Beatitudes - a Carmelite Perspective: Blessed are They who Mourn

"Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Mourning! What causes people to mourn and how are they comforted? Why would Jesus say that it is blessed to mourn? Why is it included in the Beatitudes along with Mercy, Justice, Meekness, and clean of heart? What kind of virtue would assist and compliment mourning? These caused much soul-searching and prayer to the Holy Spirit - the "Comforter" - forguidance.

One thing that I believe to be true, is that the mourning to which this Beatitude refers goes far beyond minor disappointments or temporary grief. It is surely a matter of the deepest sorrow that rends our very soul, and is not likely to be relieved by anything in this life. When loved ones die, we mourn. However, time eventually heals as that love once shared is channeled into others.

We see poverty and starvation in the world and mourn, but often we feel so helpless about this and simply pray for their comfort and turn our thoughts elsewhere. We mourn because of the greed and corruption and thoughtlessness of the nations of the world, always on the verge of war; but we are so caught up in the day-to-day struggle of our own personal lives and hope that no one will push the button of destruction before we can accomplish our own goals. So, what could cause such deep sorrow and mourning and how is it comforted? (NOTE: I believe that type of mourning is the deep and penetrating sorrow for our sins, brought on not by our own meditations but by the Grace of God, so that He in turn sees our "sorrow unto death" which then elicits his great Mercy upon us.)

It wasn't just to the Jews of Jesus' time that He speaks of mourning since all mankind has been mourning over various things from the beginning of creation. Through Old Testament trials and captivities, through the long wait for the Messiah, through Christian persecutions, through the Dark Ages of ignorance, through the unjust ward of our times, all creation mourns for its Creator until creation itself is no more. This Beatific mourning is inborne and a vital force in our spiritual life, because it creates the constant longing, conscious or unconscious, for perfection, for finding good, feeling love, and experiencing the sacred and holy which can only be found in God, Himself. It is to this mourning which I believe Jesus was referring to and promising the Holy Spirit, His Comforter, to see us through this mourning period. Every human being has some deep subconscious yearning for something perfect, always loving, ever giving, that can be grasped forever and not just fade away in a few moments or days.

Much of humanity never really knows or understands what this yearning is about. But we who have been gifted with Faith in the God of Creation, who have been bestowed with the Love of His son, now Hope for the Comfort of His Spirit. Therefore, the virtue that stands out to me to be nurtured in this Beatitude is Hope. Hope that the mourning we endure for our Creator now will one day be comforted in His Beatific Vision.

Hope was one thing our Carmelite Saints spoke of in all their works. Many of our contemporary contemplatives also wrote of this Hope that changes mourning to comfort. I will list several and comment on they're relation to the Beatitude and our daily lives.

First, we will quote St. Teresa of Avila, the "Way of Perfection," Chapter 30, Part 6: "And to those whom He gives here below the kingdom we ask for, He gives pledges so that through these they may have great hope of going to enjoy perpetually what here on earth is given only in sips." She means that the joys of the graces and consolations God grants us here below are meant to enhance our yearning and hope for what He will give us who persevere in perpetual Union with Him in the next life.

And in the "Interior Castle," Third Mansion, Chapter 2: "So it is better to carry out what our rules says, to strive to live always in silence and hope, for the Lord will take care of those souls." St. Teresa of Avila here encourages us to always strive to do what is right in our lives and/or vocations knowing with all hope that the Lord will assist us along the way.

In St. Teresa's "Life," Chapter 40, Part 18: "Once in comforting me, He told me with much love that I shouldn't be anxious, that in this life we cannot always be in a stable condition, ...that sometimes it will have disturbances and at other times have quiet, ...but that we should hope in Him and not be afraid." Here she relates how periodical trials in our life may make us anxious, a mourning for a quieter time, but that we should continue to hope and He will give us comfort.

St. John of the Cross also had some comments on mourning, comfort, and hope. In "The Ascent of Mt. Carmel," Chapter II, he writes: "We have given proof that a soul must renounce all possession of the memory in order to reach union with God in hope. The soul, therefore, must live in the nakedness and forgetfulness, ...so as not to impede union of the memory with God through perfect hope."

