Those who mourn

'Blessed are those who mourn, they will be comforted.'

Unfortunately it is not true to say that those who mourn will be comforted. Our experience tells us that many people who suffer grief die uncomforted. In the case of unbelievers, there is no hope of future comfort for them.

So what is Jesus really getting at when He says this? Surely He was not exaggerating or talking with wishful thinking.

The answer lies in the fact that all the other virtues of the Beatitudes (poverty of spirit, meekness, hunger for righteousness, giving of mercy, purity, and peacemaking) are all positive acts. The list is a list of essentially good acts. Surely 'mourning' should be seen in the same light and is not the 'odd one out'.

The type of mourning Jesus has in mind is a positive act that has as its aim God's Kingdom. The mourning He speaks of is a mourning that the Kingdom has not come, that God's reign is not yet established over all people, that God is rejected and spurned by the people of earth.

Jeremiah was a prophet who knew how to mourn like this. The Bible says that even creation is crying out and groaning for the Kingdom to properly come.

Those who mourn that the Kingdom has not yet come to dark places will be comforted.

Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy - Ps 126.

The Kingdom is planted with seeds of tears. A great comfort awaits those who are bave enough to truly mourn for it.


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