Luke’s Gospel seems to echo the better known Sermon on the Mount documented by Matthew. Jesus is quoted as actually having said these words, so why did the evangelists differ?

Luke and Matthew wrote for different audiences and therefore emphasised what needed to be heard in what was, essentially, the same message. Luke while addressing the poor, the deprived, and the oppressed, offered them consolation, and for those who created the poverty, the deprivation and oppression, there was a warning. No one has the right to enjoy prosperity at the cost of another and, while wealth by itself is not an evil, we are called to responsible stewardship: everyone should have enough.

We are a different audience from those times, yet Christ’s message is even more pertinent today. Pope Francis reiterates this in ‘Laudato Si’: The principle of the common good becomes, immediately, a summons to solidarity and preferential option for the poorest of our brothers and sisters. This option entails recognising the implications of the universal destination of the world’s goods.

Do we exercise our options for the common good?