Matthew 5:4

I find myslef chewing the words 'mourn' and 'comforted' because I am suspicious of spirtulaised readings of texts I don't want to jump into interpreting 'mourn' as 'being sorry for our sins' and comforted as 'finding God is forgiving'. There does seem, to me, to be a possibility that 'mournining' follows on from being poor in spirit; there seems to be a resonance between them. Poverty in spirit: knowing that we 'have no power of ourselves to help ourselves' seems to sit easily with being sorrowful for something we have lost. But what is it that is envisaged as being mourned here? Is it bereavement of people we have loved? In the context it seems unlikely; it seems more likely that we're ased to get in touch with that sense of incompleteness, of lost opportunities and unfulfilled potential, even of recognition of futility [leading to 'there must be more to life than birth, breeding and dying']. Mourning is part of a world that is subject to futility. it is a hint of a world where 'every tear will be wiped away'. Hmmm, somehow that seems to work for me: I cna see sense and feel the appropriateness of thinkng of mourning like that in this passage.



So, what of being comforted? I notice that the Message has it ""You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you."

Certainly this captures one of the images that came to my mind as I thought about this verse earlier today: someone comforting a mourner at a funeral by holding them and speaking gently to them. The other image is the one from the Bayeux tapestry which has the king 'comforting' his troops by prodding them up the rear with his sword. I guess that has to do with an etymology meaning 'with strength'; bringing strength and the ability to endure and the encouragement to go on.



Lucky, then are those who sense the futility of the world for they will find strengthening hints of a better world, hope to endure and prods to go on into the danger and bereavements of many kinds that a world subject to futility [yes Romans 8 is linking here] inevitably means. They /we will find that a Presence holds us and whispers to us in the dark sometimes using the ministrations of other people sometimes a more internal sense ...

Crosswalk.com - Matthew 5:4