"Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted."
This is one of my favorite beatitudes, mainly because we all mourn. The Lord is too good to leave us broken, though often our hurts can be at least in some part attributed to our own faults. We are too proud, too stubborn, too hard headed, too vain, too attached to things that are not of the Lord, and then when we burn our hands on the open fire that he warned us not to touch, he just brings out the aloe and starts tending our wounds. Too good, if that could ever be said, is the Lord. What is important is that we learn from these experiences, and do better the next time.
There are many types of mourning, some more obvious than others. Dramatic experiences such as the loss of a family member or loved one or tragic accidents that leave people disabled or sick can be very painful. Less dramatic experiences such as minimal sickness or sorrow that comes from a broken heart or lonliness can be equally as troubling. So often the heart and mind, even the will, reach a point of being broken down and exhausted, and begin to submit to depression or despair. We start to lose hope so quickly!
Yet, the Christian message is one solely based on hope. This virture comes hand in hand with faith in God - who he is and what he promises - and with the Love that he is and offers freely to us. We cannot lose these, nor when they seem to already be lost can we just accept it or settle down to unhappiness.
However, it is so important to remember where and who the healing and strength and comfort come from. When we face these kinds of trials and heart breaks, only one can take on all of our brokenness and put us back together. That is the same one who put us together in the first place. Our Father and Lord.
To think we can get ourselves back up after some piercing suffering is silly. We can try but we will not be able to fully recover until we lay ourselves in his hands and leave it to him to remake us. I can speak to this because I know what it is like; I have endured some very real sufferings, and I had every "right" to be angry with God or to question his goodness and love. My baby brother passed away at three months old and people seemed so shocked that I was "ok" or seemed to be handling it well. I wasn't handling it well at all! Nor was I ok. I was horrified, and frightened, and broken, and still breaking as I watched my parents continually break down. What I did have was God's mercy, and in that I found both peace and hope. Collin was baptized, clearly never sinned, and suffered for those three months of his life from cystic fibrosis. This, in Catholic terms, is a recipe for heaven-bound from the moment of death. Being free from original sin and having committed no other sin, it is easy to hope and hold as true that he is with the Lord in the beatific vision. That is a comfort, no matter how hard our loss might have felt on earth. My brother beat us all to the finish line. But that is actually a reason to rejoice, not to be sad. So although I did endure great sadness, I also occasionally rejoiced, because in truth this world is only a passing place, something transitory to prepare us for everlasting life with our God. Under that truth, Collin sped along in his journey and made it home much faster than many holy people. How could we not be happy?! It is the grace of God and nothing else that can offer us this disposition of spirit to be able to see his beauty at work even in hardship. This is why we must pray often, cling to our Blessed Mother and go before her Son in the Eucharist to receive the graces and mercy he wishes to pour into our souls!
On a much smaller scale, I've also endured the little sorrows, such as thinking yourself "in love" with someone and being rejected. When our hearts feel so ready to give of themselves and that gift is rejected, it can be such a cross to bear! Satan jumps in with so many temptations of why you must not be good enough, or how the love was never real in the first place, and in fact how all love is a disillusion. He's lying and he's wrong. Tell him to bug off. Or try to teach him the truth, that usually seems to make him flee. Explain how God's love is so perfect that you are grateful for this cross, for this hurt, because it humbles you. As you are humbled, you are able to realize how great, how deep, how wide the Lord's love is for you, because even if you fall so far down and are so small, he can still reach you, and he's still there with you. In fact, you are so deeply drawn into Jesus' sorrowful Sacred Heart in this suffering you experience that you rejoice, and hope that you will be given more opportunities of suffering just so that you are never again separated from His love. Oh! It is so sweet, so real, so beautiful, so alive, how he loves you. It is so comforting, and you are not afraid anymore. Other things that threaten to rock your boat or bring about pain are just opportunities for you to be bathed in the love and mercy of God once more.
The Holy Spirit is the great comforter, the Divine healer, the sweetness of God's love working in our souls. Pray this prayer, and in faith and trust lay youself into the Lord's arms when you are hurting. He will bring you to peace.
"Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth."
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