"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4)."
From Scott:
One of the new experiences I am having in retirement is that
I now have the time to read—really read—the entire newspaper each day. Before retirement, the morning newspaper
ritual consisted of a pretty thorough review of the local news (including the
obituaries—always needed to be sure I wasn’t there!) and the opinions
pages. National news received a cursory
review, and the international items were almost always ignored, except for
Sundays. Just not enough time!
Now, my morning routine includes several cups of coffee and
a thorough reading of the entire daily paper.
I’ve become much more aware in the last few months about our own
domestic issues—the economy, partisan politics, immigration, marriage equality,
and the Keystone Pipeline. I’ve also
learned more about Ukraine, Boko Haram, Syria, Islamic State, Libya, and all
the problems of the world far from the relative peace and quiet we enjoy here
at home.
More than ever, what rests heavily on me each morning is the degree of
suffering being experienced around the world.
Stories of mass killings in African villages are reduced to less than
one column inch in the “News of the World” summary; yet, hundreds are dying
each day! The thousands killed so far in
the conflict between Russia and Ukraine can become a mere factoid when seen as
a “blip” in the daily news digest, but when one really considers what daily
life is like in an atmosphere of such strife and uncertainty, a different level
of gravity takes hold. Beheadings,
torture, genocide: all of these crimes
on humanity have been a part of life on the planet for years and years, but our
24/7 news coverage brings them into our awareness in new and sobering
ways. And for many of us, ignoring the
plight of the world, or placing all the blame for the atrocities on one faith or another becomes the way to cope. Christian and Jew, Muslim and Athiest...All are broken, and all are in need of healing and comfort.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus announced, “Blessed are
those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4).” Almost every source I’ve consulted in
preparing to write about Jesus’ message about mourning and comfort pushes me
beyond personal grief and loss, such as the mourning one would experience after
the death of a loved one…and beyond “blessed” being a synonym for “happy.” Certainly many of us identifying as
Christ-followers have experienced peace and comfort in the midst of personal loss
and pain when we have prayed for healing, when others have ministered to us
through hospitality or service.
But my study of this passage has pushed me to think about
the blessing of comfort that comes out of mourning for a world in serious pain,
a pain caused by the brokenness of being separated from the love of God. That separation from God is how I think of
the state of “sin.” The pain and
brokenness in our world comes from living outside the light and love that is God, and that
pain and brokenness must be grieved and mourned.
It’s one thing to be “happy,” and another altogether to be “blessed.” It occurs to me that the “blessing” of this
Beatitude cannot be received until mourning takes place. Wrapping ourselves in the safe cocoon of the
local news and averting our eyes from the suffering and brokenness in the world
is not our calling. When we mourn for
the greater loss, grieve the brokenness, acknowledge our part in it, and pray
for the coming of peace and light, then we will be blessed by the comfort Jesus
promised to a people in a world just as lost and broken then, as now. Such mourning can spur us to action, first in
changing ourselves, then in changing our world.