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.