After the Tears

Beatitude Sonnet #2 "Blessed are those who mourn"

“Lagrimas Negras”, by Osvaldo Guayasamín, 1984

After the Tears    
     
Blessed are those who mourn, whose streaming tears,  
moisten the frail seeds of their swelling grief,
For in their God they find a joy, that cheers
their blossoming sorrow, and brings relief.
It could be profound loss that sows that grain, 
Or, choosing self, they fail Christ’s test of love, 
The despair of those dearly loved brings pain,
While our dull, numb world spurns its God above, 
Their heart distress, an oppressive weight, 
Craving respite, they with appeals intense, 
Cry to the Lord who, with their grief relates, 
And soothes lamenting, with his love immense,
That love ensures that the path of sorrow,
Brightly flowers with sure hope tomorrow.

“Gajes del oficio” is a Spanish term that is used to describe some of the expected, but not always welcome, consequences of taking on a new job, or embarking on a new endeavour. In English we might say: “it comes with the territory”. I believe mourning is a gaje del oficio when a person takes seriously the call to follow Jesus. If anyone tries to sell the Christian life as one of living in uninterrupted joyful victory day after day, they are ignoring the fact that we are following the one described as a “man of sorrows, one acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). His sorrows become our sorrows. With his Spirit in us, we will care about what he cares about, and especially about human beings, those created in God’s image. God’s Spirit produces love. When we love, we open ourselves up to grief. Are we ready for it?

Grief is just a heartbeat away. It can creep up on us as relationships grow cold or friends drift apart. It can surprise us, shock us like an unwelcome knock at the door. Who of hasn’t experienced the sudden death of someone or something we love. It is a part of life. In Romans 12:15, the Apostle Paul instructs his readers to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. I wonder if, like me, it seems to you there is a lot more mourning going on than rejoicing these days. The news we consume confirms the world is a hot mess. Palestine, Myanmar, Iran, or Ukraine are just some of the places where hatred and injustice proliferate. They may be far away, but our world has shrunk through widespread immigration and a 24 hour news cycle. We mustn’t ignore the suffering because Jesus doesn’t. Whether the grief and mourning is on the other side of the globe, or in our or our neighbour’s house, there are times we question God for his purposes in grief are often hidden. When Jesus says- Blessed are those who mourn- he is reminding us God has a special place in his heart for the person who lives with grief and, encourages us to find hope in our mourning. He gives us permission to grieve; he redeems sadness. We might do all we can to avoid it, but in God’s eyes, grief is part of living the way we are supposed to live. I must understand this.

In our childhood, God may have seemed like a distant, demanding figure, one immune to the weakness of human feelings. Well, he isn’t any of those things. Scripture, in both Old and New Testaments, reveals a God who loves all. He is also a God who experiences a full range of emotions, and one whose heart breaks because of the pride and selfishness of the ones who bear his image. Prophets in the Bible introduce us to the sovereign God of the universe: all-powerful, ever-present and all-knowing Lord who loves us enough to grieve when we suffer, even when we are its author. Jesus cried over a Jerusalem that, consistently rejecting God’s message and his messengers, was facing annihilation. He longed for it to seek the peace that only he could give it. God is portrayed as a spurned husband to an unfaithful wife, a rejected parent, and a benevolent king whose kindness is betrayed. In the pages of the Bible, we meet a God who grieves injustices caused by the way we treat each other. He is a merciful God who only ever wants our best, but knows that living in this broken world ensures our path will also lead through dark valleys of pain. This is the root of his sadness and will be ours as we follow Jesus. His sadness is also at the heart of the gospel. He loved us enough to give us the choice to love him, and his love also inspired him to offer the saving solution for our rebellion and independent spirit by sending Jesus. Jesus’s burden of love for the world was passed onto us, his followers. That is the cross we bear as salt and light in the world.

I wouldn’t want to live without mourning. I have little patience for Christians who pretend all is well with the world, and following Jesus is simply progressing from victory to victory, and joy to joy. They are on a spiritual high. I fear for the long-term sustainability of their faith and hope their belief system has space for a God who disappoints- like the psalmist we too may question why God permits injustice to seemingly prosper. Grief hurts, but is an effective teacher. When we mourn as followers of Jesus, we share God’s heart. We grow to know him through the things that cause us to mourn.

Grief gives us a proper perspective on life. It teaches us what is really important. It gives us permission to die to ourselves and the things of this world.

Grief reminds us of our own insignificance, our impotence, our fragility, and our lack of control. In doing so, it builds on the previous beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit. By doing so, it encourages us to trust God, the only one who can change sadness into joy. (Isaiah 61:1-3- an ancient prophecy that Jesus claimed to fulfil)

Mourning trains us to be comforters- God uses our sadness to soften our hearts and be more effective in caring for those around us who suffer.

Grieving for others can spur us to take action in surprising ways. Here is just one example of how grieving can do that. Have you ever watched a movie, or seen something in the news that touched your heart so much you felt it was God moving you to do something about it? My wife Lil and I felt like that while watching a news report about Vietnamese refugee families crammed into tiny spaces in Hong Kong while awaiting resettlement. The same thing happened decades later when seeing images on the news about the tragedy of civil war in Somalia and the refugee crisis it generated. On both occasions we felt we needed to act. On both occasions God brought together a group of people with the same heart and we were able to sponsor two families to Canada. In each situation, God worked and those families became part of our family and all our lives and futures were transformed. When we open our hearts and lives to others, our capacity to love deepens and we learn more about the way God works in our world. Years after welcoming the first family to Canada, my family and I moved to Ecuador to serve God there. It was my time to learn a new language and adapt to a new culture. There were numerous moments when I felt I would never learn Spanish and got discouraged. In those moments, God reminded me of my dear Eritrean sister, her courage in learning English and the way she laughed at her mistakes as she did. God used her to give me the determination I needed to press on.

As I finish this brief reflection, It occurs to me to say: this beatitude leaves no room for complacency towards others and their suffering. Instead, it challenges us to grieve as God does. We are to mourn with those who mourn, to accompany them in their grief, to comfort them with the comfort we receive, and to serve them as Jesus would.