JAVA WITH JOE presents

the view from the bottom

10 days of digging into the beatitudes

day 4

Blessed are they who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Some days, I don’t know how to feel about mourning. Part of me thinks that if we trust that God is good, we should have no reason to mourn. But then again, life happens - and Christians should feel things deeply, not pretend to not feel them at all.

I’m reminded that Jesus, who was one with the Father, mourned and wept - in private and with others. It was not beneath God himself to mourn - it was not a lack of faith.

In fact, maybe mourning is a great act of faith. Maybe it’s something deep inside of us crying out to the One who holds us (and the whole world) in His hands.

Pope Francis said that a Christian who does not have joy is not a Christian (or maybe he is sick). But he also said, ‘We are a society that has forgotten the experience of shedding tears, of suffering, amidst the globalization of indifference’.

It turns out that real Christianity means that you don’t let your heart be troubled - but you don’t let it become numb, either. Mourning is a part of the human experience, but the Lord is a comforter.

Everyone’s going through something. Mourn with others. But it’s not just them… you’ll go through something, too. Today, cast your worries on the Lord. (1 Peter 5:7)

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