Feb. 1, 2007

Beatitudes:
Blessed are they who mourn

When your loved one is told that he has incurable cancer, the second Beatitude comes alive like never before. When we followers of Christ suffer a personal tragedy, we begin to look upon Jesus’ cross with new eyes of faith. No matter how often we have heard that biblical promise, “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted,” we hear it at much greater depth when our heart is in fact broken with sorrow. We also hear with new attentiveness the words of Jesus, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

The long road of suffering

The second Beatitude touches on something we human beings know all too well. Attempts to get through life without disappointment and grief will inevitably fail. Yet, many, if not most of us, expend enormous effort to avoid this universal human experience.

Different approaches to the problem of pain have been taken down through the ages. Stoicism, for example, told us to grit our teeth and bear it, maintaining an attitude of impassive indifference. Hedonism, at the other end of the spectrum, told us “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die.” How greatly these approaches differ from what Jesus teaches and from what He lives.

Our late Holy Father John Paul II knew a great deal about suffering since it was such an integral part of his life from his early childhood. His mother died just weeks before he made his First Communion. His only brother died when the future pope was only twelve and his father died before he was twenty. He suffered through the Nazi occupation of his country, the ravages of World War II and the harsh years of Communist occupation that followed. In his own body, he suffered from various illnesses, broken bones, cancer and his well known final struggle with Parkinson’s disease.

Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that John Paul II is the only pope to write an Apostolic Letter on the meaning of human suffering: Salvifici Doloris. He begins this thought-provoking document with the following words: “Declaring the power of salvific suffering, the Apostle Paul says: ‘In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the Church.’ These words seem to be found at the end of the long road that winds through the suffering which forms part of the history of man and which is illuminated by the Word of God. These words have, as it were, the value of a final discovery, which is accompanied by joy. For this reason St. Paul writes: ‘Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.’ The joy comes from the discovery of the meaning of suffering.” 

 Comforted by the Lord

With the second Beatitude, Jesus brings us into the mystery of His love expressed most fully through His own suffering and death on the cross and in His glorious Resurrection. He also proclaims this teaching through action as He sheds tears at the death of His friend Lazarus (Cf. Jn 11:35) and offers comfort to Mary and Martha.

Perhaps no other Beatitude so strongly contradicts contemporary worldly wisdom as this one. In the so-called “First World” of the 21st century, we witness a frenetic striving after pleasure and excitement. How starkly this contrasts with the second Beatitude: “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

The comfort promised by Jesus binds us more closely with Him and the Father. It also draws us closer to others who are suffering. God’s comfort overcomes the isolation and desolation that sorrow initially brings.

The etymology of the word “comfort” throws light on this Beatitude. It is derived from two Latin words: “cum” meaning “with” and “fortis” meaning “brave” or “strong.” It implies, in its root meaning, therefore, a strength that comes from being “with” others and a courage that derives from communion with God. We are comforted when God enters into our loneliness and loves us, thereby overcoming the empty feeling of being cut off and filling up our emptiness with His Presence.

This mystery is well described by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis in “Fire of Mercy” where he writes (p. 191), “God does not console us by abolishing our solitude but by entering it and sharing it. A promise of this kind of consolation is the pledge of a summons to a Presence that can radically transform mourning from within. The consolation meant by Christ is that of the Father who throws open his arms to his children.”

Creative nature of suffering

Like so much of Jesus’ teaching, the Beatitudes teem with paradox and also contradict what the unbelieving world deems important. Nowhere is this more evident than in the second Beatitude, which is built firmly on the Cross of Christ.

By His suffering and death, Jesus redeemed the world. He brought about a new creation. He fulfilled the promises He had made through the Prophet Isaiah (66:13), “As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you.” As Psalm 30 proclaims, “O Lord, my God, I cried out to you and you healed me… You changed my mourning into dancing.”

Jesus transforms our suffering by taking it upon Himself and, then, turning it into a vehicle of redemption. He also made it possible for us to share in His own redemptive suffering. John Paul II put it this way in his Apostolic Letter on Suffering (#24), “This Redemption, though it was completely achieved by Christ’s suffering, lives on and in its own special way develops in the history of man. It lives and develops as the Body of Christ, the Church… It completes that suffering [of Christ] just as the Church completes the redemptive work of Christ.”

Dying with Christ so as to live with Him

There is a beautiful song written by Sr. John Mary, OP, that explores the meaning of Jesus’ words to the weeping women of Jerusalem (Lk 23:28), “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children.” The song ascribes the following words to Jesus “O people, you know not how to die, so I weep for you as a mother for her child.”

We cannot learn the meaning of suffering until we learn how to die with Christ in order to live with Him. For those without faith, this is nonsense and complete foolishness, but for us who are filled with the Holy Spirit of Christ, the Comforter, this is the paradoxical power and wisdom of God. St. Paul writes in his second letter to Timothy (2:11), “This saying is trustworthy: If we have died with [Christ] we shall also live with Him; if we persevere we shall also reign with Him.”

In order to suffer with hope, we need to know where to find suffering’s meaning. We need to trust like a little child the words of Jesus (Mt 11:28), “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Copyright 2007 The Catholic Sun.