Transcript Blessed are those who mourn… Mourning our loss of communion with God Understanding there are two kinds of sorrow Embracing joyful mourning The role of tears.

Blessed are
those who mourn…
Mourning our loss of
communion with God
Understanding there
are two kinds of sorrow
Embracing joyful
mourning
The role of tears
St. Gregory
of Nyssa
Worldly View
• What’s so ‘blessed’ about mourning?
• St. Gregory of Nyssa: “ Someone may well
mock, saying ‘Does that mean that the
more troubles you have the more blessed
you are?’”
Wrong approach!
Literal meaning vs. Spiritual meaning
“How can a Man be born again?”
Life’s Troubles
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Hardship of Widowhood
Struggle of Orphans
Losses
Shipwrecks
Prisoners of war
Unfair court rulings
Land boundaries moved
Goods confiscated
Being dishonoured
Sickness
Disability
Losing limbs
Penthos
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Strongest word for sadness in Greek
grief
Lamentation
Sometimes means repentance.
What are we mourning?
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Deprivation of something
Loss of the Ultimate Good
The Kingdom of God
Mourning the loss of salvation
Two kinds of Sorrow
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads
to salvation and leaves no regret, but
worldly sorrow brings death.”
St. Paul
Worldly Sorrow - Λύπη
• “the work of the worldly sorrow is death,
whereas the other works salvation through
repentance in those afflicted with it. For
surely, if a soul bewails its wicked life
because it feels its bad effects, such
suffering cannot be excluded from the
sorrow that is called blessed.”
Worldly Blessings
• Things going well
• Happy with
wife/husband
• Pleased with children
• Supportive friends
with brotherly/sisterly
love
• Respected in public
• Honoured by leaders
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Rated by employers
Welcomed by friends
Decorated with riches
Fun to be with
Pleasant
Fit and healthy
Numb to sin
Just blink!
The benefits of pain
St. Gregory points out that “pain in a
paralysed limb is not always a bad thing –
it is an indication that it is returning to
health”
Virtue
“ we must first know what really is the true
good, and then, with this in mind, consider
human nature. For only thus can we attain
to the mourning that is called blessed.”
Kingdom of Heaven
The Fall
St. Barsanuphius
“One must
absolutely not
be saddened
by anything in
the world only
by sin”
Tears
“When you think you do not need tears for
your sins during prayer, reflect on this: you
should always be in God, and yet you are
far from Him.
Then you will weep with greater feeling.”
Evagrios
Χαρμολύπη
JoyfulSorrow
Joyful Sorrow -Χαρμολύπη
Gladsome Mourning – Χαροποιῶν Πένθος
I am amazed at how that which is called
mourning and grief should contain joy and
gladness within it, like honey in the comb.
Christ’s tears:
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Over Lazarus
Unbelief of Jerusalem
Gethsemane
On Cross “Do not weep for me, weep
rather for yourselves and your children.”
Biblical examples
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Peter’s tears “he wept bitterly”
King David
King Hezekiah
The Prostitute
Adam’s Lament
'I have grieved
my beloved
Lord.'
"Adam, father of all mankind, in paradise knew the sweetness of the love of
God; and so when for his sin he was driven forth from the garden of Eden,
and was widowed of the love of God, he suffered grievously and lamented
with a mighty moan. And the whole desert rang with his lamentations. His
soul was racked as he thought: 'I have grieved my beloved Lord.' He
sorrowed less after paradise and the beauty thereof — he sorrowed that he
was bereft of the love of God, which insatiably, at every instant, draws the
soul to Him.
"In the same way the soul which has known God through the Holy Spirit but
has afterwards lost grace experiences the torment that Adam suffered. There
is an aching and a deep regret in the soul that has grieved the beloved Lord.
"Adam pined on earth, and wept bitterly, and the earth was not pleasing to
him. He was heartsick for God, and this was his cry:
'"My soul wearies for the Lord, and I seek Him in tears.
'"How should I not seek Him?
'"When I was with Him my soul was glad and at rest, and the enemy could
not come nigh me'"
Promise of Comfort
• He will swallow up death in victory; and
the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from
off all faces, and the rebuke of His people
shall He take away from off all the earth;
for the LORD hath spoken it. Is. 25:8
• As one whom his mother comforts,
So I will comfort you Is.66:13
• And God will wipe away every tear from
their eyes. Revelations 7:17
Discussion
• What things do you mourn over?
• What is the effect on people’s and
communities on refusing to mourn?
• Can you think of any examples?
• What is the connection between mourning
and repentance?