The Sermon of the Beatitudes (La sermon des béatitudes)

Jesus now has a significant following, demonstrated visually by the crowd stretching along narrow paths from the distant shores of a lake all the way to the peak of the mountain; he preaches with hands upraised to a group of men, women, and children. In the episode illustrated here, often called the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus enunciates many of the key moral and ethical tenets of his ministry. In the beatitudes, he identifies the blessed among the community— including the meek, the righteous, the peacemakers, and the persecuted—and offers consolation to those who suffer, indicating that they will receive their reward in the kingdom of heaven.