Article February 15, 1999 Issue

A promise of comfort for mourners, and all

Moving from loss to the assurance of unending life

By Judith Haugan Ryan

"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:4)

I used to wonder about this beatitude. I could not conceive how mourning could be a blessing. I could see that the activities mentioned in the other beatitudes, such as peacemaking, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and being pure in heart all brought blessings (see Matt 5:6, 8, 9). But where was the good in mourning? I finally realized that the blessing was not in the mourning but in the promise of comfort.

Sorrow over the passing of another person seems to be expected because we think of it as as an end—the end of a life, of an era, of a family name. But that isn't actually true, and we can move beyond sorrow to the promised comfort, a consolation that comes from understanding that Life is eternal and that man's God-given being is deathless.

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