The Sermon on the Mount is about being fully alive in Jesus Christ. It is about nourishing the eternal life within us. The Sermon on the Mount is demanding. It is just not enough to avoid external sins of great magnitude. We have to fight our anger, our hatred, our grudges, our past hurts. Hatred, anger, and grudges destroy the life of Christ within us. We have to teach our children that there is never room for hatred in the world. If we allow what upsets us to turn into hatred, we destroy ourselves, we destroy our ability to live genuine lives, the life of Jesus within us. We cannot love God and hate another person at the same time. St. Leo the Great used to challenge the Christians of the fifth century by saying  “Remember your dignity.” We also have to remember the dignity we have, the dignity of being fully alive with the life of Jesus Christ.

-Father Joseph Pellegrino