Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Modern ideas of the meaning of words lead us so far astray when considering the truth behind biblical statements. If we stop and contemplate what the ancient Greeks meant when they used these words (as far as we can), and apply that to a deeper understanding of human evolution, new lights come on in our minds.

Mourn pentheo means to grieve, to feel sad about something that we have lost. If we were perfectly honest with ourselves we would recognise that we grieve constantly. We don’t face this grieving because we don’t know what it is that we have lost. It is far too simplistic to say that we have lost our connection with the spiritual worlds, or we have lost God. It is also simplistic to say that we have found God, or found Jesus, for that usually means that we have become intoxicated with an idea. Even if we have a vision of say, Mary or Christ, can we be sure that that is what we have seen? Spiritual visions can be very deceiving.

At this stage in our evolution we must see with our thoughts. We must be able to think things through logically, and continue thinking things through to the very end before we can meet the reality of spiritual truth. The trouble is though, that we don’t think things through thoroughly because it takes a lot of effort. We jump out of our thinking too early and then have half-baked ideas. If we engage our will and continue thinking a thing through to the end we will see our grief and be able to bear it because we understand it.

When we are able to bear the grief immediately we will be comforted. The comforter parakletos is another name for the Holy Spirit. We find a reference to this in the Gospel of St John.

But the Counselor, (parakletos) the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Jn 14:26

This gives us a real sense of not knowing why we feel sad and hence looking for distractions to take the sadness away. This beatitude is clearly suggesting that we must fully experience the sadness otherwise we will not experience the presence of the Holy Spirit.