NOTES for Mat 5:1-16
We are beginning to read Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. Christians have always regarded this text as one of the most important for a person’s growth in faith; it is even said to have served in the early Church as the basis for catechesis—the preparation of a person for baptism. We shall see further on that the moral demands of the Sermon on the Mount are so high that they convict every one of us. It would be very easy to fall into despondency, but throughout the coming days let us remember what we read today. Christ begins with a promise and encouragement, promising blessedness—that is, a kind of supreme happiness—on the path of following Him. And all this is because it is the very path on which He Himself goes before us and does not abandon us.