Thought of the Day September 2, 2019 Pope Benedict XVI on mourning
Pope Benedict XVI gives
us his insight into the efficacy of mourning for the sins of the world.
“Tradition has yielded
another image of mourning that brings salvation: Mary standing under the Cross with her sister, the wife of
Clopas, with Mary Magdalene, and with John (Jn 19:25ff.). Once again, as in the vision of Ezekiel, we encounter here
the small band of people who remain true in a world full of cruelty and
cynicism or else with fearful conformity. They cannot avert the disaster, but
by “suffering with” the one condemned (by their com-passion in the etymological
sense) they place themselves on his side, and by their “loving with” they are
on the side of God, who is love. This “com-passion” reminds us of
the magnificent saying in Saint Bernard of Clairvaux’s commentary on the Song
of Songs (sermon 26, no. 5): “Impassibilis est Deus, sed non
incompassibilis”—God cannot suffer, but he can “suffer with.” At the foot of Jesus’ Cross we understand
better than anywhere else what it means to say “blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.” Those who do not harden their hearts to the pain
and need of others, who do not give evil entry to their souls, but suffer under
its power and so acknowledge the truth of God—they are the ones who open the
windows of the world to let the light in. It is to those who mourn in this
sense that great consolation is promised. (Jesus of Nazareth (p.
87)
He goes on to say: “The
mourning of which the Lord speaks is nonconformity with evil; it is a way of resisting models of behavior that
the individual is pressured to
accept because “everyone does it.” The world cannot tolerate this kind of
resistance; it demands conformity. It considers this mourning to be
an accusation directed against the numbing of consciences. And so it is. That
is why those who mourn suffer persecution for the sake of righteousness Jesus
of Nazareth (pp. 87-88 )
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