As Moses went up Mount Sinai to encounter God and receive the Tablets of the Ten Commandments, so Jesus goes up the mountain and sits down, as a teacher to teach his disciples and the crowd who were with them. Jesus spoke with authority.

Matthew intends to compare and contrast Jesus with Moses: Moses received his teaching from God, but Jesus spoke on his own authority. Of course, elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus attributed his teaching to the Father from whom He received all he possessed.

'Beatitude' is a Latin word for 'an abundant happi-ness'. Each of the beatitudes begins with the word 'blessed.' The Greek word "makarios" translated as 'blessed' means 'extremely fortunate, well off, and truly happy because one is favoured by God. That's it! God loves us so very much that He sent his Son to teach us the way to achieve 'abundant happiness.' Jesus told us how to do this, and he showed us how to do this. I believe that God continues to send people and situations our way to reinforce this teaching.

In reading Jesus' sermon on the Mount, we may at times, feel that the demands of discipleship are so great and so idealistic that the cost of discipleship can only leave us sad, as something beyond our abilities. Still, Jesus promises us we will be consoled.