Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
11 Oct 2009

A friend asked me recently when I had first heard of a tsunami.  I replied that I had noticed the term after an earthquake off the northern Papua-New Guinea coast devastated their shorelines in 1998.

He had only noticed the word after the catastrophic tsunami in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Burma in 2004 and was surprised that now we have seen another in Samoa.  It seemed a bit much.  In fact there were five earthquakes on successive days recently in Asia and the Pacific on the tectonic fault lines, and three fierce typhoons in East Asia.  Whenever these disasters strike in populated areas, sudden deaths, injuries and long-term suffering eventuate.  All Manila is flooded.

In the beatitudes Jesus does not say that those who suffer are blessed, but those who mourn and those who weep.  Matthew has him adding immediately that the mourners will be comforted, while Luke has Jesus explaining that those who weep will laugh.  Matthews version makes more sense.

Christians are not masochists who love suffering.  Neither was Jesus, who disliked pain in himself and others and regularly helped sufferers through his healing miracles, his kindness and his teaching.

Suffering is like climate change.  It will always be with us.  But both are unpredictable as we don't know what is coming next and human causality is often uncertain and disputed.

We all know that some limited suffering can bring benefits, like the hurt from a dentist's drill.  Even a good hard scrub on a grubby child can work wonders!  But the beatitude means more than this.

I found the commentaries of the early Christian writers on this passage unexpected and surprising.  In their view, the blessed are those who mourn for their own sins and the sins of others.

Today many of us are more irritated and disappointed by failure or inefficiency or misfortune such as sickness than by personal sins.  And the word “sin” is not in the vocabulary of some people!

Genuine repentance is always blessed by God's forgiveness and this usually brings peace of heart in this life.  The early commentators are correct here, but I think there is more to the story.

Leaving to one side those who are sorry only for themselves, Christ is saying that those who mourn with good reason will have their tears wiped away.  Justice and love will triumph in the next life because God has a special love for the unfortunate.