Happy are Those Who Mourn
You may have had conversations like this. They seem to be more common after covid. A friend calls,
asks how you are, and then promptly says "I've been in the hospital again since the last time we talked.
My pancreas still won't work right. I have to take four new pills"—and on and on, in a mournful roll. You
would actually feel bad if you had to tell him you’d broken a leg.
It gives you a headache and there's no dodging that. But this is a friend in the Lord, and this friend
has come to a really rough time and is sorrowing. The early Church had plenty conversations like this
(not on the phone). St Paul, who left lengthy notes about these calls, had an earful from the Ephesians
and told them to quit telling lies and stealing and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one
another the way God forgave them (4:32). After getting an on-and-on from the Galatians, he had to
warn them—as I have warned you before!—against fornication, sorcery, jealousy, anger, quarrels,,
drunkenness, and things like these (5:20). And he must have heard some on-and-on stuff from the
Philippians and had to warn them not to follow those whose god is the belly; and their glory is in their
shame; their minds are set on earthly thing (3:19).
St. Paul had his headaches. But through it, he kept to the important things. As he told the
Galatians: Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ (6:2). So my friend
needs me to help him bear his burdens—right now, a really mournful business. It happens. So both of us
need to remember what Jesus included in the Beatitudes: Happy are those who mourn (Matt.5:5).
Fr. Joe Tetlow, S.J.