Sermon on the Mount

One

The New Minimum of the Gospel

In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul writes that Christians must take Christ as their example insofar as He, “emptied Himself,” and took the form of a slave. But what does it mean, concretely, to “empty ourselves” in imitation of Jesus? Actually, Jesus Himself tells us.

He lays out a program in the Sermon on the Mount for how His followers can empty themselves, empty themselves of pride, worldliness, and selfishness, and pour themselves out for others. But it’s not a case of half-measures. Empty means empty. Christ doesn’t want just part of us. He wants us to give our all. He tells us to, “be perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect” 

Put simply, for a disciple of Christ, the new minimum commitment is everything.

Two

Beatitudes – those who have self-emptied

Jesus begins His sermon on the Mount with a portrait of those who have succeeded at self-emptying. And He declares them “Blessed,” or “Happy”. This list is called the “Beatitudes”.

These people aren’t clinging to anything that can inhibit them from doing God’s will or serving their neighbors. The poor aren’t clinging to wealth. The meek aren’t clinging to power, or to that absurd need to “have an impact”. The peacemakers aren’t clinging to partisan identity politics, either in Church matters or Government matters. The ones who hunger and thirst for righteousness aren’t clinging to always taking the path of least resistance. The merciful aren’t clinging to some demand for restitution, or to their need to have someone apologize to them. The pure of heart aren’t clinging to the cravings of their disordered desires. Those who mourn aren’t clinging to the need to self-justify. They know how to repent without trying to rationalize their sins away. And those who are persecuted and mocked and slandered aren’t clinging to what other people think of them.

So of course these people are happy because they’re free. They’ve emptied themselves of all the worldliness and self-centeredness that weighs them down, and now they can just do what’s right without reserve. 

God give us the grace to do likewise!

Three

Giving

Of course, self-emptying isn’t just to be empty, it’s so we might be filled by God so that we can give from His fullness. And here, Jesus is very clear, “give to the one who asks, and if a man desire to lend, do not refuse him.”

Here’s the great difficulty of the Christian life: we are obliged to give other people more than they have a right to expect of us. Because we have received so much, everything, in fact, from God, we owe it to Him to pay it forward by being extravagantly generous with other people.

That’s why Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, if someone wants your jacket, give him the shirt off your back as well. If somebody asks you to walk a mile with him, volunteer to walk with him two miles. Only if we astonish the world with our generosity will we be able to give people some idea of how generous the Lord we’re supposed to be representing is.

There’s a story that when once Mother Teresa was tending to a sick person, the sick person asked her, “Is Jesus like you?” and Mother Teresa replied, “No, but I try to be like Jesus.” And the sick person said, “Then I want to become a Christian.”  

Sure, sometimes it will be hard to know whom we should serve, and how. But we don’t get to turn our backs on someone in need just because they have no right to expect more of us. We have no right to expect all Jesus has done for us. And now He has commanded that we give all that we have, one way or another, for love of Him.

Four

Marriage

It’s remarkable that Jesus puts His teaching on the indissolubility of marriage right into the heart of the Sermon on the Mount. But then again, maybe it’s not so surprising, since marriage and family life are precisely the primary place where most of us are called to practice this radical Christian self-emptying. It’s where we’re called to give and give and give.

If anyone says, about their families, “I just don’t have anything more to give,” the only proper response is to ask, “Are you dead yet? Because if not, then you have more to give.”

It’s also where we’re called to forgive and forgive and forgive again. There’s no room for resentment in family life, and above all, there’s no room for resentment towards your spouse.

Think of your own sins, how many times you’ve screwed up, how many times you’ve ignored, opposed, and offended God and been given a pass. Give your wife or husband a pass. As many as he or she needs. 

So it makes sense that Jesus would ban divorce at the same time as He preaches His gospel of self-emptying love. After all, if both spouses were committed to self-emptying, to giving and forgiving without reserve, there’d never be another divorce again as long as the world lasted.

The Catechism explains the teaching of Jesus in paragraphs 2383-2384. But in any case, it’s this self-emptying life of the beatitudes, normally lived out in marriage, that is the path to freedom. It’s the path to happiness. It’s the path to heaven.

Five

Forgiving

Now we come to the most difficult kind of giving: forgiving. 

This is where we give somebody our complete goodwill, even when they’ve wronged us, defrauded us, disappointed us, betrayed us, or abandoned us.

Jesus is relentless here. He says, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute and insult you.” That pretty much covers it, doesn’t it?

He makes it clear: resentment will keep you out of heaven. If you aren’t willing to reconcile with your brother or your sister, your parents, your kids, your spouse, your ex-boss, your bishop, you’re in for a world of pain. Because we set the standard for how we will be forgiven every time we pray the Our Father and we pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

So don’t wait to forgive. Think of the person you still harbor resentment towards and pray for them, forgive them, and ask God to give you the grace to hold nothing against him or her ever again.