{"id":6024,"date":"2020-03-31T16:58:26","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T06:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6024"},"modified":"2020-03-31T17:33:20","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T07:33:20","slug":"those-who-mourn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/those-who-mourn\/","title":{"rendered":"Those who Mourn"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Beatitudes Series: Part 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blessed are the those who mourn for they shall be comforted<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Bethany Kaldas<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Pain is nature\u2019s way of telling us something is wrong. That\u2019s generally how we see it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truer these\ndays than ever before, suffering and discomfort are seen as some of the\ngreatest enemies to humanity. In popular media we are constantly encouraged to\nbe strong, be brave\u2014they tell us we can beat the pain and injustice if we just\ntry hard enough. If you do your best, you\u2019ll win in the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To many people,\nin many instances, this is a comforting thought. Believing in yourself and\nhaving confidence in your own abilities can be the key to success in plenty of\noccasions. It\u2019s why we tell our students to study hard and tell each other to\npersist in working for our dreams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the\ndiscomfort of, for example, not being promoted before your colleagues is one\nthing. The pain of losing a loved one is something else. The heartache of a\nbroken family, the physical suffering of illness, the loneliness of rejection,\nthe mental torture of anxiety or depression\u2014these are not small wounds. These\nare deep fractures of heart, mind and body, and no amount of self-actualisation\nor personal determination is enough to heal them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a cheery\nmessage, right? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not even\nbeing sarcastic (never try to be sarcastic in writing, it rarely comes through\nthe way you intended). The inevitability of pain and suffering that we are\ninherently unable to conquer by our own will and power is something that our\nsociety fights tooth and nail. The majority of heroic tales displayed in media\nare dedicated to inspiring us against such pain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But does God\ntell us the same thing? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Bible,\nthere are plenty of instances of suffering\u2014plenty<\/em>.\nFor now, let\u2019s just take a look at one: the \u2018thorn\u2019 in Paul\u2019s flesh. I\u2019m not\nentirely sure what exactly this \u2018thorn\u2019 was, but whatever it was, it could not\nhave been pleasant (he describes it as being something sent to him by Satan!).\nHow does Paul react to this suffering? Well, he does what every Christian\nusually does when faced with something we don\u2019t like: he asks God to take it\naway. Not once\u2014three times. And how did God\u2014the all-powerful, all-loving\nGod\u2014respond? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness<\/em>.\u2019 (2 Corinthians 12:9)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God doesn\u2019t\nrescue Paul from his anguish. He doesn\u2019t give Paul the power to save himself and\ntear this \u2018thorn\u2019 from his hurting flesh. He doesn\u2019t even tell Paul that he can\ndo it, that it\u2019ll just be a bit longer, that if he just keeps trying, he can\nwin over the pain. He tells him something we never like to admit when we\u2019re\nsuffering, and something we certainly don\u2019t like to be told. He told Paul that\nhe was weak. Paul\u2014Saint<\/em> Paul, the one\nwhom the people stoned so badly they thought he was dead, but got back up again\nto keep preaching\u2014the same Paul we all admire even to this day\u2014was called weak.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I hate to\nsay it, but I honestly believe that God would tell each of us the same thing.\nWe hate to admit it\u2014to anyone, including ourselves. It is often when we tread\nthe deepest regions of the valley of death that we refuse to tell anyone where\nwe are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say \u201cMy tooth is aching\u201d than to say \u201cMy heart is broken<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time we faced the facts. You\u2019re not strong enough. You can\u2019t do this. I know I\u2019m killing the mantras of every Disney movie ever produced, but the consequences of not doing so, of not simply admitting that you aren\u2019t capable of brute-forcing your way through your problems, that you can\u2019t simply will your hardship away, are more dangerous than you might think. No, it\u2019s time we realised that we were never strong enough to fight the pain away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it can\u2019t\nstop there. Never stop there. Stagnating at an admission of weakness will only\nmire you in despair. But the truth is deeper than that. Because you\u2019re not strong\nenough, it\u2019s true. And you can\u2019t do this, no doubt. But He can. And you were\nnever alone, not for a single beat of your broken heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The perfect\nimage of this is seen in the Crucifixion, and Kallistos Ware describes the\nrelationship between our pain and that of Christ beautifully:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Christ\u2019s suffering and death have, then, an objective value: he has done for us something we should be altogether incapable of doing without him. At the same time, we should not say that Christ has suffered \u201cinstead of us\u201d, but rather that he has suffered on our behalf. The Son of God suffered \u201cunto death\u201d, not that we might exempt from suffering, but that our suffering might be like his. Christ has offered us, not a way round suffering, but a way through it; not substitution, but saving companionship<\/em>.\u2019 <\/p>The Orthodox Way, Kallistos Ware<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He is strong\nenough. He can do this. And sometimes it is only when we are broken, when we\nare forced to our knees, that we finally realise that we were never meant to do\nthis alone. That is finally when we realise that our weakness is our greatest\nweapon. When we are weak, when we finally let down our guard and call out for\naid from the only One who can, that is when He can work in us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t misunderstand me, though. I am not telling you that the solution to all your problems is \u2018fast and pray.\u2019 I don\u2019t know how to solve your problem. I don\u2019t even know that your problem can be solved, not in the way we might like. But these periods of suffering, however long they may be, should never be occasions for despair. Our weakness is not our downfall, it is not a tragedy forced upon us. It is an opportunity. The pain of His children is when they can be most like Him, when we most resemble the suffering God, bleeding out on a lonely cross. And that cross was not defeat\u2014it was the greatest victory of all time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is in these\nmoments, when we are hurting, when we are lonely, when we are broken, that we\ncan truly say with Saint Paul:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ\u2019s sake. For when I am weak, then I am stron<\/em>.\u2019 (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Beatitudes Series: Part 2 Blessed are the those who mourn for they shall be comforted by Bethany Kaldas Pain is nature\u2019s way of telling us something is wrong. That\u2019s generally how we see it. Truer these days than ever before, suffering and discomfort are seen as some of the greatest enemies to humanity. In … Continue reading “Those who Mourn”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[212,217,171,93,219,218],"class_list":["post-6024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","tag-beatitudes","tag-blessed","tag-comfort","tag-hope","tag-mourn","tag-pain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6024"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6032,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6024\/revisions\/6032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}