“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”
Those that mourn can be taken in several senses. It can be meant to mourn for the state of the world, that so many go without knowing the love of God, instead assailing His kingdom: “Lo, thy enemies have made a noise: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken a malicious counsel against thy people, and have consulted against thy saints” (Psalm 82:3-4). It could be for your sins: “For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me” (Psalm 50:5). Thirdly, it could represent the natural reaction to the Christian life, for you have not been promised anything in this life but the cross: “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). All three of these will receive comfort, for the King is triumphant over the world, and the power of His love will overcome all that is done against it: “In thy strength, O Lord, the king shall joy; and in thy salvation he shall rejoice exceedingly. Thou hast given him his heart’s desire” (Psalm 20:2-3), and Jesus loves you too much to focus on your failures: “Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back” (Isaias 38:17). For it is not the nature of a healthy marriage to hold the failures of one against the other, but rather to love tenderly through the failures of the beloved. No, love throws sin aside, and your every fault will be met with more mercy, that you might always be comforted after a fall, no matter how grave or trivial. Then, Jesus is not asking you to suffer and carry the cross alone: “And as they led him away, they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country; and they laid the cross on him to carry after Jesus” (Luke 23:26). However, there is one mourning that meets with ever greater comfort, yet with greater languishing, and this is the mourning that you do not possess your beloved Jesus to the degree that you want in this life. The beauty of His love continues to surpass all that you have known, expected, or comprehended, ever drawing you deeper into this magnificent love through the brambles of this life: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. Who comforteth us in all our tribulations” (2 Corinthians 1:4). No matter how much you possess Him in this life, no matter the degree to which He shines through you like sunlight through glass, it could always be more radiant and magnificent. As His love becomes more apparent to you, so does your desire for Him: “As the hart panteth after the fountains of water; so my soul panteth after thee, O God. My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?” (Psalm 41:2-3). This desire will be answered, increasing your knowledge of His ways and the depth of His love, which in turn only increase desire: “Stay me up with flowers,” or the beautiful things of God, “compass me about with apples:” the acts of love that give refreshment to others and substance to your faith, “because I languish with love” (Song 2:5). It is a comfort that yields greater affliction, the suffering of love, because all love seeks to become more one with the beloved until there is no telling where one ceases and the other begins. Until this unity is achieved, there is an anguish of not having attained it, drawing the lover ever more toward the beloved. So too does love draw you to Jesus so that you may be one, that the Holy Spirit may express Him through you, that you may be a fountain of divine love to the world: “The fountain of gardens: the well of living waters, which run with a strong stream from Libanus” (Song 4:15). In the end, though, this languishing of love will only find its true comfort and rest in heaven, when you can go to your Savior and hear Him pronounce His sentence to you: “Well done, good and faithful spouse. Greatly have you loved me.”