More on The Word

In addition to what was written here, Professor Msgr. Paul Feghali spoke too about Christ's warnings in the Sermon on doing good in order to be seen and gives three examples (found in Matthew Chapter 6 ): Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting...

However, says Msgr. Feghali, the overarching principle found also in the Sermon is that God is our Father. Judaism influenced by other religions looked to God in a slave-morality. In the Roman empire as much as in others, slaves were bought and sold. The Jews experienced slavery in Egypt until their liberation by Moses who introduced the Law made perfect by Christ. Moses himself could not see God in the bush. Yet in Christ we see God. Christ said to his disciples "I no longer call you slaves because a slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends because I have told you everything that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (John 15: 15). The only prayer that Christ taught his disciples starts with "Our Father" (See Matthew Chapter 6 ). If God is a Father then as children of God, we can ask him anything. In her prayer as a child to the Father, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus asked for everything. And before her death she promised that she will send a shower of flowers/favors from heaven our way.

On fasting, Msgr. Feghali spoke about Jesus' description of the heart and eye. "The heart is the center of life - The Greek's philosophy used the mind but in the East we use the heart" he said "because from the heart come the good and bad utterances about others".  When Jesus spoke about light he identified the eye: "The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be." (Matthew 6: 22-23) Here Msgr.  Feghali connects the light to Christ's Sermon and exhorts the Christian faithful to become what Christ says "You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden...Just so your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father" (Matthew 5: 14-16). Note here again the emphasis on God as Father!

In the Sermon too Christ goes beyond the neighbor and calls on all to "love your enemies". He contrasts the Law with his new Law: "You have heard that it was said 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5: 43-44). As a Jew he himself went to his traditional enemy when he entered Sikhar of Samaria and talked with the Samaritan woman. He also healed the daughter of the Canaanite woman when she asked him although the Canaanites worship Baal (pagan idol) and, on the cross, forgave the people who crucified him to death, and justified his followers by his Resurrection from the dead. You may wish to re-read the entire Sermon. In the end of Chapter 5, he sums it up "So be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5: 48).

Amazingly, Matthew inspired by the holy Spirit writes at the end of the Sermon in Chapter 7 "When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes."