How blessed those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4).
Sorrow knows us. It does not discriminate. Lurking like a heavy fog it waits to unfurl and blanket everything.
The mourning Jesus exalts magnificently expresses authentic love. In this way, Our Lord recasts mourning as the virtue of continuing to love in the midst of devastating situations. It is the capacity to care deeply and to express our heartfelt concern.
In the New Testament Jesus twice sheds bitter tears. First, Jesus weeps upon learning of the death of His friend Lazarus, even though He shortly will raise him back to life (John 11:35). Soon thereafter, as He approaches Jerusalem, Jesus sees the city and mourns over it (Luke 19:41).
Most striking in the second part of the second beatitude is Jesus’ promised reward: they will be comforted. The verb may be rendered literally as, “To be called to someone’s side.” Thus, to be comforted is no mere patting the shoulder while softly stammering everything will be OK. Jesus declares His desire to enter into our grief and to share it with us. God’s consolation is not wiping away our grief out like chalk is erased from a blackboard. Rather, He remarkably pledges to descend into it and share it and transform it.
Employing a different metaphor the Gospel writer Luke explains the divine consolation as a father who throws open his arms to his lost children who have intensely longed to return home and be restored by his accepting love (cf. Luke 15).
