Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
The word mourn means to feel sorrow or sadness; in it is human suffering and all of its many implications.
Mourning takes place as a sense of remorse or loss, especially the loss of loved ones. As such it automatically implies death; yet death is referred to here in a metaphysical sense. It is inflected towards the temporary nature of all creation.
This is, of course, exactly where all of the Blessed find themselves: in creation. Creation is a place where everything is of a temporary nature; and emotional suffering, remorse, arise from the temporary nature of life and the fact that what we love passes out of existence. One can imagine no greater pain.
Yet tremendous hope is imparted here, because the Blessed are comforted. The word comfort derived from the Latin roots -com, expressing an intensity of force, and fortis, which means strong. The inference here is quite clear: we gain strength from our suffering.
This is a rather different inflection from what the words appear to say, which is that God will take care of us and make us feel better. Rather, the act of Being in and of itself – the life-action of relationship and suffering —will help us grow spiritually, give us strength.
This strength is not a physical strength. The comfort – expression of strength and – that is referred to here is an inner, not an outer strength. It is the strength of emotional endurance. This is God’s reassurance that we are designed to endure the trials of life, and that they will help us of themselves, by helping our feeling-parts to develop. Implicit in this passage, once one understands its inner meaning, is that suffering – Gurdjieff called it intentional suffering — and remorse—again, Gurdjieff's remorse of conscience —are essential to our spiritual growth.
This is not a suggestion. It is a promise, as indicated by the words shall be.
What this explains, very deftly and in just two words, is that growth through suffering is a lawful quality of the universe.
As explained in metaphysical humanism, the universe does not just have physical laws and – it has emotional and intellectual laws as well, each one of which is metaphysical and can only be measured by the instruments of consciousness, not by mechanical devices.
This passage thus gives us a brief but tiny insight into our nature as manifestations of God’s consciousness and its action under universal law. The Lord has promised us that through suffering, we’ll be made more whole. That is, we’ll acquire more emotional and intellectual particles of God’s Being and concentrate them within us.
Christ's death on the cross was meant to illustrate this principle as graphically as possible.
For they shall be comforted.
The word mourn means to feel sorrow or sadness; in it is human suffering and all of its many implications.
Mourning takes place as a sense of remorse or loss, especially the loss of loved ones. As such it automatically implies death; yet death is referred to here in a metaphysical sense. It is inflected towards the temporary nature of all creation.
This is, of course, exactly where all of the Blessed find themselves: in creation. Creation is a place where everything is of a temporary nature; and emotional suffering, remorse, arise from the temporary nature of life and the fact that what we love passes out of existence. One can imagine no greater pain.
Yet tremendous hope is imparted here, because the Blessed are comforted. The word comfort derived from the Latin roots -com, expressing an intensity of force, and fortis, which means strong. The inference here is quite clear: we gain strength from our suffering.
This is a rather different inflection from what the words appear to say, which is that God will take care of us and make us feel better. Rather, the act of Being in and of itself – the life-action of relationship and suffering —will help us grow spiritually, give us strength.
This strength is not a physical strength. The comfort – expression of strength and – that is referred to here is an inner, not an outer strength. It is the strength of emotional endurance. This is God’s reassurance that we are designed to endure the trials of life, and that they will help us of themselves, by helping our feeling-parts to develop. Implicit in this passage, once one understands its inner meaning, is that suffering – Gurdjieff called it intentional suffering — and remorse—again, Gurdjieff's remorse of conscience —are essential to our spiritual growth.
This is not a suggestion. It is a promise, as indicated by the words shall be.
What this explains, very deftly and in just two words, is that growth through suffering is a lawful quality of the universe.
As explained in metaphysical humanism, the universe does not just have physical laws and – it has emotional and intellectual laws as well, each one of which is metaphysical and can only be measured by the instruments of consciousness, not by mechanical devices.
This passage thus gives us a brief but tiny insight into our nature as manifestations of God’s consciousness and its action under universal law. The Lord has promised us that through suffering, we’ll be made more whole. That is, we’ll acquire more emotional and intellectual particles of God’s Being and concentrate them within us.
Christ's death on the cross was meant to illustrate this principle as graphically as possible.
Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.
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