How do we reconcile the theology of the Church with the teachings of Jesus? What is the difference between the Catechism of the Church and the Gospel teachings of Jesus? What is the relationship between our ritual and our lives outside of the church building? Or the difference between church leadership structures and church members?
The Sermon on the Mount sets the tone for Jesus’ Kingdom of Heaven. It is not a list of laws or rules to be followed, but a presentation of the defining character of the messianic community and the attitudes required of living a Spirit-filled life.
Beneath the words of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is addressing the concept of power and what can happen when that power is misused. The problem with an elite system of power - the problem with being in charge - is that one can become very used to it. Before long, one can actually start to believe, with all one's heart, that he/she is in charge of everything, of everyone. And that is a dangerous place for a person to be.
You can legislate behavior, but you cannot legislate kindness. A commandment can prescribe a punishment, but it cannot lead us to what is ideal and good. This is the whole point of the Sermon. Jesus expects us to be people of generosity, kindness, forgiveness, and sacrifice. Those are qualities that cannot be legislated.
Maybe that's why Matthew spends so much time with his account of the Sermon on the Mount. Unlike the other synoptic Gospels, Matthew's account is very long. It begins when Jesus sits down on top of the mountain in Chapter 5 and ends when he goes back down the mountain in Chapter 8. It is 105 verses long and provides a blueprint of integrating one’s daily life with serving God. This requires a different kind of wisdom which leads to a better understanding of what true power really is.
Listen carefully to the words of Jesus. It is very clear that he wants us to exclude no one from our love - not the beggar, the borrower, the adulteress, the leper, the widow, the poor, the orphan, the enemy. In our own day, that can mean the immigrant, the refugee, the divorced/remarried, the LGBTQ community - or the Republican, the Democrat, the Conservative, the Liberal.
Jesus tells us it makes no difference. Every single person is entitled to a fundamental respect and concern. Everyone is called to salvation and holiness. Everyone should find in us the same compassionate, all-inclusive mercy and love that they would find in Jesus.
We are called to become a church that doesn't fear to dream, a church unafraid to become what it heals, a church that doesn't fear the body or its failures, a church that isn't afraid to fail, to forgive or to seek forgiveness, a church that isn't afraid to speak to power.
We are called to a different kind of wisdom and power. We must dare to become that kind of community, a community, as St. Pope John XXIII once described, “of peace, willing to walk along the road with anyone, as far as possible."
