Main and secondary characters

Jesus is on the Horns of Hattin. The crowd is now present, and Christ begins to speak to them. They asked him what the Kingdom of God is, what God is, and how to conquer Heaven, and Jesus patiently answered them, inviting them in particular to follow the Law and to love. Then Jesus talks about the gifts God had given Adam and Eve. In particular, the Lord speaks of the soul, the natural gifts of beauty, integrity, intelligence and will, as well as moral gifts and the submissiveness of the senses and reason. He goes on to speak of sanctifying grace, which is the "life of the soul": God shines in his creature and wants us to be with him in Heaven. In fact, Jesus speaks of the immortality of the soul, and states that he will erase the sin of original sin and restore grace to us.

The second part of his speech is about how to conquer Heaven. After pointing out that the Law exists, he encourages souls not to see the path to holiness in terms of threat ("woe is me if I don't do this"), but in terms of love ("blessed would I be if I did this"). He then goes on to set out the Beatitudes, developing them one by one, before bringing his speech to a close.

Stephen and Hermas are present in the crowd and hear the discourse on the Beatitudes.

Jesus is still on the Horns of Hattin, continuing the Sermon on the Mount. First of all, the Lord reminds us that He does not change the Law one iota, because it was He Himself who gave it together with the Most Holy Trinity. However, Christ completes it, without overloading it as men do.

After defining the holy man, Christ goes on to say that he who follows one of the least commandments will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven, and he who violates one of the Commandments will be one of the least in the Celestial Kingdom. The Master warns against the righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes, and also warns people to beware of false prophets.

Jesus then returns to the subject of neighborly love, and outlines a number of features that we find in the Gospel: loving and forgiving, turning the other cheek, thinking that it is better for him to hit us than to hit someone who cannot bear it, and so on. He invites us to be generous, to give our tunic so that our brother doesn't commit a double theft if someone tries to steal something from us. Finally, Christ goes back on the saying: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", replacing it with love, and encourages us to be perfect like our heavenly Father, not to get angry or hold a grudge against our neighbor, but to be reconciled with him.

When the Master concludes his discourse, Jesus speaks of someone who hates him, and who dares not ask for the miracle. But when his apostles question him, he tells them that the scales had fallen from his eyes, not from his heart.