What teachings of the Lord are useful to guide us in these efforts?
Of the highest importance for Christians, as disciples of the Lord, is the teaching known as the Beatitudes, the sentences of blessedness which open the Sermon on the Mount (see S064). Seeing the crowds, the Lord “went up to the mountain and when he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to speak and to teach them” (Mat 5:1–2; see Q437): the new and greater Moses, giving from the mountain not the law of stone but the law of the Kingdom, written on hearts (Jer 31:33; see Q437, Q486).
‘Blessed’ (Greek makarios) conveys the idea of experiencing or inheriting something wonderful, above all when unexpected. ‘Blessedness’ is happiness of the highest form, founded on the eternal Spirit and on God’s unbreakable promises (Heb 9:14; see Q239, Q607).
