Today, we begin to look at Jesus as the "Master", whose teachings - largely - have been grouped together by Matthew in the so-called "Sermon on the Mount". Previously, the Evangelist had narrated the temptations of Jesus and His first performance in His public ministry (the announcement of the Kingdom of God and the call of the first Apostles)

We highlight two singularities of Matthew’s Gospel. First: he explicitly presents Galilee as the 'Galilee of the Gentiles', as the place where the prophets (cf. Is 8:23; 9:1) had foretold that the "great light" would dawn. In this way Matthew responds to the surprise that the Savior does not come from Jerusalem and Judea, but from a district that was actually considered as half pagan, Galilee: in fact, this is precisely the proof of his divine mission. Secondly: from the start of his Gospel, Matthew claims the Old Testament for Jesus, even when it comes to apparent minutiae: all the Scriptures are related to Him.

—Matthew shows that the Jesus who teaches is, at the same time, the Jesus who saves.

Today, the Gospel presents us with the beginning of the "Sermon on the Mountain", which in St. Matthew (Mt 5-7) covers the three chapters of this Sermon. What is it about? With this great discourse, Mathew puts together a picture of Jesus as the new Moses, in precisely the profound sense of the promise of a new "prophet" given in the "Book of “Deuteronomy".

The opening verse is far more than a casual introduction: Jesus "sits down", the expression of the plenary authority of the master. He takes his seat on the cathedra of the mountain as "the Greatest Moses ", who broadens the Covenant to include all nations. The "mountain" simply refers to the scene of Jesus’ preaching: the new Sinai.

—The “mountain" is the place where Jesus prays; where He is face-to-face with the Father. And that is exactly why it is also the place of His teaching, since His teaching comes forth from this most intimate exchange with the Father. "The mountain", then, is the new and definitive Sinai.