No man is an island. Not even a hermit. God created man to have a relationship with him. God said it is not good for man to be alone. He created a helper for him.
In life’s journey, I am glad I am not alone. I have companions along the way – whether good or bad, sad or glad. In good times, be thankful. In bad times, be sad but choose to be thankful.. for good times… for moments of grace – grace to stand firm and grace to overcome. It is not denying the sadness. It is embracing sadness with peace. It is not about ignoring the pain. It is holding the pain and placing it in the hand of Jesus – the nail-pierced hands who embraced the cross for me.
Bonnhoeffer’s thoughts on Blessed are those who mourn:
Those who mourn are those who are prepared to renounce and live without everything the world calls happiness and peace. They are those who cannot be brought into accord with the world, who cannot conform to the world. They mourn over the world, its guilt, its fate, and its happiness…. No one loves people more than Jesus’ disciples․that is why they stand apart, why they mourn; it is meaningful and lovely that Luther translates the Greek word for what is blessed with “to bear suffering.” The important part is the bearing. The community of disciples does not shake off suffering, as if they had nothing to do with it. Instead they bear it.
Jesus said: In the world, you have troubles. But in me, you will have peace because I have overcome the world. Each time I feel down and out, these words of Jesus comfort me. I can bear suffering. I can mourn because Jesus said: “Blessed are those who mourn.”
I need to learn higher level of mourning: to bear the suffering of the world with those who are suffering… Bearing the suffering of the world is to give up everything the world calls happiness. Mourning and bearing the suffering is to be sad about the world’s condition of guilt, injustice, transient happiness and temporal pleasures, fame of momentary measures.
When I am sad, I need to reach out to the sad. Then I realise sadness is relative. Each day I have to a choice to rejoice even in the midst of sadness. Lord, help me to discern and how to be both sad and glad.