Christ said to love,
Be peaceful as a dove.
What does he know?
The seeds that would sow!
He died, shall that happen to me too?
I know my rights: if I die, I will sue!
[Many Christians question the application of the Sermon on the Mount for our daily lives. They feel that it is too idealistic. It can’t be lived out. If we followed it, we would be easy targets for anyone who would wish us harm. Yet the earliest Christians faced, more than us, the reality of persecution and death. Their willingness to follow Christ, and imitate him, even if it meant their own death, touched the hearts of Rome. It allowed their critics to see that Christians lived by the words they preached, instead of give lip service to them.
[Today, the same cannot be said. Many Christians are more interested in immediate, material success; what doesn’t give it, they ignore or find reasons to criticize. With the value Western society has placed upon the idea of economic freedom, it is not surprising that many Christians are more concerned about securing vast amounts of wealth for themselves, than they are with proper stewardship over the resources they possess. St Basil and St John Chrysostom both understood that wealth was a gift, not to be hoarded up, but to be shared with others.
[There should be no surprise that the love of money is the root of all evil. Sadly, greed, like lust, is one among many qualities that society seems to embrace as a virtue.].
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