Blessed are those who mourn

It's Beautituesday again! (You know I'm only doing this so that I can call it Beautituesday, don't you?)

The next beautitude on the list in Matthew is Matthew 5:4:

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (NRSV)

You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. (The Message)

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. (Luke 6:21b ; NRSV)

You're blessed when the tears flow freely. Joy comes with the morning. (The Message)

What is it to mourn? What is grief? I think I like the Message definition in Matthew 5:4 -- "when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you." I feel underqualified to write this post (thank God), but I think grief or mourning is often like standing in the middle of storm. Life stands still where you are -- life seems to stop in the pain of loss. All around you life continues to spin, but in the grief, life grinds to a halt. We wonder how life can possibly be continuing at its normal speed all around us when we stand stopped in grief.

My Oxford Annotated Study Bible says that comforted in this verse connotes strengthened. Could it be that to be comforted in our mourning -- to be strengthened -- means that there are times that even though we stand in the quiet, eerie stillness of our grief, we are not alone? Out of the spinning world steps members of our family of faith. One at a time, or as a group, they step out of the normal world, and into the grief. We are strengthened by their presence -- by the acknowledgement of our mourning. For a few moments, we know that what our pain matters to someone else. We are comforted and strengthened.

Have you ever stepped up behind a child, and wrapped your arms around him? It's easy to do when they are small, and you are completely surrounding them in the embrace. Perhaps that's how God comforts us -- You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. Surrounded by God.

I was at a team meeting a few weeks ago for an upcoming Walk to Emmaus. As part of that, we shared communion. It was done in a conference room full of round tables, so we pretended that there was an aisle, and lined up to receive the sacrament. Stella was standing near the line, ready to "merge" into it, so I stopped to let her step in front of me. She said, "You go ahead; I've got you."

We are comforted or strengthened in our mourning and grief because, even though we stand in the middle of the dark hole of pain, we know that someone else is saying, "It's OK; I've got you." In this journey called faith, we share each other's burdens, and we know that God never leaves us alone. We are given the gift of hope, so that, even when we can't see it from where we stand, we know that joy comes in the morning. We know it, because God has said it to be true. We know it, because others can see the joy coming, even when we cannot, and we are comforted by its refection in their eyes.

Images: Morning sun at Pullman Square this morning and a web in the grass. Did you know that spider web silk is stronger than the material that chainmail? God's love is like that.