Standing On The Promises.

From a wonderful study of the Beatitudes (current subject of the Caritas Fellowship Bible study) by Servais Pinckaers, OP:

Promises of happiness therefore come first in God's Word and designs. They precede the Law and the commandments given to Moses and are evoked in the remainder of the Sermon on the Mount. As St. Paul understood so well, this ordering has enormous consequences for life and for the moral issues of Revelation. Salvation, freedom, justice, and happiness come to us from our faith in the divine promises and our hope in mercy and grace, rather than from the merits we may acquire by our own strength in adhering to the observances of the Law.

Faith, which engenders hope, will therefore come first in biblical and Christian morality, and will become the source of good works. It will lay as the foundation stone of Christian action the humility of the one who knows he has received everything and who joyously entrusts himself to the power of One greater than himself, as contrasted with the secret pride of the one who thinks he can carry out his own obligations by his own strength.

Why are there Protestants? I can't remember.