The Law of the Gospel is the perfection here on earth of the divine law, natural and revealed. It is the work of Christ and is expressed particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. She is also the work of the Holy Spirit and through him, she becomes the interior law of charity: “I will make with the house of Israel a new covenant … I will put my laws in their minds, I write them in their heart, and I will be their God and they shall be my people “( Heb 8.8 -10; cf. Jer 31, 31-34).

1966 The New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit given to believers through faith in Christ. It works through charity, uses the Sermon of the Lord to teach us what to do, and the sacraments to give us the grace to do:

Whoever would meditate with devotion and perspicacity on the sermon our Lord gave on the mountain, as we read in the Gospel of St. Matthew, will find, without a doubt, the perfect charter of the Christian life … This sermon contains all the precepts needed to shape the Christian life (St. Augustine, serm. Dom. 1, 1: PL 34, 1229-1231).

1967 The Law of the Gospel “fulfills” (cf. Mt 5:17 -19), refines, surpasses, and leads to perfection the old law. In the “Beatitudes,” it accomplishes the divine promises by elevating and directing the “Kingdom of Heaven.” It is for those who are willing to accommodate this new hope with faith: the poor, the humble, the afflicted, the pure in heart, those persecuted for Christ’s sake, and charts the surprising ways of the Kingdom.

1968 The Law of the Gospel fulfills the commandments of the Act. The Sermon of the Lord, far from abolishing or devaluing the moral prescriptions of the Old Law, releases their hidden potentialities and raises new requirements: it reveals their entire divine and human truth. It does not add new external precepts, but it goes to the root of reform acts, the heart, where a man chooses between the pure and the impure (cf. Mt 15.18 -19), where form of faith, hope and charity, and with them the other virtues. The Gospel thus brings the Law to its fullness through imitation of the perfection of the heavenly Father (cf. Mt 5:48 ), for the forgiveness of enemies and prayer for persecutors, like the divine generosity ( cf. Mt 5.44 ).

1969 The New Law practices the acts of religion: almsgiving, prayer and fasting, directing them to the “Father which seeth in secret, against the desire” to be seen of men “(cf . Mt 6.1 -6; 16-18). His prayer is the Our Father “( Mt 6.9 -13).

1970 The Law of the Gospel has the decisive choice between “two ways” (cf. Mt 7.13 -14) and putting into practice the words of the Lord (cf. Mt 7:21 -27) and it is summed up in Rule Gold: “So what you want others do unto you, do it yourself for them: this is the law and the prophets” ( Mt 7.12 , cf. Lk 6.31 ).

All the Law of the Gospel lies in the “new commandment” of Jesus ( Jn 13:34 ), to love one another as He loved us (cf. Jn 15:12 ).

In 1971 Sermon of the Lord should join the moral catechesis of the apostolic teachings, such as Romans 12-15, 1 Corinthians 12-13; Col 3-4; Eph 4-5; etc.. This doctrine hands with the Lord’s teaching authority of the apostles, including the presentation of the virtues that flow from faith in Christ and animated by charity, the largest gift of the Holy Spirit. “Let love be genuine … Let love with brotherly affection … with the joy of hope, constant in tribulation, persevering in prayer, taking part in the needs of the saints, give hospitality “( Rm 12.9 -12). This catechesis also teaches us to treat cases of conscience in the light of our relationship to Christ and the Church (cf. Rom 14, 1 Cor 5-10).

1972 The new law is called an act of love because it makes the act of love infused by the Holy Spirit rather than fear, an act of grace, because it confers the power of grace to act by means of faith and sacraments, a law of freedom (cf. Jas 1.25 , 2, 12) because it frees us from the legal and ritual observances of the Old Law, inclines us to act spontaneously by the impulse of charity, and we did finally move from the condition of the servant “who does not know what his master is doing” to that friend of Christ, “because everything I learned from my Father, I am the I have made known “( Jn 15:15 ), or the status of heir son (cf. Gal 4.1 -7. 21-31, Rom 8:15 ).

1973 Besides its precepts the New Law also includes the evangelical counsels. The traditional distinction between God’s commandments and the evangelical counsels is drawn in relation to charity, the perfection of Christian life. The precepts are intended to remove whatever is incompatible with charity. The boards are intended to remove whatever, even without it being otherwise, may constitute an impediment to the development of charity (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas., Th century. 2-2, 184, 3).

1974 The evangelical counsels manifest the living fullness of charity never satisfied not to give more. They attest to his momentum and seek our spiritual readiness. The perfection of the New Law consists essentially in the precepts of love of God and neighbor. Boards indicate more direct ways, means richer and are following to practice the vocation of each:

God does not just observe all the advice everyone, but only those that are suitable according to the diversity of people, time, opportunities and strengths, as charity requires it, for it is she who, as queen of all virtues, all commandments, all boards, and sum of all laws and all Christian actions, gives them to each and every rank, order, time and value (S . Francis de Sales, Love 8, 6).