Before I read the Sermon on the Mount this quarter, I didn't know what sort of language to expect, and I didn't understand why the Sermon on the Mount was so important. After reading the sermon, I saw that Jesus' language was especially clear. I expected his language to be confusing and hard to understand, but in the sermon, Jesus puts his teachings as clear as can be. I also realized that the Sermon was so vitally important because it lays out a basis on what we should do to follow Jesus and enter God's kingdom. I had no idea that the Sermon would be as important as it is. Reading the sermon helped to mark my initial answers according to Jesus' teaching and allowed me to see clearly how moral and Christian am. I was amazed with how easy of a read the sermon was, and this helped me focus on the reading, and therefore fill out the outline with few problems. I found the exact criteria of Jesus' teachings in the sermon. In my questionnaire, my responses showed mostly a moral person, but not as much of a Christian person.

One key idea that I would like to remember from this section is the idea that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Just as salt enriches the taste of food and preserves food over time, we must enrich Jesus' teachings and we must keep his teaching going, keep it preserved. We are the light of the world. We must shine before men so that they may see goodness in our acts and give praise to our heavenly Father. I want to remember these ideas because they tie religion to my life. Sometimes I keep my faith as a separate part of my life, but here I can tie they two together.

One other key fact that I would like to remember was from Fr. William O'Malley's article. Fr. O'Malley spoke of how Jesus only got mad when the clergy and Temple minions were hypocrites and didn't think they were doing anything wrong. Fr. O'Malley spoke of how God's forgiveness is always there, but only if we accept that we have sinned. If we admit that we have sinned and do not intend to do it again, we are open to God's forgiveness. We must claim our actions. I would like to remember this fact because it reminds me how to receive forgiveness from God and it is essentially advice on how to enter the Kingdom of God.

I feel Jesus gave us Beatitudes in order to give us an example. The Commandments serve as guidelines, and seem to lack example. The Beatitudes are speaking of people such as the merciful and the peacemakers. These people are those who follow the commandments. They are just human examples of the commandments. The Beatitudes are merely just another part of the Ten Commandments. They help explain them more and make them clearer to us. I think that is why Jesus gave us the Beatitudes even though he had already given us the Ten Commandments.

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