It was on a Sinai that God gave Moses the Law of the Old Testament, and it was on another mount that God gave us the New Law...
I have been reflecting on the Sermon on the Mount as it is recounted in the Gospel of Saint Matthew in Chapter 5.
In particular, I have been focusing on Christ’s preaching of the beatitudes…
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:1-12a).
You see, the beatitudes – then and now – are revolutionary. They are almost CRAZY! What Christ was saying that day – standing on that Mount – was that everybody who suffers in some way is actually FAVOURED or BLESSED by God. And I am imagingin how such a revolutionary idea was received twenty centuries ago – because it is certainly not a belief that we adopt in the mainstream world today…
Today, we look at the rich and famous and envy their lives. They have money and things and beauty. They do not have to work the way that we work, or cook and clean the way that we do. They do not have to struggle through driving holidays, with children bickering in the back seat of the car. No. Those people fly first class or take their private jets to exotic places and have relaxing holidays where they do not need to worry about who needs to run the garden hose over their veggie garden while they are away.
And there were people in Christ’s time who were as rich as that. And there Christ stood – in the middle of the crowd of mostly Jewish people who were persecuted by the Roman Empire and taxed beyond their means and told them that THEY were the blessed ones…
And I have been reflecting on that teaching. Because on that Mount and during that sermon, Christ GAVE a new commandment to “I give you a new commandment: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another.” (John 13:34). And this Sermon on the Mount, which was central to the teachings of Christ, was the next step in the revelation made to Moses on another Mount – Mount Sinai – thousands of years earlier, when the Ten Commandments were revealed to Moses.
In other words, Christ’s revelation on His Mount was to provide the BUILDING BLOCKS or the STEPS required to reach Heaven… And those steps – or beatitudes (as Christ described them), reveal the great gifts we are given when the world considers us poor. For it is only through our poverty that we could ever hope to reach God…
For the Sermon on the Mount is at the heart of Jesus’ preaching. It was on a Sinai that God gave Moses the Law of the Old Testament, and it was on another mount that God gave us the New Law...
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.