Only a soul that is naked and forgetful of its worthiness can have the perfect hope that leads to union with its Comforter. By renouncing the memory of all previous graces and consolations, the memory becomes naked and open to the hope of perfect union. In his "Dark Night," Book II, Chapter 9, St. John writes: "These are the effects produced in the soul by this dark night which enshrouds the hopes one has for the light of day...the spiritual suffering is intimate and penetrating because the love to be possessed by the soul will also be intimate and refined."

This is the reason why God permits this "dark night" to come upon us, the dark night being the soul mourning within itself, an intimate and penetrating mourning after the Love by which it hopes to be possessed.

Lastly, in his "Spiritual Canticle," Stanza 20 in which he speaks of "swift-winged birds" and "winds and ardors," he explains "The winds allude to the emotions of hope, for like the wind they fly toward the absent object. David also says, 'I opened the mouth of my hope and drew in thebreath of my desire because I longed for your commandments."

St. John is using the Psalms to explain how the absent object, which was the Beloved, caused such yearning that hope was all he had to drive him on to find the Beloved. David, too, uses hope to give the breath of life to his desire and longing for the commandments which are the Word of God, or God Himself.

The Psalms, themselves, are full of messages of mourning over favors lost and hope for renewed grace. St. Therese, the Little Flower, suffered this mourning of the dark night in the final year of her life and her continued hope brought her to the Eternal Comforter. It was the yearning and mourning for this Loving Comforter from her childhood on that helped her develop the Little Way as a guide for others.

Then there is Luis M. Martinez, the late Archbishop of Mexico, from his book, "The Sanctifier," concerning the Third Beatitude: "The soul feels emptiness and darkness all around it. The concept that it formerly had of human things is overthrown. Knowledge, wealth, honor, affections, without their old adornment are sad ruins that inspire only fear. The very depths of the soul have been transformed by the light."

This confirms what was spoken of earlier that this detachment of the previous Beatitude has now brought about a sadness over the things of this world and a mourning is felt in the very depths of the soul.

Archbishop Martinez further states, "Then it sees its own misery clearly as well as the vanity of all that is created. ...so repugnant does the spectacle of human life in its sad nakedness appear, so intolerable the sight of the soul itself, that it seems as impossible to live such a life as to live in a tomb. For, in truth, it has died mystically, it has died to earth,...to rise afterward to a new and transfigured life where God will dry its tears and attach other delicate and celestial wings that will take it soaring to the very summit."

I feel that in this paragraph, Archbishop Martinez was giving his own commentary based on St. John of the Cross's Spiritual Canticle. Stanza 20, that was quoted earlier. After the mourning and death of all that keeps us from the Beloved, we are given swift-wings of hope that fly us to the summit of the Comforter.

Lastly, Archbishop Martinez states: "But the day of eternity begins already in exile; it is like a beautiful dawn for happy souls. The solace of tears is a prelude to eternal joy. The fundamental consolation (God) encourages the just in the combat of life and at times makes them forget the miseries of exile (in this valley of tears) and gives them a supernatural strength to work without tiring, to suffer without failing; for their eyes and heart are fixed on that paradise whose substance they penetrate by faith, whose reality they already possess through hope, and whose joy they begin to taste through love."

So, you can see that although it is part of our human nature to experience life and death, love and hate, good and bad, happiness and sorrow, trials and successes, sickness and health, these are all just the training ground for our spiritual lives within. They teach us patience, perseverance, understanding, and mostly hope for something deeper and lasting. The fleetingness of these experiences brings about a restless mourning for the eternal. Like St. Augustine said once, "Our hearts will find no rest until they rest in Thee." This longing and sighing deep in our souls is the ultimate hope that the Beloved will take us from this valley of tears and comfort us in His eternal love.

- Excerpted in part from the writings of Sr. Patricia of Mary Magdalene