becomes ours. What the father says in the parable of the prodigal son is realised in us: All I have is yours (Lk 15:31). The demand of the sermon on the mount that is all too stiff for us is brought together and transformed into communion with Jesus, into being a disciple of Jesus: in clinging fast to our relationship to him, in friendship with him and in confidence in him….
To the extent that we belong to Jesus his qualities are realised in us too—the beatitudes, the perfection of the Father…. The new man is not Utopian: he exists and to the extent that we are united with him hope is
present and in no way merely future. Eternal life and the real fellowship and community, liberation, are not utopia, the mere expectation of what does not exist. Eternal life is the real life, even today and at present in communion with Jesus. Pope Benedict XVI
His Holiness Benedict XVI was Pope from 2005 to 2013.